Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the EnlightenmentIt was 1733 when the poet and philosopher Voltaire met Emilie du Châtelet, a beguiling—and married—aristocrat who would one day popularize Newton’s arcane ideas and pave the way for Einstein’s theories. In an era when women were rarely permitted any serious schooling, this twenty-seven-year-old’s nimble conversation and unusual brilliance led Voltaire, then in his late thirties, to wonder, “Why did you only reach me so late?” They fell immediately and passionately in love.Through the prism of their tumultuous fifteen-year relationship we see the crumbling of an ancient social order and the birth of the Enlightenment. Together the two lovers rebuilt a dilapidated and isolated rural chateau at Cirey where they conducted scientific experiments, entertained many of the leading thinkers of the burgeoning scientific revolution, and developed radical ideas about the monarchy, the nature of free will, the subordination of women, and the separation of church and state. But their time together was filled with far more than reading and intellectual conversation. There were frantic gallopings across France, sword fights in front of besieged German fortresses, and a deadly burning of Voltaire’s books by the public executioner at the base of the grand stairwell of the Palais de Justice in Paris. The pair survived court intrigues at Versailles, narrow escapes from agents of the king, a covert mission to the idyllic lakeside retreat of Frederick the Great of Prussia, forays to the royal gambling tables (where Emilie put her mathematical acumen to lucrative use), and intense affairs that bent but did not break their bond.Along with its riveting portrait of Voltaire as a vulnerable romantic, Passionate Minds at last does justice to the supremely unconventional life and remarkable achievements of Emilie du Châtelet—including her work on the science of fire and the nature of light. Long overlooked, her story tells us much about women’s lives at the time of the Enlightenment. Equally important, it demonstrates how this graceful, quick-witted, and attractive woman worked out the concepts that would lead directly to the “squared” part of Einstein’s revolutionary equation: E=mc2.Based on a rich array of personal letters, as well as writings from houseguests, neighbors, scientists, and even police reports, Passionate Minds is both panoramic and intimate in feeling. It is an unforgettable love story and a vivid rendering of the birth of modern ideas. |
Contents
15 | |
29 | |
Young Woman BURGUNDY AND PARIS 17271731 | 43 |
Exile and Return LONDON 1726 TO PARIS 1733 | 53 |
Meeting and Caution PARIS 17331734 | 65 |
Hunted MONTJEU PHILIPPSBURG AND PARIS 1734 | 75 |
Decision CHATEAU DE CIREY AND PARIS 17341735 | 85 |
Chateau de Cirey CIREY 1733+ | 97 |
Recovery and Escape PARIS VERSAILLES | 207 |
To Sceaux THE COURT LATE 1670s PARIS | 217 |
Zadig CHATEAU DE SCEAUX NOVEMBERDECEMBER 1747 | 223 |
The Court of Stanislas and Catherine LUNEVILLE 1748 | 237 |
SaintLambert LuxEVILLE 1748 | 243 |
Collapse LUNÉVILLE 1748 | 251 |
PregnancyCIREY AND PARIS CHRISTMAS EVE 1748 | 265 |
A Portal Unto the Stars LINCOLNSHIRE 1600S | 273 |
Newton at Cirey CHATEAU DE CIREY 17351736 | 107 |
Dutch Escape CIREY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES 17361737 | 123 |
Michelle PARIS LATE 1600S AND 1737 | 131 |
EMILIES CIREY | 139 |
Leibnizs World BRUSSELS 1739 | 169 |
New House New King PARIS 1739 | 181 |
Frederick FLANDERS AND PRUSSIA 17401741 | 187 |
The Wound in My Heart PARIS AND VERSAILLES MID17408 | 197 |
What Followed | 283 |
Notes | 295 |
Guide to Further Reading | 343 |
Acknowledgments | 355 |
Index | 361 |
141 | 363 |
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Passionate Minds: Emilie Du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of ... David Bodanis No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
aristocratic Arouet arrived Bastille began Besterman British carriage Catherine century château Château de Sceaux Cirey Comédie Française court Duc de Richelieu duchesse Emilie and Voltaire Emilie's Emilie's Lettres England English Enlightenment everything father Florent-Claude France Frederick French friends going Graffigny guests happy ideas Isaac Newton Johann Bernoulli king king's late later Leibniz letters lived London Longchamp Louis XIV Louis-Nicolas lovers Lunéville Madame de Graffigny Madame de Pompadour Madame du Châtelet manuscript Marain Marie-Louise Marquise married Maupertuis Maupertuis's meant memoirs Menou mistress Montjeu Moussinot needed never Newton night nobles official Paris Phélypeaux Philippsburg play poem Richelieu royal Saint-Lambert Sceaux seemed sent servants soon spent Stanislas stay story taire there's thinkers thought tried trying Vaillot Versailles Voltaire's wanted who'd woman women words writing written wrote young Zadig