基本信息出版社：Penguin Classics
页码：208 页
出版日期：2002年08月
ISBN：0140446869
条形码：9780140446869
版本：New Ed
装帧：平装
正文语种：英语
丛书名：Penguin Classics
外文书名：迈克罗梅加斯等短篇科幻小说

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Somewhere between tales and polemics, these funny, ribald, and inventive pieces show Voltaire doing what he does best: brilliantly challenging received wisdom, religious intolerance, and naïve optimism. Traveling through strange environments, Voltaire's protagonists are educated, often by surprise, into the complexities and contradictions of their world. Arriving on Earth from the star Sirius, the gigantic explorer Micromégas discovers a diminutive people with an inflated idea of their own importance in the universe. Babouc in "The World as It Is" learns that humanity is equally capable of barbarism and remarkable altruism. Other characters include a little-known god of infidelity, a pretentious graduate who invites a savage to dinner, and an Indian fakir who puts up with a bed of nails to gain the adoration of his female disciples. These "fables of reason" challenge the assumptions of reader and protagonist alike.
作者简介 Fran&ccedilois Marie Arouet. who took the name Voltaire (1694-1778), was the universal genius of the Enlightenment. In his early career, he was briefly committed to the Bastille and later exiled to England. His most characteristic works are philosophical tales, of which Candide (1759) is the most famous.