Something between a tale and a polemic, these "fables of reason" are feats of narrative compression and contain much of Voltaire's best and funniest writing.

From ribald tales of adultery to conversations between cosmic travellers, the stories in this collection pose moral, philosophical and social questions. Reader and protagonist alike find their assumptions challenged as Voltaire mingles rationality and fantasy.

Contents:

• Cuckoldage
• The One-eyed Porter
• Cosi-Sancta
• Micromégas
• The World As It Is
• Memnon
• Letter from a Turk
• Plato's Dream
• The History of the Travels of Scarmentado
• The Consoler and the Consoled
• The Story of a Good Brahmin
• Pot-Pourri
• An Indian Incident
• Lord Chesterfield's Ears
• Account of the Illness, Confession, Death and Apparition of the Jesuit Berthier
• Dialogue between a Savage and a Graduate
• Dialogue between Ariste and Acrotal
• The Education of Daughters
• Wives, Submit Yourselves to Your Husbands
• Dialogue between the Cock and the Hen
• Conversation between Lucian, Erasmus and Rabelais, in the Elysian Fields