Micromegas and Other Short Fictions

by Voltaire, Haydn Mason (Introduction)

Overview

Something between a tale and a polemic, these "fables of reason" are feats of narrative compression and contain much of Voltaire's best and funniest writing. From ribald tales of adultery to conversations between cosmic travellers, the stories in this collection pose moral, philosophical and social questions. Reader and protagonist alike find their assumptions challenged as Voltaire mingles rationality and fantasy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141960692
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	05/30/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) was the universal genius of the Enlightenment. In his early career he was briefly committed to the Bastille for his satires and later exiled to England. His most characteristic works are philosophical tales, of which Candide (1759) is the most famous. Theo Cuffe (translator) is also the translator of Penguin Classics' forthcoming edition of Candide. Haydn Mason (introduction and notes) is Professor of French at Bristol University.

Table of Contents

MicromegasIntroduction
Chronology of Voltaire's Life and Times
Further Reading
Note on the Texts
Translator's Note
Contes
Cuckoldage
The One-eyed Porter
Cosi-Sancta
Micromegas
The World As It Is
Memnon
Letter from a Turk
Plato's Dream
The History of the Travels of Scarmentado
The Consoler and the Consoled
The Story of a Good Brahmin
Pot-Pourri
An Indian Incident
Lord Chesterfield's Ears

Melanges
Account of the Illness, Confession, Death and Apparition of the Jesuit Berthier
Dialogue between a Savage and a Graduate
Dialogue between Ariste and Acrotal
The Education of Daughters
Wives, Submit Yourselves to Your Husbands
Dialogue between the Cock and the Hen
Conversation between Lucian, Erasmus and Rabelais, in the Elysian Fields

Notes