In this little-known work by Voltaire (1694-1778)--now available in English for the first time-- the famous French philosophe and satirist presents a wide-ranging and acerbic survey of religion throughout the world. Written toward the end of his life in 1769, the work was penned in the same decade as some of his more famous works--the Philosophical Dictionary, Questions on Miracles, and Lord Bolingbroke's Important Examination--all of which questioned the basic tenets of Christianity. Voltaire called himself a deist and thus he professed belief in a supreme deity. But he was always sharply critical of institutional Christianity, especially its superstitions, the hypocrisy of its clergy, and its abuse of political power. Both his deism and his critical attitude toward Christianity are manifest in God and Human Beings, which is, in effect, one of the first works of comparative religion. Comparing Christianity to the more ancient belief systems of the Jews, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Arabs, he notes a common tendency to worship one supreme god, despite the host of subordinate deities in many of these religions. He also critiques the many superstitions and slavish rituals in religion generally, but he emphasizes that in this respect Christianity is no better than other faiths. Thus, the clergy's claim that Christianity is God's supreme revelation to humanity has no basis from an objective perspective. This first English translation of a classic critique of religion includes an introduction by writer, scholar, and editor S. T. Joshi, who wrote the article on Voltaire in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (edited by Tom Flynn). Anticipating many of the themes of the later Higher Criticism and rationalist critiques of religion, this incisive, witty treatise by the great French skeptic will be a welcome addition to the libraries of anyone with an interest in the philosophy of religion, intellectual history, or the Enlightenment.

Long before George MacDonald and William Morris, Charles de Fieux, Chevalier de Mouhy (1701-1784), a one-time friend of Voltaire, prolific author of popular and mildly scandalous potboilers (including the first sensational novel about the Man in the Iron Mask) and polemicist, penned one of the first and most extravagant "Extraordinary Voyages." Lamekis was first published in eight volumes in 1735-38, then reprinted by Charles-Georges-Thomas Garnier -- who listed it, arguably, as one of the first Hollow Earth novels -- in his ground-breaking fantasy imprint of Imaginary Voyages in 1788. This metafictional novel is an unparalleled work of kaleidoscopic imagination and multiple, exuberant narratives focusing on the life and times of Lamekis, the son of a High Priest of Ancient Egypt. It deals with themes of friendship, unrequited love, murderous jealousy, violent power struggles, the quest for immortality and the cosmogonic vision of the universe with competing gods and levels of reality. Its extravagant settings include a subterranean world inhabited by a race of intelligent worm men, and the celestial Island of the Sylphs, where beings can ascend to the Heavens, all depicted with their strange cultures and alien languages. The author himself is, at one point, dragged into the narrative where he is rebuked for his poetic license, given secret messages, witnesses his unfinished novel as a series of bas-reliefs, is shown the inside of his mind, is invited to be initiated into the mysteries of the Sylphs, has the final part of his novel written for him by an invisible force, and falls foul of the royal censor. Michael Shreve is a writer and translator currently living in Paris. His credits include translations of Jacques Barberi, John-Antoine Nau and Marcel Schwob.

The deadly Madame Atomos is a brilliant but twisted Japanese scientist who is out to avenge herself against the United States for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where she lost her family. Opposing her are Smith Beffort of the FBI, Dr. Alan Soblen, and Yosho Akamatsu of the Japanese Secret Police. This classic French sci-fi thriller series from the 1960s is presented here in English for the first time in a nine-volume omnibus edition, of which this is the last. Here, the sinister Madame Atomos, now fully rejuvenated, is back, deadlier than ever, controlling the minds of men and beasts, and spreading terror with her new miniaturized spheres.

Pierre Pelot is one of the grandmasters of modern French science fiction. His writing career spans over 40 years and includes over 200 novels in various genres, from westerns to science fiction, and crime thrillers to prehistoric novels. His books have been translated into twenty languages. However, this is his first translation into English. The Child Who Walked on the Sky (1972) is Pelot's third science fiction novel, in which a maladjusted eight-year old is forced to flee the strange, artificial world of Zod, but his search for truth and a better life will take him to an entirely new world, beyond even his imagination. What If Butterflies Cheat? (1974) is a masterpiece reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, taking place in a bizarre, dystopic future America where a wave of mental illnesses may be attempts at communication by entities beyond reality itself. Michael Shreve is a writer and translator currently living in Paris. His credits include translations of Charles de Fieux, Andre Laurie, John-Antoine Nau and Andre Caroff.

The deadly Madame Atomos is a brilliant but twisted Japanese scientist who is out to avenge herself against the United States for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where she lost her family. Opposing her are Smith Beffort of the FBI, Dr. Alan Soblen, and Yosho Akamatsu of the Japanese Secret Police. This classic French sci-fi thriller series from the 1960s is presented here in English for the first time in a nine-volume omnibus edition, of which this is the seventh. In it, Madame Atomos is miraculously rejuvenated into a woman twenty years younger than her former self She uses her newly-regained beauty to seduce Akamatsu and plot a deadly revenge against Smith Beffort and his wife Mie, the former Miss Atomos, for whom she plans a hideous death...

The deadly Madame Atomos is a brilliant but twisted Japanese scientist who is out to avenge herself against the United States for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where she lost her family. Opposing her are Smith Beffort of the FBI, Dr. Alan Soblen, and Yosho Akamatsu of the Japanese Secret Police. This classic French sci-fi thriller series from the 1960s is presented here in English for the first time in a nine-volume omnibus edition. In this sixth volume, Madame Atomos threatens the destruction of the United States by spreading the plague virus from her citadel on the secret island of Atomia and succeeds in exacting a terrible revenge on her enemies. But Mie Asuza becomes Miss Atomos again and launches her own war against her deadly creator...

Enemy Force (1903) is a ground-breaking, surrealistic novel about a poet who is locked in a lunatic asylum and who mysteriously becomes possessed by an "Enemy Force," possibly an alien being from a hellish planet orbiting the star Aldebaran. Both tragic and satirical, emotional and visionary, it is considered by many scholars to be a forgotten masterpiece of early science fiction. John-Antoine Nau (1860-1918) was himself an eccentric French poet and writer who led a marginal existence and whose works remained mostly unpublished until long after his death. FIRST WINNER OF THE PRESTIGIOUS LITERARY GONCOURT AWARD (1903). "The best novel] that we ever crowned." Joris-Karl Huysmans. Michael Shreve is a writer and translator currently living in Paris. His credits include translations of Jacques Barberi, Andre Laurie and Marcel Schwob.

The deadly Madame Atomos is a brilliant but twisted Japanese scientist who is out to avenge herself against the United States for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where she lost her family. Opposing her are Smith Beffort of the FBI, Dr. Alan Soblen, and Yosho Akamatsu of the Japanese Secret Police. This classic French sci-fi thriller series from the 1960s is presented here in English for the first time in a nine-volume omnibus edition. In this fifth volume, the deadly Madame Atomos continues waging war on the United States, first by turning the hapless residents of Baltimore into blood-thirsty monsters, then by unleashing uncontrollable wild fires over Nevada.

The deadly Madame Atomos is a brilliant but twisted Japanese scientist who is out to avenge herself against the United States for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where she lost her family. Opposing her are Smith Beffort of the FBI, Dr. Alan Soblen, and Yosho Akamatsu of the Japanese Secret Police. This classic French sci-fi thriller series from the 1960s is presented here in English for the first time in a nine-volume omnibus edition, of which this is the fourth. In this volume, Madame Atomos challenges the full might of the U.S. Army from her flying fortress, then unleashes a deadly bacteriological attack upon the State of Rhode Island.

Andre Laurie was a one of Jules Verne's collaborators, a pioneer of science fiction as well as a prolific writer, militant journalist and even politician. In Spiridon (1907), a young surgeon discovers an island off the coast of Corsica inhabited by giant, intelligent ants. Their king, Spiridon, eager to learn more about humanity, goes to Paris where, using his advanced knowledge, he begins effecting miraculous cures before being unmasked by jealous competitors. Forced to protect himself, Spiridon reveals his alien nature and becomes a killer. Spiridon, a non-humanoid alien gifted with knowledge, scientific curiosity, but no human emotions, the victim of mankind's fears, is a ground-breaking science fiction character and a striking departure from both Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Michael Shreve is a writer and translator currently living in Paris. His credits include translations of John-Antoine Nau and Marcel Schwob.

The deadly Madame Atomos is a brilliant but twisted Japanese scientist who is out to avenge herself against the United States for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where she lost her family. Opposing her are Smith Beffort of the FBI, Dr. Alan Soblen, and Yosho Akamatsu of the Japanese Secret Police. This classic French sci-fi thriller series from the 1960s is presented here in English for the first time in a nine-volume omnibus edition. In this volume, the third in the series, Miss Atomos' fight to the death against the KKK, and her eventual betrayal after falling in love with Smith Beffort, herald the return of the sinister Madame Atomos -- deadlier than ever