An impressively researched, vividly told story of two amazing intellects and their wild and boundary-smashing lives.

3.5* a very interesting topic I was not familiar with Emilie du Châtelet and Voltaire. A bit of a dry read.

I loved the main character, Emilie du Chatelet, who was brilliant, passionate, controversial, attractive AND a Scientist in a age where women were considered the lesser sex. I've often read about the French Revolution and the Napoleon rise to party - and have often had a hard time reconciling the brutality of the French revolution. This books indirectly explains the power structure that gave all advantages to the aristocracy (who were not taxed) and the burden to the lower and middle class (who wanted to wedge their way into the top tier). I've always found it a curious irony that it was the intelligent aristocrats who's philosophy sealed their doom. This is an aside from my review -- sorry.


Emilie was fortunate to have been born and married into the aristocracy and had a privileged life. She was the opposite of the other women of leisure since she was self taught, very perceptive and curious,a mathmatically ahead of her time, and a playful lover. It took me a long time into the book to realize that her marriage vows were what we call today, "Open", hence the love affair with the famous writer, Voltaire (among others).

The book revealed that it was Emillie's brilliance that challenged Voltaire as well as herself. Yet, when he took an interest in science -- it was her clandestine scientific work that catapulted her into the scientific community of the time. At the end of her short life, she was able to interpret and enhance the little appreciated wisdom of Isaac Newton.

I read a review that I agree that stated that since this is the same author who wrote E = M C2 which included the importance of Emilie du Chataelet's mathmatical interpretation of Newton. How this contribution to modern science was not included in this story and is sorely missing. It would have added an important context to her place in science. Maybe future editions will include this missing but important.

Too often the life of scientists lack the zest for ALL aspects of living a passionate life. Emilie was not one of those cutting edge scientists.

This was a wonderful read. It’s the story of Émilie du Châtelet, a mathematician, theoretical physicist, and philosopher. She and Voltaire were lovers for several years, and they remained devoted friends for the remainder of Émilie’s short life.

This is a story a writer of fiction would hardly dare invent. Romance, political intrigue, duels, financial scams, complex machinations with royalty and their hangers-on; Émilie’s life would seem extraordinary even without her significant contributions in mathematics and physics. This is a woman who translated Newton’s Principia, not just from Latin into French, but also casting the equations into a far more comprehensible calculus. And she did that in the last months of her life, during the pregnancy that she sensed would kill her.

Bodanis has an easy, highly readable style. The book has fairly copious end notes, and while I found myself wishing for more details of Émilie’s work, they would have made the book much longer, and perhaps diluted its effect. He includes a long list of further reading that I will certainly investigate. The one thing I felt the book lacked was an index; there are so many people named, and sometimes I wished I could quickly find where they’d appeared earlier in the book.

After her death, Voltaire wrote of her,

“I have lost the half of myself—a soul for which mine was made”.

I highly recommend the story of this astonishing woman. It moved me more than many a novel.