52 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to human pride when a visitor from Sirius can barely see us?
Micromegas is a giant with a book that offends the clerics of his world. Exiled from a planet near Sirius, he sets out to see the universe. On Saturn, he meets the Secretary of the Academy, a learned, witty being who seems small beside him. Their friendship turns a journey through space into a meeting of minds.
When the travelers reach Earth, they can scarcely find anything alive. Then they encounter a ship full of philosophers, each ready with confident answers. In this short satirical tale, Voltaire brings vast differences of size up against equally vast human certainty. Questions about matter, the soul, and purpose become a comic test of what anyone can truly know.
What you’ll discover
- A giant in exile Follow Micromegas as trouble over his book sends him out to explore the universe.
- Friendship across vast differences Meet a witty Saturnian whose size gives his enormous companion a fresh point of comparison.
- Earth seen from outside See familiar human importance shrink when two travelers struggle to spot life on Earth.
- Thinkers with confident answers Encounter scholars whose loyalty to different masters shapes their claims about life's largest questions.
- Laughter with a serious question Enjoy quick scenes and plain logic that ask how much any mind can know.
Who will love it
For readers who love quick, witty stories with an idea inside, and anyone curious about early science fiction or Enlightenment thought.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A giant is exiled for a book
- A friend on Saturn laughs at size
- Two travelers find Earth and its tiny people
- Small thinkers claim to know everything
Who’s who
- MicromegasA giant from a planet near Sirius, exiled after his book offends the clerics, who sets out to see the universe.
- The Secretary of the Academy of SaturnA learned and witty Saturnian, small beside Micromegas, who becomes his friend and travel companion.
- The philosophers of EarthA ship of human scholars, each loyal to a different master, who answer the giants' questions with great confidence.
- The follower of Thomas AquinasA small human thinker who boldly claims that the whole universe was made for the sake of mankind.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 4 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Micromégas
by Voltaire · 1752
A giant from near Sirius meets a ship of Earth's philosophers, putting human pride and certainty in comic perspective.
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In short
Micromegas is a short satirical tale by Voltaire, published in 1752. It follows a giant from a planet near the star Sirius who travels across the solar system and lands on Earth.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A giant is exiled for a book
Micromegas lives on a planet that circles Sirius. His name means small big, and the name fits a being who is huge by our measure and still only a youth by the standards of his own world. He is gifted, curious and well taught. He writes a book on the insects of his world, and it stirs up the local clerics.
They find the book suspect and shocking. A long quarrel follows, and the giant is condemned and banished from the court for hundreds of years. Voltaire is poking at real life here, since he knew what it was to have a book attacked and to be sent away from a capital.
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What is Micromegas about?
It tells of a giant from a planet near Sirius who is exiled and travels through the solar system with a companion from Saturn. They reach Earth and meet human philosophers, which lets Voltaire mock human pride.
When was Micromegas written?
Voltaire published it in 1752. It is a work of fiction, but it draws on the science and philosophy of his day, including the debates about the size of the universe.
What does the name Micromegas mean?
The name comes from Greek roots meaning small and great. It fits a being who is huge compared to humans and still tiny compared to the universe.
The author
Voltaire
1694–1778 · French Enlightenment writer and philosopher
Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer and philosopher, famous across Europe in his own lifetime for his wit and his campaigns against intolerance. Candide, his satirical tale of a naive optimist battered by the world, remains his most widely read work.
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