Draft:Philosophical Fable

Reading of L'Orphelin de la Chine by Voltaire.

The literary fable is a fictional story meant to criticize society and power and transmit ideas on subjects of philosophical importance such as political regimes, religious fanaticism, the nobility's social norms, or other philosophical trends. It takes the form of a fable and uses some of it's tropes such as "once upon a time," in order to evade the censure that was intense at that time. Like a fable, it belongs to the genre of apologue, a short allegorical story that has a moral.

Voltaire was the main writer in this genre. Candide, Micromégas, and Zadig were his most representative works.