MICROMEGAS: A COMIC ROMANCE. BEING A SEVERE SATIRE UPON THE PHILOSOPHY, IGNORANCE, AND SELF-CONCEIT OF MANKIND. TOGETHER WITH A DETAIL OF THE CRUSADES: AND A NEW PLAN FOR THE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN MIND. Translated from the French of M. de Voltaire

Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de

Published by Printed for D. Wilson, London, 1753

About this Item

12mo, pp. [1-2] [1] 2-252; collates [A]2, B-I12, K-L12, M6, recent paneled calf tooled in blind, spine ruled in gold and tooled in blind, black leather author and title pieces. First edition in English. "In Micromegas, a gigantic visitor from one of the planets of Sirius and his hardly less gigantic friend from Saturn arrive on Earth. They lift a ship out of the Baltic. Holding it in the palm of one hand, the two giants examine it through a microscope and observe the human beings aboard, with whom they talk. Rabelais was probably an influence here; Swift is also mentioned; but the inversion of having a space journey done to Earth rather than from it is characteristically Voltairean; so is the conversation. In the end, the two enormous visitors present the creatures of Earth with a volume in which, they promise, the explanation of the universe will be found. When the secretary of the Academy of Sciences in Paris opens the volume, he finds it contains nothing but blank pages." - Aldiss and Wingrove, Trillion Year Spree, pp. 85-6. "The germinal 'visitor from other planets' story ." - Locke, Voyages in Space 013. "A very amusing work, with ideas handled brilliantly and deftly." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2271. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 1-50; (1981) 1-166; and (2004) II-1195. Barron, ed., Fantasy Literature 1-87. Clute and Nicholls, eds., The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pp. 1287-88. Gove, The Imaginary Voyage in Prose Fiction, pp. 333-34. Lewis, Utopian Literature, pp. 197-98. Ley, Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel (1951), p. 25. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 220. Locke, Voyages in Space (2011) V668. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1147. Nicolson, Voyages to the Moon, pp. 214-19. Versins, Encyclopédie de l'Utopie, des Voyages Extraordinaires et de la Science Fiction, p. 940. Bleiler (1978), p. 200. Reginald 14719. Text block clean, a very good, externally fine copy. Rebound to style, re-sewn with new linen hinges, new sewn headbands and new endpapers. (#137390). Seller Inventory # 137390

Bibliographic Details

Title: MICROMEGAS: A COMIC ROMANCE. BEING A SEVERE ...

Publisher: Printed for D. Wilson, London

Publication Date: 1753

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition