Okay, this is fascinating, thank you so much for this!
I find she ends up going to the other extreme and simply asssuming the worst with just about everything Voltaire ever said about Émilie.
Right?? I definitely noticed she didn't like Voltaire at all, though since I had no other frame of reference for Voltaire at the time, I was willing to be convinced that he was Bad News :) Once you had done some of your Voltaire writing (both salon and fic), it was rather more clear to me that there was rather some bias on her part.
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.
HAHAHAHAHA point taken.
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.
Ooh, that's a good point, thank you.
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.
This sounds... Very Relevant to my interests. :D
Laura Bassi.
Grundy and Zinsser: Who?
I laughed out loud, because this was also my reaction :)
The part about Graffigny is also very cool. Yeah, clearly way more interesting than Zinsser or Bodanis were willing to give her credit for.
Re: Émilie Tripled
I find she ends up going to the other extreme and simply asssuming the worst with just about everything Voltaire ever said about Émilie.
Right?? I definitely noticed she didn't like Voltaire at all, though since I had no other frame of reference for Voltaire at the time, I was willing to be convinced that he was Bad News :) Once you had done some of your Voltaire writing (both salon and fic), it was rather more clear to me that there was rather some bias on her part.
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.
HAHAHAHAHA point taken.
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.
Ooh, that's a good point, thank you.
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.
This sounds... Very Relevant to my interests. :D
Laura Bassi.
Grundy and Zinsser: Who?
I laughed out loud, because this was also my reaction :)
The part about Graffigny is also very cool. Yeah, clearly way more interesting than Zinsser or Bodanis were willing to give her credit for.