Emilie Du Chatelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment - Softcover

Zinsser, Judith P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143112686 ISBN 13: 9780143112686

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2007

Synopsis

The captivating biography of the French aristocrat who balanced the demands of her society with passionate affairs of the heart and a brilliant life of the mind

Although today she is best known for her fifteen-year liaison with Voltaire, Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet (1706-1749) was more than a great man's mistress. After marrying a marquis at the age of eighteen, she proceeded to fulfill the prescribed-and delightfully frivolous-role of a French noblewoman of her time. But she also challenged it, conducting a highly visible affair with a commoner, writing philosophical works, and translating Newton's Principia while pregnant by a younger lover. With the sweep of Galileo's Daughter, Emilie Du Châtelet captures the charm, glamour, and brilliance of this magnetic woman.

About this title

About the Author:

Judith P. Zinsser is co-author of the landmark two-volume history of European women, A History of Their Own, and teaches at Miami University in Ohio. A recognized expert on the Marquise Du Châtelet, she was featured in October on the PBS Nova special Einstein’s Big Idea.

Review:

"Today's women will find much that is familiar in Du ChGtelet's multitasking lifestyle, which Zinsser . . . describes with understandable and infectious appreciation."
-The New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0143112686
• ISBN 13: 9780143112686
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400