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Passionate Minds

David Bodanis

Start date: November 23, 2017

Finish date: December 20, 2017

Discussion: Currently Reading

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Nov 15, 2017 Ross Blocher rated it it was amazing

Passionate Minds is the story of two brilliant indivdiuals, Emilie du Chatelet and Voltaire: their off-and-on partnership (both romantic and intellectual), and their role in the world's transition to modernity. Both protagonists have longer-form names: "Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet" and "François-Marie Arouet", reflecting their relative stations within the ruling French aristocracy. It is a place and time period for which I have little inherent interest, and it Passionate Minds is the story of two brilliant indivdiuals, Emilie du Chatelet and Voltaire: their off-and-on partnership (both romantic and intellectual), and their role in the world's transition to modernity. Both protagonists have longer-form names: "Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet" and "François-Marie Arouet", reflecting their relative stations within the ruling French aristocracy. It is a place and time period for which I have little inherent interest, and it is to David Bodanis's credit that I was so engaged in the tale.

Voltaire (François-Marie's pen name) is already well known as a poet, satirist, playwright and author. It was fascinating to learn about his constant evasion of prosecution by the upper crust he'd insulted with verse, his keen ability to make the best of a bad situation (once by manipulating a lottery into vast wealth and other times by writing new works), his constant hypochondria, and his largely unsuccessful forays into science.

Emilie du Chatelet is the real breakout star here - at least, this was the first time I had encountered her. Emilie's life is especially interesting when contrasted with that of her contemporaries. She was not formally trained in the sciences, but one of her father's friends shared astronomy with her. Emilie collected books on her own, even using her natural skill at calculation to game the gambling tables, earning proceeds to purchase more books. She could hold her own in a sword fight against even a trained military man. She was an adept mathematician and theoretician, and extrapolated from her readings to calculate the force of gravity on Jupiter and the speed light traveled across the solar system.

I was fascinated to learn of the sexual freedom Emilie enjoyed. Though married to a military officer, it was understood that he would have mistresses and she would carry on her own affairs. When her romance with Voltaire began, they were thrilled to have found intellectual equals. While she excelled in mathematics and scientific inquiry, Voltaire was a master of writing. Together they created a volume explaining the works of Newton - Voltaire got credit as the author, but he dedicated the work to her, and an illustrated frontispiece depicted Emily as the true reflector of Newton's genius, and Voltaire as the humble scribe. In a later contest, both carried on independent inquiries into the nature of fire; Voltaire attempted to measure weight loss-and-gain as metals were heated (there is weight fluctuation, but his scales were orders of magnitude too coarse to measure it) and Emilie in secret devised an experiment that would test the energies of the component wavelengths of light. It is a shame that she had the resources at hand to carry out these experiments, but hesitated in order to not usurp Voltaire. Decades later the experiment would produce important results. Emilie and Voltaire took turns collaborating and competing, but each spurred the other to greater achievement. Even Candide, though produced after Emilie's death, can be read as Voltaire's last word on their debates over the merits of Liebniz's "optimism" - a new concept of "the best possible world" that Emilie championed and Voltaire despised.

As both Voltaire and Emilie operated in the highest circles, we learn much of the nobility and aristocracy that surrounded them - the various places they were invited to stay, the people who stayed with them, and the affairs they and others engaged in. There is an interesting undercurrent of stories about the poor sanitation of the time, methods of communication, military meaneuvers, competing plays, and other concerns of the day. Sadly, Emilie died in her early forties giving birth to a child (fathered by one of her other love interests, Saint-Lambert) who only surived for about a year. Thankfully, Emilie was able to complete her magnum opus, a detailed examination of some difficult Newtonian mathematics, before her death. It is fascinating to ponder how much more minds like Emilie's and Voltaire's could have accomplished if not hampered by custom and constantly fleeing capture, paying off debts, fighting illness, and the coping with the various vagaries of 18th century Europe. ...more

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Mar 22, 2024 Emma marked it as to-read

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