Me connecter
Bienvenu(e) sur Lisez !
Pour profiter au maximum de notre site et vivre l’expérience lecture la plus riche qui soit, créez-vous un compte. Vous pourrez suivre vos auteurs préférés, ajouter des livres à votre bibliothèque et vous tenir informé(e) de toute l’actualité littéraire.
Connectez-vous pour accéder à votre bibliothèque et à vos auteurs préférés.
Scientist and philosopher, Richelieu's friend and Voltaire's muse and mistress, Emilie du Châtelet was a modern, liberated woman.
If, for Montesquieu, being a woman in the 18th century was a civilizing art, Emilie du Châtelet was a novel incarnation of the concept. She was not simply well mannered, her civility...
Scientist and philosopher, Richelieu's friend and Voltaire's muse and mistress, Emilie du Châtelet was a modern, liberated woman.
If, for Montesquieu, being a woman in the 18th century was a civilizing art, Emilie du Châtelet was a novel incarnation of the concept. She was not simply well mannered, her civility made her also a true European. Wed to a broad-minded man who permitted her to study freely, she was wise and eloquent, as passionately interested in philosophy and mathematics (she translated Newton's works on gravity) as she was in theatre and opera. Voltaire, Maupertuis, and the Duc de Richelieu all considered her a friend. Her audacious letters, at once serious and whimsical, reveal an intelligence of the heart and a startlingly rigorous mind. When Voltaire was in disgrace, Emilie welcomed him to her chateau at Cirey. For fifteen beautiful years they shared a life that was both studious and worldly, sharing their knowledge generously with their friends. This book offers the portrait of a modern, courageous, liberated woman, mother and intellectual, melancholy and gay, a constant quest for happiness always on her mind. She was a woman of the Enlightenment, perhaps too far-thinking to suit the times.
Florence Mauro studied at the Ecole Normale and is a screenwriter, producer, and author of six works including L'amour éperdu and La vie intime (Plon).
Abonnez-vous à notre newsletter pour suivre l’actualité de vos auteurs préférés.
