A really interesting look into these two lives. I read it as research as I prepare to play Emilie in Lauren Gunderson's play Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight. The book was very helpful in understanding Emile, her life, and her contributions to society, as well as the world in which she lived. I worried the book would be dry, but it wasn't at all. It told the story of her life with great energy and interest.

I knew I would like Emilie du Chatelet when I found out that she used her superior counting skills to win money at gambling and then spent her winnings on books! This is the fascinating real-life story about a famous writer and a not-as-famous-as-she-should-be scientist. Recommended to anyone interested in pre-Revolutionary France, nerds in history, or the Enlightenment in general.

For as much as the introduction made big claims about how dismissive history has been of Du Chatelet's accomplishments, Bodanis sure went out of his way to focus on her sex life and center her story around Voltaire - up to and including unsubstantiated claims of an affair with her math tutor and others. I found this annoying at best and gross most often. Having read extensively about the language that letters of this time were composed in, I find his interpretation that she was having sex with everyone she spoke flowery to is just typically inappropriate and fits with every other view of her that came before him. To say that I was disappointed in this book would be a major understatement, as many times I was audibly arguing with it after writing one of my Grad school papers on her. Two stars awarded for what information he included about her that was factual, because it's not that he fictionalized the whole thing. He did not. Her relation to Voltaire is indisputable, but it was not the central focus of her life. This book does her a terrible disservice in painting it as such.

This is, first and foremost, as story of the decades long love affair between Emilie du Chatelet and Voltaire. The title surely doesn't lie. Unfortunately, I didn't find the love story particularly interesting. Voltaire and du Chatelet did all those standard (and quite boring, when you're on the outside looking in) things that lovers do -- talked late into the night, cooed in silly love notes to each other, and had lots and lots of sex.

What I found much more interesting was the societal context within which the love affair occurred. Voltaire was from the working class, du Chatelet was an aristocrat, and they shared intense philosophical and scientific interests. Their relationship, Voltaire's political writings, and du Chatelet's scientific work challenged the religious and political moors which existed to ensure the dominance of the wealthy ruling class. Unfortunately, while these structures were raised for context, they were not really given as much attention as I would have liked.

I can't recommend this book enough. David Bodanis is quite remarkable at allowing one to experience another time and place with a clarity one doesn't often find. One can fall a bit in love with the subjects yet never lose sight of their humanity and flaws. I really loved this book.

More information than I wanted. This would have made a good magazine article.

Passionate minds describes the loves and works of Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet. He is the famous enlightenment poet, playwright, essayist and man of letters; she is a brilliant scientist and mathematician, noted for her narration of Newton’s Principia. The book is interesting in relating the work and the times. We see the corruption of the French upper classes, their capricious use of power, their self indulgence and their anti intellectualism. The rage of the Revolution becomes very understandable. The nobility is also obsessed with illicit sex, despite their hypocritical adherence to the Catholic faith and their persecution of protestants. Emilie is married, through out this story, to Florent-Claude du Chatelet lives apart, visits Emile at the homes of her various lovers and that is the way life is. Both of these passionate minds take several lovers which seems the norm. One of Emilie’s suitors, the duc de Richeleiu, is the model for Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons. I found the book very tedious and wound up skimming lots of it. The details of when whom was with who and how they felt about was just not interesting, once you had the idea of how they lived. To get the facts about their work and its historical significance, you are better off going online.

Emilie du Chatelet is one of my favorite women in math and science. Known as Issac Newton's collaborator, this is an excellent well researched biography about this brilliant mathmetician and physicist, her groundbreaking translation and commentary of Sir Issac Newton's Principia Mathematica, her study of Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton's arch rival and enemy Gottfried Leibniz, Willem 's Gravesande, her indepth study of the bible trying to understand God better, and her career changing inspiration of her lover Voltaire. All during the age of Enlightenment when it was still considered wasteful to educate women. She laid important foundations that influenced science into the 20th century. Du Chetelet's advocacy of kinetic energy principle E ∝ mv², is a correct assessment of the kinetic energy found in classical mechanics and an influence on Einstein's E = mc². She was a huge advocate and force in the push for the higher education of women and fought for the best and highest education of her own children. David Bodanis did a wonderful job outlining Emilie du Chatelet's life, her years with Voltaire, her experiments, her curiosities, her insights into the bible and God, and her unsurpassed understanding of the work of Issac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.

Very entertaining and scholarly reliabel as far as I can see. Some thrills and what a drama!

It was an educational read about Voltaire and Emilie du Chatelet, two French intellectuals who had a great impact on the French Enlightenment. Specifically, through their combined efforts, they enhanced understanding of Issac Newton’s optical and gravitational theories, as well as inspired critical thinking about philosophy and religion. I had previously read Candide by Voltaire and had always wanted to read more about his life. This book satisfied a great part of that curiosity. I had not previously heard of Emilie du Chatelet, and was glad to have learned such a lot about her contribution to the sciences and philosophy.

Apart from giving information about their intellectual influence on French society, the book also offered an intimate glimpse into the personal lives and love affair of these two distinguished individuals, and how they inspired each other to live up to their respective ideals.

The background is packed with historical details relating to social mores, French court politics, class distinction, religious dogma, discrimination against women and press censorship in pre-Revolution France.

This was a solid 4-star read for me.

Voltaire, a literary genius, and Emilie du Chatelet, a scientific genius, had a fascinating and complex relationship. David Bodanis depicts that interweaving of love, admiration, respect, insecurity, secrecy, betrayal and reconciliation. It is to his credit that he has written about an important relationship that has for some time not been given the attention it deserves. Bodanis's thesis is that Voltaire and Emilie provided models of thinking people in an unconventional relationship (she was a married aristocratic woman, he an unmarried writer known for making caustic remarks) for thinkers throughout France, greatly influencing the movement of the Enlightenment.

Most poignant to me was Voltaire's feelings of inferiority to Emilie's brilliance with mathematics and science. As a man who wanted to be a modern thinker, he wanted to prove his ability in scientific fields but always fell far short of her. But he soon learned to apply scientific methods to the field in which his genius lay -- literature. Emilie, for her part, did not want to feed his insecurity and did much of her experimentation in secret.

However -- and I don't want to sound to snooty about it -- the book was not as intellectually vigorous as I would like. Bodanis does not attempt any meaningful analysis or criticism of either Voltaire's or du Chatelet's work, especially in how they influenced each other. He makes reference to a play Voltaire wrote to impress Emilie without even properly summarizing its plot; Emilie's revelation having to do with Newton's work about conservation of energy is never properly explained.

This is a fine book as an introduction to both Voltaire and du Chatelet. But I longed to delve deeper into the psychology and work of both people -- I'll be looking at other sources for that.

This was a very interesting book. It was interesting to see what a ridiculous system the French monarchy and country as a whole had at this point in history. It makes it very apparent why the French Revolution occurred. It is also an interesting take on Voltaire and his relationship with Emelie. I was disappointed with the book describing how advanced their relationship was toward women’s rights but that it eventually did not seem to reach the levels that I had hoped. I was also disappointed with the wanton debauchery that occurred, condoned and not, in the country at this time.
The book was easily to read and moved very well. I would recommend it to history fans and anyone interested in the period as well.