Micromegas

Micromegas, a young giant from a planet circling the star Sirius, eight leagues tall, is banished for writing a book about insects that the authorities consider heretical, and sets off to travel the universe. With a companion from Saturn, a mere dwarf a thousand fathoms high, he arrives on Earth, where at first they cannot even see the inhabitants. Through a microscope made from a diamond they discover a ship of philosophers returning from the Arctic, and are astonished that such tiny creatures can measure the heavens yet argue so foolishly about the soul.

Voltaire (1694–1778) published this short philosophical tale in 1752. It is one of the earliest works of science fiction, and its play with size, like that of Gulliver's Travels, mocks human pride. This translation is by Peter Phalen. For more in the same vein, read Candide.

François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), who called himself Voltaire, was imprisoned twice in the Bastille as a young man for his satirical verses. Exiled to England, he returned full of admiration for its freedoms and wrote the Letters on England, which were burned in Paris.

He lived for years with the scientist Émilie du Châtelet, spent a stormy period at the court of Frederick the Great and finally settled at Ferney, near the Swiss border, from where he campaigned against religious intolerance and miscarriages of justice. He wrote plays, history and poetry, but his tales, Candide and Zadig, are what most readers love today.