Surveying the night sky, a charming philosopher and his hostess, the Marquise, are considering thep ossibility
of travelers from the moon. "What if they were skillful enough to navigate on the outer surface of our air,
and from there, through their curiosity to see us, they angled for us like fish? Would that please you?" asks
the philosopher. "Why not?" the Marquise replies. "As for me, I'd put myself into their nets of
my own volition just to have the pleasure of seeing those who caught me."
In this imaginary conversation of three hundred years ago, readers can share the excitement of a new, extremely
daring view of the uinverse. Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes),
first published in 1686, is one of the best loved classics of the early French enlightenment. Through a series
of informal dialogues that take place on successive evenings in the marquise's moonlit gardens, Fontenelle describes
the new cosmology of the Copernican world view with matchles clarity, imagination, and wit. Moreover, he boldly
makes his interlocutor a woman, inviting female participation in the almost exclusively male province of scientific
discourse.
Table of Contents
Introduction by Nina Rattner Gelbart
Translator's Preface
Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds
Preface
Dedication
The First Evening
The Second Evening
The Third Evening
The Fourth Evening
The Fifth Evening
