Lauren Gunderson: Emilie. La Marquise du Chatelet defends her life tonight.
Fabulous play, of which I had seen excerpts on Youtube, and which I've finally had the chance to read. Gunderson excells at witty dialogue, she does manage to make the main scientific issues of Émilie's life comprehensible to non-scientists, and while providing ample room for Émilie's love life avoids the trap fall of biopics and bio dramas about female characters, which end up all too often are all about the romance and utterly fail to show what made female character X famous, and what drove her. Not so here. She thanks Judith Zinsser in the preface and mostly follows the outlinesof Zinssers biography, though not so much in the Voltaire characterisation. Her Voltaire is flawed and male ego is a big reason for his clashing with Émiilie re: Newton vs Leipniz and then taking up with Denis, but at the same time, Gunderson's drama does present him as sincerely loving Émilie throughout the story. It helps, of course, that she's a playwright and he's a witty character. (Notable the only one other than Émilie herself who isn't played by the three actors - "Soubrette", "Gentleman", "Madame" - who take over the roles of everyone else at different points in the drama.)
Judith Zinnser: Émilie du Chatelet: Daring genius of the Enlightenment.
Mostly I agree with cahn's take. It's extremely informative and well researched in terms of Émilie and her world, though there's the occasional glitch an editor should/could have spotted, as when Zinsser, reporting on what the Marquis du Chatelet was doing in the 1740s, says he was busy fighting for King and Country in the Austrian War of Succession against "Prussia and England". Prussia was, of course, an ally of France in the Austrian War of Succession, and the Marquis would have been fighting against Austria (and England). (BTW, Austrian Trenck does mention him briefly and approvingly as a worthy opponent when talking about conquering Straßburg.) I learned a few fascinating details unknown to me, like Louise Gottsched (wife of Gottsched the language defender and important Enlightenment figure in her own right) writing about Émilie, which I must remember to check. Zinsser also is good at pointing out several of the anecdotes about Émilie being just that, anecdotes, and unverifiable, and at giving source citations. However, in her laudable zeal of presenting Émilie as her own woman, not Voltaire's love interest, and arguing against all those years of one sided Voltaire idolisation by biographers (that is, by pro Voltaire biographers - he had of course his enemies writing about him from his life time onwards though for reasons having nothing to do with Émilie), I find she ends up going to the other extreme and simply asssuming the worst with just about everything Voltaire ever said about Émilie. For example, the front page picture of his book about Newton (the one he'd already been working on when falling in love with Émilie but which hugely benefited from her explaining and beta-reading and debating), which Gunderson reprints in the appendix of her play, so I could countercheck it against Zinsser's description. Now, these kind of allegorical pictures, usually meant as an indication what the book is about, were hugely popular at the time. The one of Voltaire's "Elements de la philosophie de Newton" ('Amsterdam, 1738) shows Newton in the upper left sitting on a cloud with the globe in his hand, the light beam going from him to Émilie (upper right), looking at Newton and holding a mirror, with the mirror reflecting the light downwards to Voltaire (bottom left) , or rather, on the manuscript he's writing, not on his figure directly. The symbolism seems pretty obvious to me - Èmilie illluminating Newton for Voltaire - and also the respect (Émilie is up in the heaven with Newton, and note she's looking back at him, not Voltaire). But for Zinsser, the entire picture is a subtle put down and denigration, which she sees as interpreting Émilie "only" as muse, not as scientist in her own right (bear in mind this is before Émilie starts to publish). And thus it continues. Voltaire referring to Émilie as "Madame Newton du Chatelet" in a letter? Can't be a compliment, it's a put down. And so forth. The thing is, Voltaire isn't subtle when he's quarrelling with people. And when he argued with Émilie about Leipniz and Newton, the whole world knew it because he published an essay about it. So you really don't have to look for hidden messages. (This goes as far as Zinsser speculating that Cunegonde in Candide is yet another Voltairian put down of Émilie. As far as I know, no one else ether thought that Cunegonde (short, blonde, on the voluptous side in her looks, German noblewoman and parody of romantic love interests and damsel in distress) was in any way inspired by Émiliie. She#s a parody of a sentimental novel heroine as Candide himself is the parody of a naive sentimental novel hero. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.)
Zinsser by accepting the different dating of Émilie's letters to Saint-Lambert and her emphasis on his grief after Émilie's death attempts to rescue him from his himbo reputation which she says he owes to incensed Voltaire and Rousseau fans (because Saint-Lambert's post Émilie lover was the woman Rousseau couldn't get). With her so far, but I note she doesn't mention something which I thought spoke well of Saint-Lambert and Voltaire when I came across it in Orieux' Voltaire biography, to wit, that these two remained in contact through the years after Émilie's death, to the point that they got in a quarrel with Rousseau and his adlatus Clement together during the Ferney years (Voltaire being Voltaire, of course he couldn't resist jumping to Saint-Lambert's aide when Clement attacked the later in print) , and Saint-Lambert was among the Academie Francaise members greeting Voltaire when he came to Paris in his last months of life, telling him he'd been elected honorary president. Now honestly, given the zillions of correspondants Voltaire had (he wrote so many letters in his life that they still haven't all been printed yet - those still existing, that is, there are even more destroyed), and the many many people clamoring for his attention when he was being a world celebrity, I can't see another reason but Émilie as to why he'd stay in touch with Saint-Lambert, which took a conscious effort of doing under these circumstances. Conversely, Saint-Lambert lived in France, where Voltaire was a celebrity, sure, but also persona non grata in terms of the church and the crown, where a sizable number of people hadn't forgiven him for the Fritz years in Potsdam, and it could have been bad for his career to keep in touch. Again, I can't see this being about someone other than Émilie: they knew the other had loved her, and she had loved them, and that was an experience they shared and no one else did. But to bring this up would not fit with the image of Voltaire the heartless egomaniac who hadn't really cared about Émilie at all anymore when she died, if earlier, so Zinsser doesn't mention it.
All this said: the book isn't about Voltaire, nor should it be. It's about Émilie, and very much succeeds in being so.
Robyn Arianrhod Seduced by logic. Émilie du Chatelet, Mary Sommerville and the Newtonian Revolution.
I've only read the Émilie part of this so far but really like it. Heavy on the scientific side but lucidly written - the author even had the chance to read Émilie's original manuscript of her Principia translation, and describes it - and the description of Émilie's life is neither as romantisizing as Bodanis nor as defensive and feeling in need to rescue Émilie from Voltaire as Zinsser. It also settled contributes yet another opinion on something which I've seen a different interpretation on in each book I've read so far, to wit, Algarotti's "Newton for Ladies" and the connection, of lack of same, to actual ladies, especially Émilie.
Algarotti dissertataion writer: Algarotti took the basic premise of the book - narrator explains science via erotically charged banter to Marquise - from Fontenelle's earlier book from 1698. Thus, his Marquise isn't the portrait of any particular woman. She's a literary trope.
Bodanis and Zinsser: The Marquise was totally a caricature of Émilie, everyone would have seen her as such, and thus Émilie was justly pissed off. (So was Voltaire.)
Isabel Grundy (in her Lady Mary biography): Actually, the Marquise may have been partly inspired by Émilie, but also partly by Lady Mary, and I can prove it. In chapter such and such, Algarotti's narrator says that one proof of how science can benefit women is the inocculation against smallpox. Everyone at the time would have understood this as a Lady Mary allusion and homage. It was what she was most famous for.
Robyn Arrianrhod: I'm mostly with Dissertation writer. Algarotti took the premise and the idea of the Marquise from Fontenelle, not from any living woman. That's also why the book is dedicated to Fontenelle, not to Émilie. Which is one of the things she was irritated about. The other was that she thought several of his similes to explain equations were very shallow and patronizing to women. *gives examples* But she didn't think the Marquise was meant as a portrait or caricature herself, and by quoting longer from her letters than Zinsser has done, I'm proving it.
Jean Orieux: I published my Voltaire book decades ago and I'm with her. "Émilie thought Algarotti was just a shallow boy, and she didn't take him seriously."
Robin Arianrhod: I didn't say that, actually. Have same more letter quotes in which Émilie says re Algarotti, "ah well, he meant well" and that she still likes him. Anyway, IF Algarotti was thinking of any female intellectual in particular to pay homage to in this book, it was....
*drumroll*
Laura Bassi.
Grundy and Zinsser: Who?
Arianrhod: in setting the scene for the first 'dialogue', he used the devise of arousing his Marquise's scientific curiosity by having his narrator read her a poem about light and colours - a pem the narrator has written ' for the glory of our Bolognese savante'. Algarotti had written the poem some years ealrier, to celebrate the graduation of the young Italian Newtonian, Laura Bassi, who had received a degree in philosophy at Bologna in 1732, when she was twenty-one years old. She was only the second woman to gain a modern university degree, after Elena Piscopia (...) Several years younger than Émilie, Bssi was a prodigy who had been given an excellent education by her father. In the 1730s, when Algarotti was writing his book, Bassi was lecturing at the University of Bologna in philosophy, including 'natural philosophy', or physics. (...) she was called the Minerva of Bologna, an she gave public rather than academic lectures. Algarotti no doubt discussed her at Cirey, presumably prompting Voltaire to refer to Émilie as "the Minerva of France'.
Which brings me to another of Arianrhod's strengths: feminist context in that she sees other interesting women not just male biographers have overlooked. Also, this:
Francoise de Gaffney (Madame Gaffney): shows up in Zinsser (and Bodanis) as one of Émilie's and Voltaire's houseguests at Cirey who after being at first impressed by Émilie later is the author of some highly critical descriptions of her.
Zinsser, Bodanis, and also Gunderson in her play: Gaffney = conventional, envious society matron.
Arianhrod: Francoise de Graffigny herself was an unusual woman, and she would later use what she had learned in Cirey in her own writing career: at th time of her visit in late 1738, she was just beginning to reinvent herself as a writer, having recently left her violent, abusive husband and having lost her five children, who all died as infants. Voltaire's play "Alzire" and Émilie's version of "The Fable" would inspire Graffigny's later novel, "Lettres d'une Peruvienne" (Peruvian Letters). "Alzire" had used Peru as an exotic location to epxlore the meaning of 'natural virtue' in the context of religious tolerance. It was set during the sixteenth century Spanish conquest of Peru, and it aimed to show that ethics, or 'virtue', was based on natural human decency rather than on slavish adherence to religious ritual, pagan or Christian; in other words, it aimed to show that it was possible to be a good person without the aid of religious dogma. Émilie's "Fable" had analysed 'virtue' in a similar but broader context, with an emphasis on gender conditions and sexual stereotypes. Now Graffigny wanted to expore this idea in relation to the sexual double standard, in which 'virtue' meant one thing for women - being faithful, or at least discreet, wives - and quite another for men (...). Émilie provided the model for Graffigny's free-spirited Pervusian heroine, Zilia, who wants a life of independence - a life she realises is not considered proper for women in France. "Peruvian Letters", published in 1747, became one of the most popular novels of the century.
Émilie Tripled
Fabulous play, of which I had seen excerpts on Youtube, and which I've finally had the chance to read. Gunderson excells at witty dialogue, she does manage to make the main scientific issues of Émilie's life comprehensible to non-scientists, and while providing ample room for Émilie's love life avoids the trap fall of biopics and bio dramas about female characters, which end up all too often are all about the romance and utterly fail to show what made female character X famous, and what drove her. Not so here. She thanks Judith Zinsser in the preface and mostly follows the outlinesof Zinssers biography, though not so much in the Voltaire characterisation. Her Voltaire is flawed and male ego is a big reason for his clashing with Émiilie re: Newton vs Leipniz and then taking up with Denis, but at the same time, Gunderson's drama does present him as sincerely loving Émilie throughout the story. It helps, of course, that she's a playwright and he's a witty character. (Notable the only one other than Émilie herself who isn't played by the three actors - "Soubrette", "Gentleman", "Madame" - who take over the roles of everyone else at different points in the drama.)
Judith Zinnser: Émilie du Chatelet: Daring genius of the Enlightenment.
Mostly I agree with
Zinsser by accepting the different dating of Émilie's letters to Saint-Lambert and her emphasis on his grief after Émilie's death attempts to rescue him from his himbo reputation which she says he owes to incensed Voltaire and Rousseau fans (because Saint-Lambert's post Émilie lover was the woman Rousseau couldn't get). With her so far, but I note she doesn't mention something which I thought spoke well of Saint-Lambert and Voltaire when I came across it in Orieux' Voltaire biography, to wit, that these two remained in contact through the years after Émilie's death, to the point that they got in a quarrel with Rousseau and his adlatus Clement together during the Ferney years (Voltaire being Voltaire, of course he couldn't resist jumping to Saint-Lambert's aide when Clement attacked the later in print) , and Saint-Lambert was among the Academie Francaise members greeting Voltaire when he came to Paris in his last months of life, telling him he'd been elected honorary president. Now honestly, given the zillions of correspondants Voltaire had (he wrote so many letters in his life that they still haven't all been printed yet - those still existing, that is, there are even more destroyed), and the many many people clamoring for his attention when he was being a world celebrity, I can't see another reason but Émilie as to why he'd stay in touch with Saint-Lambert, which took a conscious effort of doing under these circumstances. Conversely, Saint-Lambert lived in France, where Voltaire was a celebrity, sure, but also persona non grata in terms of the church and the crown, where a sizable number of people hadn't forgiven him for the Fritz years in Potsdam, and it could have been bad for his career to keep in touch. Again, I can't see this being about someone other than Émilie: they knew the other had loved her, and she had loved them, and that was an experience they shared and no one else did. But to bring this up would not fit with the image of Voltaire the heartless egomaniac who hadn't really cared about Émilie at all anymore when she died, if earlier, so Zinsser doesn't mention it.
All this said: the book isn't about Voltaire, nor should it be. It's about Émilie, and very much succeeds in being so.
Robyn Arianrhod Seduced by logic. Émilie du Chatelet, Mary Sommerville and the Newtonian Revolution.
I've only read the Émilie part of this so far but really like it. Heavy on the scientific side but lucidly written - the author even had the chance to read Émilie's original manuscript of her Principia translation, and describes it - and the description of Émilie's life is neither as romantisizing as Bodanis nor as defensive and feeling in need to rescue Émilie from Voltaire as Zinsser. It also settled contributes yet another opinion on something which I've seen a different interpretation on in each book I've read so far, to wit, Algarotti's "Newton for Ladies" and the connection, of lack of same, to actual ladies, especially Émilie.
Algarotti dissertataion writer: Algarotti took the basic premise of the book - narrator explains science via erotically charged banter to Marquise - from Fontenelle's earlier book from 1698. Thus, his Marquise isn't the portrait of any particular woman. She's a literary trope.
Bodanis and Zinsser: The Marquise was totally a caricature of Émilie, everyone would have seen her as such, and thus Émilie was justly pissed off. (So was Voltaire.)
Isabel Grundy (in her Lady Mary biography): Actually, the Marquise may have been partly inspired by Émilie, but also partly by Lady Mary, and I can prove it. In chapter such and such, Algarotti's narrator says that one proof of how science can benefit women is the inocculation against smallpox. Everyone at the time would have understood this as a Lady Mary allusion and homage. It was what she was most famous for.
Robyn Arrianrhod: I'm mostly with Dissertation writer. Algarotti took the premise and the idea of the Marquise from Fontenelle, not from any living woman. That's also why the book is dedicated to Fontenelle, not to Émilie. Which is one of the things she was irritated about. The other was that she thought several of his similes to explain equations were very shallow and patronizing to women. *gives examples* But she didn't think the Marquise was meant as a portrait or caricature herself, and by quoting longer from her letters than Zinsser has done, I'm proving it.
Jean Orieux: I published my Voltaire book decades ago and I'm with her. "Émilie thought Algarotti was just a shallow boy, and she didn't take him seriously."
Robin Arianrhod: I didn't say that, actually. Have same more letter quotes in which Émilie says re Algarotti, "ah well, he meant well" and that she still likes him. Anyway, IF Algarotti was thinking of any female intellectual in particular to pay homage to in this book, it was....
*drumroll*
Laura Bassi.
Grundy and Zinsser: Who?
Arianrhod: in setting the scene for the first 'dialogue', he used the devise of arousing his Marquise's scientific curiosity by having his narrator read her a poem about light and colours - a pem the narrator has written ' for the glory of our Bolognese savante'. Algarotti had written the poem some years ealrier, to celebrate the graduation of the young Italian Newtonian, Laura Bassi, who had received a degree in philosophy at Bologna in 1732, when she was twenty-one years old. She was only the second woman to gain a modern university degree, after Elena Piscopia (...) Several years younger than Émilie, Bssi was a prodigy who had been given an excellent education by her father. In the 1730s, when Algarotti was writing his book, Bassi was lecturing at the University of Bologna in philosophy, including 'natural philosophy', or physics. (...) she was called the Minerva of Bologna, an she gave public rather than academic lectures. Algarotti no doubt discussed her at Cirey, presumably prompting Voltaire to refer to Émilie as "the Minerva of France'.
Which brings me to another of Arianrhod's strengths: feminist context in that she sees other interesting women not just male biographers have overlooked. Also, this:
Francoise de Gaffney (Madame Gaffney): shows up in Zinsser (and Bodanis) as one of Émilie's and Voltaire's houseguests at Cirey who after being at first impressed by Émilie later is the author of some highly critical descriptions of her.
Zinsser, Bodanis, and also Gunderson in her play: Gaffney = conventional, envious society matron.
Arianhrod: Francoise de Graffigny herself was an unusual woman, and she would later use what she had learned in Cirey in her own writing career: at th time of her visit in late 1738, she was just beginning to reinvent herself as a writer, having recently left her violent, abusive husband and having lost her five children, who all died as infants. Voltaire's play "Alzire" and Émilie's version of "The Fable" would inspire Graffigny's later novel, "Lettres d'une Peruvienne" (Peruvian Letters). "Alzire" had used Peru as an exotic location to epxlore the meaning of 'natural virtue' in the context of religious tolerance. It was set during the sixteenth century Spanish conquest of Peru, and it aimed to show that ethics, or 'virtue', was based on natural human decency rather than on slavish adherence to religious ritual, pagan or Christian; in other words, it aimed to show that it was possible to be a good person without the aid of religious dogma. Émilie's "Fable" had analysed 'virtue' in a similar but broader context, with an emphasis on gender conditions and sexual stereotypes. Now Graffigny wanted to expore this idea in relation to the sexual double standard, in which 'virtue' meant one thing for women - being faithful, or at least discreet, wives - and quite another for men (...). Émilie provided the model for Graffigny's free-spirited Pervusian heroine, Zilia, who wants a life of independence - a life she realises is not considered proper for women in France. "Peruvian Letters", published in 1747, became one of the most popular novels of the century.
See what I mean?