{"id":9092,"date":"2017-06-06T19:53:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T23:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=9092"},"modified":"2017-06-06T20:07:28","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T00:07:28","slug":"passionate-minds-emilie-du-chatelet-voltaire-and-the-great-love-affair-of-the-enlightenment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9092","title":{"rendered":"Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment<\/a><\/em> (2006) David Bodanis<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In France (and Europe) ~1706-1749<\/p>\n

Unless you are a geek or a mathematician (or perhaps astronomer) you probably have never heard of Emilie du Chatelet. Not because she lacked achievements, but because she achieved those things as a woman, and because she died young, from child-bed fever.<\/p>\n

That we know her story may have as much to do with her long-time lover, Voltare, than because of what she accomplished, since Voltare’s papers and letters were saved and this available in later years.<\/p>\n

So what kind of girl–and later woman–was Emilie?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter is mad,\u201d Louis-Nicolas soon wrote. \u201cLast week she won more than two thousand gold louis at the card tables, and\u2026 spent\u2026 half on new books.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seems reasonable to me.<\/p>\n

The text was written in Latin, and yet she read it (aloud) in French. She hesitated a moment at the end of each sentence. I didn’t understand why, then saw it was to work through the calculations on the pages. That’s how fast she was. Nothing could stop her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Emilie was extraordinarily lucky in that her father not only encouraged her scientific inquiries, but arranged a marriage for her with a man who tolerate and even accept her quirks.<\/p>\n

Florent-Claude knew that although he and his wife would live quite separate lives, as was the custom, it would also help if they came to like each other.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it was her meeting with Voltaire that changed both of their lives. They were lovers, but even after fights and separations, they remained close friends, spending their lives together in a way that would look to modern eyes like a marriage.<\/p>\n

But their relationship wasn’t just sex–in fact their relationship wasn’t sexual in its final years. It was as much intellectual as they discussed mathematics, science, astronomy, and the nature of God.<\/p>\n

(H)e and Emilie prepared a section showing the interconnected, meaningful cycles of nature: the snow on mountaintops came from clouds and moisture in the air, and will melt and replenish the riverbeds, which in turn will fill the seas, from which water vapor can evaporate to turn into rains for farming or more snow up on mountaintops. That’s not the sign of a wrathful God, always wanting to terrorize His creations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But they were both insightful in other matters.<\/p>\n

The trick, Voltaire knew, was never to pretend an affection you didn’t feel. Any intelligent person would see through that. Rather, you need to find what you genuinely do like about a person and then go ahead and share that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In medieval times, before modern science, it had been easy to accept that God shaped everything that we saw or lived through. There were no \u201ccoincidences,\u201d because there were no separate, freely moving causal lines to \u201cco-incide.\u201d But the scientific revolution had changed that. Voltaire believed that almost everything we saw around us really was just the result of chance. <\/p>\n

He liked that, for since the details of what we experienced were not all part of a complex divine plan, then we had the opportunity to reach out, intervene, and reform the world around us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But just as fascinating as the science and mathematics is the social world in which the two moved. Madame Pompadour was initially a protege of Voltare, and he also was close with Frederick the Great. Emilie had an affair and long friendship with Louis Fran\u00e7ois Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (marshal of France) and Maupertuis (who was part of the polar expedition the prove Newton’s theories on the earth).<\/p>\n

All of this, including the history occuring around them was fascinating. But the story ended with the heart break Emilie saw coming: her death bearing a child.<\/p>\n

Voltaire never left her, and although not disparaging her fears, he assured her\u2014for who would know as well as he how amazingly one’s greatest health worries can be false?\u2014that she really did have a good chance of surviving. She was fit; the pregnancy had advanced with no complications; Lun\u00e9ville was clean and the air was fresh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the saddest thing is that this was not an unreasonable fear–women died constantly from pregnancy and childbirth. Such deaths were a fact of life for millennia, and possibly had as much to do with why there were so few female scientists as the inherent sexism of the time.<\/p>\n

This was a fascinating book, and one I definitely recommend if you are interested in learning about the life of a preeminent scientist unknown to the modern world.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Crown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment (2006) David Bodanis In France (and Europe) ~1706-1749 Unless you are a geek or a mathematician (or perhaps astronomer) you probably have never heard of Emilie du Chatelet. Not because she lacked achievements, but because she achieved those things as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,17,4,26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-history","category-non-fiction","category-romance","category-science-nature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2mE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4781,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4781","url_meta":{"origin":9092,"position":0},"title":"The Paris Affair","author":"Michelle","date":"August 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Paris Affair (2013) Teresa Grant It is the summer of 1815, and Malcom & Suzanne Rannoch are in Paris, following the Battle of Waterloo. They are supposed to meet with a French informant who wants out of Paris, and is willing to blackmail multiple members of the British diplomatic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paris-Affair","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Paris-Affair.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25845,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25845","url_meta":{"origin":9092,"position":1},"title":"The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"February 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, Audio Book (2019) Alexis Hall narrated by Nicholas Boulton I read this in 2020, and enjoyed it then, so when floundering for my next audiobook (I couldn't think of a series I wanted to dive into), I went with this. First, the narrator has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Affair of the Mysterious Letter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/The-Affair-of-the-Mysterious-Letter-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5266,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5266","url_meta":{"origin":9092,"position":2},"title":"The Mayfair Affair","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mayfair Affair (2015) Tracy Grant Set in London in 1818. Malcolm and Susanne Rannoch have had a difficult three months, after Malcolm finally learns that Susanne had been a French agent. But when their governess is accused of murder--found on the scene in fact, they hope the tenuous peace\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/the-mayfair-affair.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5429,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5429","url_meta":{"origin":9092,"position":3},"title":"The Mayfair Affair","author":"Michelle","date":"September 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mayfair Affair (2015) Tracy Grant Set in London in 1818. This book takes place three months after The Berkeley Square Affair, and although I read it earlier this year, I went back and re-read it after finishing The Berkeley Square Affair. Although I enjoyed this book the first time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"the-mayfair-affair","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/the-mayfair-affair.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19758,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19758","url_meta":{"origin":9092,"position":4},"title":"Parker Pyne Investigates: A Short Story Collection","author":"Michelle","date":"February 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Parker Pyne Investigates: A Short Story Collection (1934) Agatha Christie \u201cThe Case of the Middle-Aged Wife\u201d was first published as \u201cThe Woman Concerned\u201d in Woman\u2019s Pictorial, 8 October 1932. \u201cThe Case of the Discontented Soldier\u201d was first published in the USA as \u201cThe Soldier Who Wanted Danger\u201d in Cosmopolitan, August\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Parker Pyne Investigates","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Parker-Pyne-Investigates.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5926,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5926","url_meta":{"origin":9092,"position":5},"title":"The Grendel Affair, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"June 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Grendel Affair, Audible version (2013\/2014) Lisa Shearin, narrated by Johanna Parker This is a really fun series. Mac Frasier has moved from her little town in the south to New York City, but instead of making it as a reporter, she's now working for SPI (Supernatural Protection & Investigations)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Grendel-Affair","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/The-Grendel-Affair.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}