Synopsis
Drawing on letters written to her husband Pierre after his death, a surprising portrait of the legendary scientist reveals her emotional depth, her role in unlocking the mystery of atomic structure, and her affair with a married colleague. 25,000 first printing.
Reviews
Quinn (A Mind of Her Own: The Life of Karen Horney) presents here a carefully researched, well-rounded study of Curie (1867-1934), the physicist credited with isolating radium. Born Marie Sklodowska in Poland, she left her home to study in Paris, where she met and married physics professor Pierre Curie. Agreeing with earlier accounts, Quinn depicts their marriage as a devoted partnership. The Curies together made an investigation of radioactivity, for which they shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for physics. But Quinn breaks ground in her detailed description, drawn from newly available papers, of Marie's life after Pierre's accidental death in 1906. At first so grief-stricken she neglected her two daughters, Irene and Eva, Marie later had a love affair with French scientist Paul Langevin. Because Langevin was married, Marie was vilified by the French press and was almost denied the 1911 Nobel Prize for chemistry. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC, History Book Club and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inasmuch as science was central to the existence of the Curies, Quinn examines their lives vis-a{ }-vis contemporary scientific dynamics. She does this at a level understandable to the general reader, yet with sufficient fact and theory to enable an appreciation of their discoveries. Quinn's portrayal of the sociopolitical milieu of turn-of-the-century France, including nationalism and male chauvinism, is reflected in the shabby treatment afforded the Polish-born Marie, such as twice failing to elect her, the first woman Noble Prize winner, to membership in the French Academy of Science, and, after her scandalous liaison involving the French physicist Langevin, treating her second Nobel Prize as a nonevent. However, Quinn shows that the Curies' unpopular politics, reclusiveness, and eccentricities, such as twice refusing the French Medal of Honor, contributed to their difficulties. A well-written, evenhanded story of dedication, disappointment, tragedy, and extraordinary achievement. Brenda Grazis
This new biography of Marie Curie by the author of A Mind of Her Own: The Life of Karen Horney (LJ 10/15/87) includes information drawn from previously unavailable letters that Curie wrote to Pierre, her husband, after his accidental death. It also draws on correspondence between Curie and Paul Langevin, with whom she had an affair several years after becoming a widow. The affair, sensationalized in the French press, nearly caused the revocation of her second Nobel Prize. Only the arrival of World War I and Curie's valiant efforts to bring X-ray technology to French army hospitals and even to the front lines succeeded in removing the tainted image from the French public's memory. This is a rigorously researched book with extensive notes and bibliography. It provides much more detailed and balanced coverage of Curie's life than has previously been available. For biography and science collections.
-?Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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