Emilie Du Chatelet
by Judith P. Zinsser
Penguin, HK$128
It's not difficult to see why Judith Zinsser chose to write a biography of Emile Du Chatelet (1706-1749). A woman's historian, she bristled at the distortion of her subject's official memory, believing it diminished her importance to our understanding of the Enlightenment. In her book she shows how Du Chatelet surpassed some men of the Republic of Letters. A wife (to the Marquis Du Chatelet-Lomont), lover (she had a 15-year relationship with the philosopher Voltaire) and mother (she died shortly after giving birth to her fourth child), the marquise also found time to write philosophical works and, among other things, translate Newton's Principia, which effectively shifted opinion away from Cartesian principles. Portraying Du Chatelet as an overlooked physics heroine, Zinsser shows the pluses and minuses of being Voltaire's mistress: he may have unfairly portrayed her as an acolyte but in reality, according to Zinsser, the pair collaborated as equals on literary and scientific projects. Being his companion she gained entree into academic circles that would have been closed to women. Unfortunately Du Chatelet enjoyed only 12 years of independent work before her early death. Zinsser's account of her important life ensures she is not forgotten.