Biology in Science Fiction: Free Stories

Title: Micromégas

Author: Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)

Length: short story

First Publication: 1752 (linked version was published in 1829 with annotations by M. Beuchot.

What the Story is About: A giant being from a planet of the star Sirius and his slightly smaller companion from Saturn come to Earth. According to WIkipedia, it is “a significant development in the history of literature because it originates ideas which helped create the genre of science fiction.”

[The Saturnian] took out a small microscope of 160 feet in diameter and put it up to his eye; and Micromegas took up one of 2,005 feet in diameter. They were excellent; but neither one of them could see anything right away and had to adjust them. Finally the Saturnian saw something elusive that moved in the shallow waters of the Baltic sea; it was a whale. He carefully picked it up with his little finger and, resting it on the nail of his thumb, showed it to the Sirian, who began laughing for a second time at the ludicrously small scale of the things on our planet. The Saturnian, persuaded that our world was inhabited, figured very quickly that it was inhabited only by whales; and as he was very good at reasoning, he was determined to infer the origin and evolution of such a small atom; whether it had ideas, a will, liberty. Micromegas was confused. He examined the animal very patiently and found no reason to believe that a soul was lodged in it. The two voyagers were therefore inclined to believe that there is no spirit in our home, when with the help of the microscope they perceived something as large as a whale floating on the Baltic Sea.

As you might expect, Voltaire satirizes his contemporaries and includes a healthy dose of philosophy – the annotations definitely help.

•  Alternate text version at Free Sci-Fi Classics (with introduction, and edited to correct “mathematical blunders”)

• Read in French

• Audio version (in French)

Share this:

Categories: 18th & 19th Century • Aliens & Monsters • Audio • Short Fiction • Voltaire