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WT Sharpe · 10-17-2011, 08:34 PM

Saturday morning I finished Micromegas and Other Short Fictions by Voltaire (the Penguin Classics 2002 edition). These stories show Voltaire at his wittiest. Sometimes the targets are subtle, at others times hard-hitting and direct, but always stinging. The title work is a gem, in which a 120,000 royal foot tall alien from the Sirius star system and a smaller six thousand foot tall alien from Saturn visit earth and at first assume it to be uninhibited because they cannot envision living creatures so pitifully infinitesimal. A natural assumption, since the insects which the Sirian-born Micromegas dissected when he was a mere child of only 450 years were "scarcely a hundred feet in diameter and invisible under ordinary Sirian microscopes."

The targets of these satirical tales are the very ones you would expect from Voltaire. Highly recommended. 4 stars out of five.

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Also 4 stars out of five for The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner. This was a very enjoyable re-read, and kudos to whoever holds the copyrights for finally releasing at least some of the Perry Mason books as ebooks.

Strangely, it has been so long since I read it that I had forgotten all but the last few pages, where Gardner lays out the set-up for the next book in the series (The Case of the Sulky Girl).

10-17-2011, 08:34 PM	#11058
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,072 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	Saturday morning I finished Micromegas and Other Short Fictions by Voltaire (the Penguin Classics 2002 edition). These stories show Voltaire at his wittiest. Sometimes the targets are subtle, at others times hard-hitting and direct, but always stinging. The title work is a gem, in which a 120,000 royal foot tall alien from the Sirius star system and a smaller six thousand foot tall alien from Saturn visit earth and at first assume it to be uninhibited because they cannot envision living creatures so pitifully infinitesimal. A natural assumption, since the insects which the Sirian-born Micromegas dissected when he was a mere child of only 450 years were "scarcely a hundred feet in diameter and invisible under ordinary Sirian microscopes." The targets of these satirical tales are the very ones you would expect from Voltaire. Highly recommended. 4 stars out of five. <><><> Also 4 stars out of five for The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner. This was a very enjoyable re-read, and kudos to whoever holds the copyrights for finally releasing at least some of the Perry Mason books as ebooks. Strangely, it has been so long since I read it that I had forgotten all but the last few pages, where Gardner lays out the set-up for the next book in the series (The Case of the Sulky Girl).