Maurois, André. "If Louis XVI had an Atom of Firmness"
Divergence: 1776 CE
What if: Louis XVI was more stubborn and retained Turgot as finance minister.
Summary: An historian from our world goes to Heaven and reads an encyclopedia entry on the reign of Louis XVI (1774-1820).
Published: In If It Had Happened Otherwise: Lapses Into Imaginary History, all eds. (ed. J.C. Squire), q.v.
Original in: English.
Translation: French as "Si Louis XVI…", in Mes songes que voici, Grasset 1932.
Translation: German by Walter Brumm as "Wenn Ludwig XVI. eine Spur von Festigkeit gezeigt hätte", in Das Science Fiction Jahr (ed. unknown), Heyne 1986; and Wenn Napoleon bei Waterloo gewonnen hätte. Und andere abwegige Geschichten (ed. J.C. Squire), Heyne 1999 (3453149114).