Micromegas by Voltaire Summary

Voltaire was a French writer who dabbled in a variety of fields, including philosophy, drama, and novel writing. He is especially well-known for his critical writings of religion and his advocacy of liberal political philosophy.

The story begins with the introduction of a "young man" from a planet named Sirius named Micromegas. Like everyone from Sirius, Micromegas is enormous, around 120,000 feet tall. In fact, in just about every imaginable way, Sirians exceed humans: they live far longer, they have more senses, and they are much smarter. Micromegas is forced to leave his home planet, however, when he is banished by the local mufti—that is, the local religious authorities—for writing a book that is supposedly heretical: in this book, Micromegas discussed the question of whether Sirian slugs were of the same substance as Sirian fleas.

His...