Émilie du Châtelet

[mildred_of_midgard]

Write-up by mildred_of_midgard of David Bodanis' Passionate Minds, about the life and times of Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire and their love affair. Ends with Émilie's death.

It's a highly romanticizing view of Émilie and Voltaire, and is so uninformed about the Voltaire and Fritz interactions that it's not even funny, but contains some good material on Émilie.


Young Émilie likes reading books and talking about intellectual matters. Dad encourages her; Mom resents and discourages her. Mom wants to lock her in a convent. Dad manages to keep her out.

They send her to court to try to find a husband. She doesn't like the guys who keep hitting on her, so she finds a soldier and challenges him to a public duel. They fight with swords, not to kill. It's a draw. Now the men leave her alone. (#RoleModel)

She doesn't have a lot of money and not a lot of socially acceptable means of making money. But then she discovers gambling, and more specifically, card counting! (Émilie, ILUUUU!)

Then she immediately spends half her money on books. (Émilie, ILU EVEN MORE!)

She ends up married to a decent man who likes having an intelligent wife and is willing to let her do her own thing as long as he can have his own affairs on the side and they don't have to interact much.

Cut to Voltaire. A young François Arouet has gotten locked in the Bastille for mouthing off. Drama happens. He adopts the pen name Voltaire.

His dad has hated him all his life. (I wonder if he and Fritz ever commiserated over bad dads.) Like Wilhelmine, Voltaire works out his issues via art therapy, since he doesn't have the option of forcing his alter egos to marry.

"In all of world literature, the play that had most attracted young Arouet was Sophocles' Oedipus, with its hard-to-resist motif of a son murdering his father. For Arouet's own father had constantly disparaged him, calling him lazy and 'cursed by God.' When as a teenager Arouet had refused to go through the charade of law school that his father had tried forcing him into, he'd been threatened with exile to a miserable, malaria-ridden life on the plantations in the French West Indies. It didn't help that Arouet was probably illegitimate, and that his father had furiously taxed him with this fault as well."

(I can see wanting to cheat on this guy, Mme. Arouet.)

His Oedipus is a big hit. He even gets Dad to attend. Dad, who apparently has as much ability to read between the lines as Lehndorff, is seen madly applauding.

The nobleman who got him locked in the Bastille gives him a gold watch and an annual subsidy. Quote from the book: "Though when Orléans personally told him of the annuity, Voltaire replied that although he thanked the regent for helping to pay for his food, in the future he would prefer to take care of his lodgings himself."

Voltaire has fun in Paris for a while, exchanges repartee with a nobleman, gets imprisoned in the Bastille again, then kicked out of France, because since when is freedom of speech a thing in 18th century France? He goes to England, learns to speak English partly by sitting in the theater at Drury Lane listening to Shakespeare while reading a copy of the play and mouthing the words to himself.

He discovers that England is awesome! Because it's liberal! Wow, it's so much better than France. Watch them not have a bloody revolution half a century from now. (Tangential quote I couldn't resist passing on: "He discovered strange, meat-avoiding beings called “vegetarians,” who compounded their oddity by going for long brisk walks for their health.")

He learns a lot, and his stay shapes his political thinking. But then he gets homesick. After a couple years, things calm down enough that he's able to go back to Paris.

Meanwhile, Émilie is discovering that the reason other women are so vapid and gossipy is because society doesn't allow them the education to become anything else. (Something Fritz seems to have also figured out, not that it changed his misogyny one bit.)

She has a couple kids with her husband, and an affair with a nobleman. It's fun, but she wants more emotional depth. They stay friendly exes.

Voltaire discovers he can get rich by outsmarting the government, buying up large numbers of bonds at a deeply discounted price from wealthy people, then getting the government to redeem these bonds at full price. Success! Now he's rich and doesn't need a patron. Life is good. But lonely.

Then Émilie and Voltaire are introduced by mutual friends. Love at first sight. Sex and poetry and science and philosophy. But then they break up (it seems to have been a tumultuous relationship). She has an affair with Maupertuis.

Then she gets back together with Voltaire, because she can't give him up any more than Fritz will be able to in future years.

A warrant for Voltaire's arrest (lettre de cachet) is out. Émilie helps him escape to the border, where one of her exes is stationed, as the French make war on the Austrians in the War of the Polish Succession. Voltaire gets to hang out in camp, wanders a little too far afield, gets taken for a spy. He narrowly escapes getting executed on the spot.

Hilariously, I checked the dates when I saw Eugene of Savoy's name, and sure enough, it's Philippsburg in summer 1734, which means while Voltaire is wandering around the French camp as a noncombatant, Crown Prince Fritz is a combatant over on the Austrian side. They must have figured this out in later years.

Anyway, Émilie is annoyed with Voltaire for almost getting himself killed.Voltaire doesn't care, he busy with his latest project: using his giant fortune to rebuild a falling-down chateau that belongs to Émilie's husband's family. This is Cirey, where Voltaire and Émilie will later spend most of their time, do famous research, and people from all over Europe (including Algarotti, Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Book) will come to visit them.

Émilie is in Paris, trying to hook up with Maupertuis again, but while he's down for sex, he won't treat her as an intellectual equal, and she can't stand that. So she goes back to Voltaire.

Once Émilie shows up at Cirey, she's on board with the renovation project, but has completely different architectural ideas, and takes over the design. Go Émilie.

Then they move in. Science happens! They do a commentary on the Bible, they study Newton, they get a telescope and study the night skies.

Then there's another arrest order out for Voltaire. (You'll see a lot of recurring themes in this story, much as there are recurring themes in the Fritz/Voltaire story.)

Voltaire flees incognito to the Low Countries. He's worse than Fritz at incognito! He "manage[s] to hold out for almost a whole day" under a false identity, before letting everyone know who he really is. By the time he gets to Brussels, they're staging one of his plays in his honor.

Émilie is annoyed.

But then Voltaire comes back, and she missed him, so she forgives him. More science happens! Voltaire takes up corresponding with some crown prince in Prussia. "He's the literal best!" he tells Émilie. "Hope of the nations! Messiah! Our Lord and Savior!"

Émilie: *is not convinced*

"He wants me to come visit him at Rheinsberg. Can I can I can I?"

"HIS DAD IS STILL KING YOU IDIOT."

Oh. Right. "Okay, but later! After he becomes the Best King Ever (TM)."

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

As I recounted in another comment, when Fritz sends Keyserlingk on a supposedly social visit, Émilie locks away the most incriminating play that Fritz is trying to get his hands on, La Pucelle d'Orleans, and Keyserlingk leaves disappointed.

Émilie is my hero.

Meanwhile, the Academy of Sciences is offering a prize for the best submission. Voltaire decides to enter. Émilie will help.

But partway through the project, she's all, "Oh, I'm such a weak woman, all this experimental science is too physically taxing, where are my smelling salts?" So a very Voltaire lets her retire to her room early every night. Where she sits at her desk late into the night, coming up with a much better submission, because she can already tell Voltaire is not a scientist.

Émilie, can I commission, like, a monumental marble statue for you or something? I might nominate you for YT next year. Maybe in addition to Frederician 18th century, we can have a fandom for 18th century Enlightenment thinkers, get Émilie and Voltaire and Algarotti in there.

Anyway, Émilie can't do experimental science, because Voltaire will know something is up if she sets up a giant lab. So she does theoretical science. And by thinking about optics, she manages to come up with a better submission than Voltaire with all his experimental equipment. He makes a number of amateur mistakes, seeing as how he is, you know, an amateur.

But she's a woman, so they both place the same in the competition. Neither gets first prize, because the French Academy is all Cartesian and Voltaire and Émilie are Newtonians (this is also a problem Algarotti, who you may remember was the first person in Italy to reproduce Newton's optical experiments, had in France, which is partly why he didn't want to settle down there).

After the burn of getting outshone by Émilie working alone at night with no equipment, Voltaire decides to take a break from physics and go back to writing, which he's much better at.

Then FW dies! Émilie can't keep Voltaire fully away from Fritz, but she does her best. We know the Fritz/Voltaire story much better than this ridiculous author does, so I'll skip over that part.

Voltaire and Émilie have another breakup. Émilie has a bit of a breakdown, starts losing money when she gambles, binge eats, stops doing science. :-(

Voltaire realizes he needs an actual ally at court, so gets one of his acquaintances, Jeanne Poisson, into the King's bed. The idea is that being so lowborn, she won't have a noble family to protect her, so she'll be totally dependent on Voltaire and the other guy who helped put her there.

It...doesn't work out like that. Madame de Pompadour can take care of herself, thank you very much.

Émilie is pulling herself together and going back to science and philosophy. Voltaire is having an affair with his niece. Things are not going as well at court as he'd hoped when he helped bring young Jeanne to the King's attention.

They decide to try again. But when Émilie is gambling at court, the tables are rigged, and she loses a fortune. Voltaire opens his big mouth, accuses the nobles of cheating, and they have to flee. Émilie goes to Paris, where she figures out how to make a large amount of money by making the taxation system work in her favor. She manages to get all her debts either paid off or forgiven, in, like, a month.

Meanwhile, Voltaire is hiding from arrest (yes, again) at a friend's country house. He gets one dark room, curtains always closed so one can tell he's living there, and no visitors, just one servant. It's hell.

Until he starts writing. Then he gets so absorbed in what he's doing that he doesn't want to leave. But Émilie shows up, they have fun again, life is good, for a while. But things are still tense, and they're trying to make it work. They decide traveling will be good for the relationship.

They go hang out at the court of Stanislaus, deposed king of Poland (remember the War of the Polish Succession that Voltaire and Fritz were briefly involved in) and father of Marie Leszczyńska, queen of France.

The gossipy sensationalism begins!

It turns out Stanislaus has a mistress named Catherine. His priest does not approve of this. Especially since said priest is a Jesuit, and Catherine hates Jesuits. Father Joseph decides that, while no mistress would be ideal, Stanislaus has made it's clear not happening, so any mistress would be better than this mistress.

"Émilie is famous! And pretty enough. If I invite her to court, Stanislaus is sure to ditch Catherine for her!" goes Father Joseph's rather bizarre logic.

Émilie: Lol wut. He's 71. I'm with Voltaire. Catherine, though, you seem cool.
Émilie and Catherine: *become BFFs*
Stanislaus: *is relieved not to have to satisfy two mistresses at his age* (<-- Seriously, this is what the author says.)

However, Voltaire and Émilie are on the outs again. She starts having an affair with a rather younger and better looking man at Stanislaus' court, who used to be Catherine's lover. Stanislaus approves. Things are good for a while. She finds a love letter from her new lover to Catherine. Voltaire catches Émilie and her new lover having sex. Émilie knows he has a lover in Paris (but doesn't guess it's his niece). Drama and explosions ensue.

Things start falling apart between her and her new lover. She goes back to Voltaire, but now she's pregnant, and it's not his. He's not super happy. She's afraid she's going to die in childbirth. She does, age 42. >/3

"How convenient, I mean sad," says Fritz, who is an asshole where Émilie is concerned. (Fritz, I'm warning you, Heinrich's on his own, like the rest of your family, but I have finally found the one person on whose behalf I will fight you.) Within months, Voltaire is at his court, either having run out of excuses to stay away, if you believe a Fritz biographer, or if you believe this biographer, without Émilie to protect him from himself.

RIP, Émilie.

Two write-ups by cahn of Judith Zinsser's Émilie Du Châtelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment.

1) General thoughts.


General thoughts on this book: I got the impression that Zinsser is a rather more careful writer and historian than, oh, Bodanis. (Disclaimer: I have only read the kindle sample of Bodanis directly, although of course I've referred extensively to mildred's excellent writeup.) She is very careful to distinguish between things that she is taking from primary sources (mostly letters) and things she is totally making up from circumstantial evidence, which are usually clearly marked as such (e.g., "Perhaps she would have..." or "It could have been that...") which I super appreciated. I am, however, not discounting the always-real possibility that she has her own axes to grind that also make her not as reliable a secondary source as she might be. One of her axes clearly is that Zinsser is frustrated by and arguing against previous "standard" bios of Émilie; I'm not sure whether she had a manuscript of Bodanis' book (they seem to have come out the same year) but Bodanis seems to say pretty much all the things she's arguing against. She also includes a lot of cultural and historical context, which was great for people like me who know nothing about the historical period. (At one point she mentions that noblewomen had so much fancy clothing on that they often just... did their elimination where they stood, instead of trying to maneuver over a chamber pot, and servants cleaned it up. Is this true?? And if so, how is it that everyone in fandom doesn't know this??)

Zinsser is unfortunately not super good (it seemed to me) about chronology or signposting what she's going to talk about and where; for example, there's this essay she submitted about fire to the Academy of Sciences that [user name=mildred_of_midgard> mentioned, which Zinsser mentions fairly early on in passing and then doesn't follow up on for another chapter or two. In the interim I was going "...what?? I really want to know about this!!" and was surprised when it showed up again in much more detail, at that point in proper (I think) chronological context. However, I was very pleased with the biography from my perspective of knowing a little from mildred about Emilie in particular and a lot (relatively speaking) about associated figures of the period.

Also, Zinsser clearly doesn't think much of Voltaire. I must say that she backs this up with quotes (of which one or two in the following) and she certainly convinced me, lol. Relatedly, although as far as I can tell she understands quite well what's going on historically speaking, she's writing a bio of du Châtelet and not of Voltaire, and she will spend a chapter talking about du Châtelet's book on physics and one page talking about Voltaire and Fritz. (Which I thoroughly approve of.) And in general she is way more interested in talking about du Châtelet's accomplishments than about gossipy sensationalism, which honestly I am a fan of (as long as I get some gossip, lol).

General thoughts about Émilie: I get the impression from this book that her real strength was in synthesizing what other people had done into a coherent whole (e.g., her Institutions of Physics textbook, her translation of Newton). Which is really impressive but not the sort of thing people tend to be remembered for (at least, I tend to have stuck in my mind people who have made specific discoveries) so I will grudgingly give history a pass for not really remembering her. (See also: Algarotti, who I think suffers from not exactly the same problem but a related kind of problem, in that the kind of thing he was good at -- being good at lots of things -- is not the sort of thing history tends to remember these days.) That being said, there appears to have additionally been a problem of people attributing all her work to MEN, which is NOT OKAY WITH ME. :)

2) Comparative synopsis of both books.

In the following synopsis, "Bodanis" will generally speaking be quotes from mildred's excellent writeup of Bodanis' book :) When I am giving my own opinions (as opposed to what I think are Zinsser's opinions), I will either indicate that it's me, cahn, speaking, or put it in square brackets :)


Bodanis: Young Émilie likes reading books and talking about intellectual matters. Dad encourages her; Mom resents and discourages her. Mom wants to lock her in a convent. Dad manages to keep her out.
Zinsser: Dad wouldn't have had time! He was busy with his job! Also, schooling in a convent for a little while was something everyone did and it wasn't weird or bad. Her mom was probably mostly in charge of her schooling, so probably encouraged her. [One of her cites for this is mom and Émilie arguing over a Biblical point, which is supposed to show that mom was encouraging of Émilie expressing her own opinion. I dunno, though, it could just be that mom was being resentful and trying to prove Émilie wrong? Unsuccessfully, as it turns out. Anyway, I'm not totally convinced by her here, but at least she shows her source, or at least one of them, so we can draw our own conclusions!]

Bodanis: [fencing, card counting stories]
Zinsser: not mentioning fencing or card counting at all. No sensationalistic gossip here! At least, not about non-sex things. Does mention that Voltaire had a whole pile of money (mentions veeeery briefly his government bonds thing, but does not go into detail, which, I guess, this is not a Voltaire bio) and helped the du Châtelets with money; apparently they were not great at not spending less than they eraned.

Bodanis: She ends up married to a decent man who likes having an intelligent wife and is willing to let her do her own thing as long as he can have his own affairs on the side and they don't have to interact much.
Zinsser: This is true, but let me append that this marriage was considered a partnership, especially in terms of raising their children to have good positions in society, and she did a bunch of stuff like have basically power of attorney and arrange sale of properties, etc., and she went to Brussels (later, with Voltaire) to negotiate a settlement over contested properties. Cite: Voltaire letters talking about how much Émilie got done! (Also she wanted her son to learn physics. This is a plot point later on.)

Bodanis: She has a couple kids with her husband, and an affair with a nobleman. It's fun, but she wants more emotional depth. They stay friendly exes.
Zinsser: She was kinda frivolous at this point in her life, I think. Backed up by a reminiscence where she talks about how she was neglecting her genius and understanding. We don't really know why she decided she wanted to study more math. Also, how's this for sensational gossip: Émilie wrote a note saying she wanted to die over this nobleman (who then talked about (a probably made-up story) how he saved her from suicide) and everyone laughed at her and her family was mad at her for being sensationalistic. Have affairs, but don't be in the news about them!

Zinsser: Anyway, one of her sons died and she started getting more serious, so I guess I don't really disagree about her wanting more emotional depth. Then there's Maupertuis! She started studying math with him. Maupertuis was OK at math, I guess, but mostly was in it to be ambitious, and he didn't have the natural talent or interest that Émilie did. Also, there is totally no evidence that he and Émilie had sex! Just, you know, super emo letters, because as we all know from Lehndorff, that century was an emo time! [Zinsser says that Émilie wrote similarly affectionate language to others, but does not give quotes.] Maupertuis's portrait was in her bedroom at the time but that is also totally not evidence!

Me: ...I don't know about that, it seems to me that if you had a portrait of someone in your bedroom --
The ghost of Fritz, in the back: *raises hand*

Zinsser: ANYWAY. Then she and Voltaire were introduced and had extremely spark-inducing intellectual conversations and wrote extremely flirty letters and they were definitely "courting" and in love but there is totally no evidence they had sex at this point either! Voltaire wrote flirty letters to lots of guys! And Émilie was never jealous of any of the guys, except Fritz! So you can't judge by flirty letters.

Let's have a quote showing how much cooler Émilie is than Voltaire: "Clairaut [her tutor after Maupertuis, whom Zinsser likes a lot more, or possibly I just like him a lot more because he seems more interested in math]... wrote to a friend when he first began giving lessons to her and to Voltaire that she was 'altogether remarkable,' while he could not even make the other understand what mathematics was."

Voltaire has a warrant out for his arrest, so Émilie arranges for him to stay at Cirey. Eventually, she shows up there. NOW, FINALLY, I am willing to concede that they definitely had sex. She calls it le paradis terrestre and lots of people show up and hang out and do music and science and math and poetry with them, including Algarotti. [Yes, Algarotti totally appears in this book! And while I was looking up stuff in the book for this writeup, I found that Zinsser says Voltaire also calls him a swan, "Mi caro cignio di Padova."]

Me: Wow!! Wouldn't it be great if I had a place like that where I could talk with people about things I'm interested in or other people have totally gotten me interested in, like history and opera and reading pedagogy, and geek out about things -- oh. :D totally calling DW The Earthly Paradise from now on

Zinsser: Voltaire is the worst! "He repeatedly brought her unwelcome publicity, fears of retribution from her cousin, and ridicule from the wits of the court and the salons." Okay, maybe not on purpose, but COME ON.

Voltaire: Émilie is the best! She is a "lady whom I look upon as a man."
Me: *eyes him dubiously*

Bodanis: when Fritz sends Keyserlingk on a supposedly social visit, Émilie locks away the most incriminating play, and Keyserlingk leaves disappointed.
Zinsser: Ditto.

Bodanis: Meanwhile, the Academy of Sciences is offering a prize for the best submission [on fire]. Voltaire decides to enter.
Zinsser: Probably because he wasn't part of the Académie française because he kept making people angry at him, and was thinking he could slide into it sideways from the Academy of Sciences. Not because he actually liked science.
Bodanis: Émilie will help. ...She sits at her desk late into the night, coming up with a much better submission, because she can already tell Voltaire is not a scientist.
Zinsser: Yep. For instance, they do these experiments where they burn different kinds of things. Some of them lose mass and some of them don't change at all and some of them gain mass. And Voltaire's like, "This clearly shows Newton is right about fire being just like other matter in that it has mass!" And Émilie is all, "My dude, you really suck at drawing conclusions from experiments."

Voltaire: Math is hard!! Science is hard!! Also boring!
Émilie: *rolls eyes*

Algarotti: *writes physics book featuring a marquise who isn't very smart*
Voltaire: Émilie is much smarter than that! You are like a goddess! A goddess who illuminates truth for geniuses like me!
Émilie: Thanks, but I'd way rather be a physicist than a goddess.

Bodanis: Then FW dies! Émilie can't keep Voltaire fully away from Fritz, but she does her best.
Zinsser: Oh yeah, later on I'll mention Voltaire was in Prussia around this time, and Émilie was jealous and worried. Eh, whatever. Who cares what he and Fritz are up to.
I've mentioned before that Émilie wanted to teach her son physics. Couldn't find a good textbook, especially since everyone was still rather confused by momentum and kinetic energy. So she wrote her own! She synthesized Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz together. Kinetic energy is a thing! (Hotly debated topic at the time, and one where she was definitely taking an underdog stance.) By the way she used a French translation of Wolff that Frederick of Prussia sent to Voltaire "made for him by one of his closest intimates at court." [Suhm?? :D] [Yes, Suhm!]
Also sends Fritz a copy, because Very Proud of this book.
The Secretary of the Academy of Sciences tries to make fun of her and her book. She totally pwns him.
Me: Émilie I <3 you!!

Bodanis: Voltaire and Émilie have another breakup. Émilie has a bit of a breakdown, starts losing money when she gambles, binge eats, stops doing science. :-(
Zinsser: Not sure what you're talking about here? Anyway, it's WAY more interesting to talk about Emilie's translation of Newton's Principia, so I'm gonna do that. It's actually a translation and commentary and expansion. It is AWESOME.
Oh, okay, have some gossip.

Voltaire: I am too old for sexual relationships, being 47 and all, "the twilight of my days." [He lived to be 83.] Nay, I only want pure love unsullied by physical considerations.
Émilie: I'm not really happy about this, but I love you, so, okay.
D, who happens to be walking by at the moment: He means he doesn't want sex with her, huh?
Voltaire: *has affair with niece*
Émilie: ????
Voltaire: Uh, yeah, D was right. I meant I didn't want sex with you. Um. Open relationship?

Then Voltaire gets people mad with him again (this is, as mildred said, a recurring theme) and Émilie decides that Lorraine is a good place to hang out, with deposed Polish King Stanislaus, as in mildred's writeup.

Émilie: And there's this nice guy here, Saint-Lambert, and since Voltaire and I have an open relationship... heeeeey. This guy is pretty great at sex. This is great!
Voltaire: When I said we had an open relationship, that didn't mean YOU were supposed to be having sex with other people!

Bodanis: Things start falling apart between her and her new lover.
Zinsser: I know that's what everyone says, but I've redated the letters, since a bunch of them aren't actually dated and were just kinda mixed up, and with my new redating I postulate that they were just fine, thanks. But can we just talk more about her Newton translation? Cause it's really cool. And then she had Saint-Lambert's baby.

Voltaire: Émilie just had a baby and I wrote a play. I am "one hundred times more fatigued than she."
Me: *facepalm*
Zinsser: I know, right??
Émilie: Well, I may have just had a baby yesterday, but gotta correct those printer proofs of my Newton translation! Not gonna correct themselves, are they!
Five days later: *packages up all her papers*
Six days later: *dies* (probably from a blood clot)
:(

Epilogue:
Voltaire: It's so saaaaad she was so greeeeeeat I'm the saaaaaddest it's all about meeeeee OK gonna go hang out with Fritz now
Saint-Lambert: *quietly has a breakdown and possibly was permanently affected by her death, and seems like he really loved her*
Zinsser: I like Saint-Lambert a lot more than Voltaire, okay?