An edition of Passionate minds (2006)

Passionate minds

the great love affair of the Enlightenment, featuring the scientist Emilie Du Châtelet, the poet Voltaire, sword fights, book burnings, assorted kings, seditious verse, and the birth of the modern world

1st American ed.
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Last edited by ImportBot
March 1, 2022 | History
An edition of Passionate minds (2006)

Passionate minds

the great love affair of the Enlightenment, featuring the scientist Emilie Du Châtelet, the poet Voltaire, sword fights, book burnings, assorted kings, seditious verse, and the birth of the modern world

1st American ed.
  • 3 Want to read

"It was 1733 when the poet and philosopher Voltaire met Emilie du Chatelet, a beguiling - and married - aristocrat who would one day popularize Newton's arcane ideas and pave the way for Einstein's theories. In an era when women were rarely permitted any serious schooling, this twenty-seven-year-old's nimble conversation and unusual brilliance led Voltaire, then in his late thirties, to wonder, "Why did you only reach me so late?" They fell immediately and passionately in love." "Through the prism of their tumultuous fifteen-year relationship we see the crumbling of an ancient social order and the birth of the Enlightenment. Together the two lovers rebuilt a dilapidated and isolated rural chateau at Cirey where they conducted scientific experiments, entertained many of the leading thinkers of the burgeoning scientific revolution, and developed radical ideas about the monarchy, the nature of free will, the subordination of women, and the separation of church and state." "But their time together was filled with far more than reading and intellectual conversation. There were frantic gallopings across France, sword fights in front of besieged German fortresses, and a deadly burning of Voltaire's books by the public executioner at the base of the grand stairwell of the Palais de Justice in Paris. The pair survived court intrigues at Versailles, narrow escapes from agents of the king, a covert mission to the idyllic lakeside retreat of Frederick the Great of Prussia, forays to the royal gambling tables (where Emilie put her mathematical acumen to lucrative use), and intense affairs that bent but did not break their bond." "Along with its riveting portrait of Voltaire as a vulnerable romantic, Passionate Minds at last does justice to the supremely unconventional life and remarkable achievements of Emilie da Chatelet - including her work on the science of fire and the nature of light. Long overlooked, her story tells us much about women's lives at the time of the Enlightenment. Equally important, it demonstrates how this graceful, quick-witted, and attractive woman worked out the concepts that would lead directly to the "squared" part of Einstein's revolutionary equation: E=mc[superscript 2]." "Based on a rich array of personal letters, as well as writings from houseguests, neighbors, scientists, and even police reports, Passionate Minds is both panoramic and intimate in feeling. It is an unforgettable love story and a vivid rendering of the birth of modern ideas."--BOOK JACKET

Publish Date
Publisher
Crown Publishers
Language
English
Pages
373

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Passionate Minds
Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment
October 2, 2007, Three Rivers Press
Paperback in English - Reprint edition
Cover of: Passionate Minds
Cover of: Passionate minds
Passionate minds: the great Enlightenment love affair
2006, Little, Brown
in English
Cover of: Passionate minds
Passionate minds: Emilie Du Châtelet, Voltaire, and the great love affair of the Enlightenment
2006, Three Rivers Press
in English - 1st pbk. ed.
Cover of: Passionate minds

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Book Details


Table of Contents

Prologue : Cirey, France, late June 1749
I. Before.
Emilie: Paris and Versailles, 1706-1725
Francois: Paris and the Bastille, 1717-1725
Young woman: Burgundy and Paris, 1727-1731
Exile and return: London, 1726, to Paris, 1733
II. Meeting.
Meeting and Caution: Paris, 1733-1734
Hunted: Montjeu, Philippsburg, and Paris, 1734
Decision: Chateau de Cirey, and Paris, 1734-1735
III. Together.
Chateau de Cirey: Cirey, 1735+
Newton at Cirey: Chateau de Cirey, 1735-1736
Dutch Escape: Cirey and the Low Countries, 1736-1737
Michelle: Paris, late 1600s and 1737
IV. Emilie's Cirey.
Voltaire's fire: Cirey, March-August 1737
Emilie's fire: Cirey, August 1737-May 1738
New starts: Cirey, 1738
V. Travels.
Leibniz's World: Brussels, 1739
New House, New King: Paris, 1739
Frederick: Flanders and Prussia, 1740-1741
VI. Apart.
The wound in my heart: Paris and Versailles, Mid-1740s
Recovery and escape: Paris, Versailles, and Fontainebleau, 1745-1747
To Sceaux: The Court, late 1670s; Paris and Chateau de Sceaux, November 1747
Zadig: Chateau de Sceaux, November-December 1747
VII. Luneville.
The court of Stanislas and Catherine: Luneville, 1748
Saint-Lambert: Luneville, 1748
Collapse: Luneville, 1748
VIII. Finale.
Pregnancy: Cirey and Paris, Christmas Eve 1748-April 1749
A portal unto the stars: Lincolnshire, 1600s, and France, 1749
What followed

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-354) and index.

"Originally published in Great Britain by Little, Brown, an imprint of Time Warner Book Group UK, London." - T.p. verso.

Published in
New York
Genre
Biography.
Other Titles
Great love affair of the Enlightenment, featuring the scientist Emilie Du Châtelet, the poet Voltaire, sword fights, book burnings, assorted kings, seditious verse, and the birth of the modern world

Classifications

Library of Congress
PQ2103.D7 B63 2006

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Pagination
373 p., [8] p. of plates :
Number of pages
373
Dimensions
25 x x centimeters

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL15609956M
Internet Archive
passionatemindsg00boda
ISBN 10
0307237206
ISBN 13
9780307237200
LCCN
2006008059
OCLC/WorldCat
64594374
Goodreads
2804

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