Hi Lesley,
I read a little about Mme du Chatelet, though not
a whole lot because she lived in the generation
after my book, and I was kind of overwhelmed with
the amount of research I had to do to do justice
to 1693.
My recollection of what Mitford said in her book
(and I have to admit I don't trust her totally,
having run across some fair to middling boners in
her book on Louis XIV) was that du Chatelet was
ridiculed in her lifetime.
The French aristocracy of the time I'm familiar
with wasn't exactly renowned for its devotion to
education, but I don't think her being upper-class
would have been a reason for ridicule. At the
time, I mean. I don't know about in retrospect.
That's a good point, about the French Revolution.
Best,
Vonda
On Fri, 26 Dec 1997 12:18:31 UT, Lesley Hall
<Lesley_Hall@classic.msn.com> wrote:
>Another woman who wasn't taken seriously because
>of her interest in science was the Marquise du
>Chatelet, who was fascinated by the calculus. That
>was in the next century, though.
>
>Dear Vonda
> You probably know Nancy Mitford's charming (though I'm not sure how C18h
>scholars regard it!) biography of du Chatelet, 'Voltaire in Love'. Voltaire
>certainly took her scientific interests very seriously. It's possibly her
>relationship with him (and other men: she died in childbirth having become
>pregnant by a much younger man) rather than her sex as such which has led to
>her neglect? Also perhaps the fact that she was an aristocrat and thus (esp
>post-Revolution) subsumable to a model of the dabbling dilettante (whatever
>her actual commitment to science). I gather (from conversations rather than
>reading) that a lot of work is being done at the moment on the role of women
>and salons (or similiar informal gatherings, friendship/kinship networks etc)
>on the development of science in the late C17th-C18th.
>Lesley
>Lesley_Hall@classic.msn.com
http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda
The Moon and the Sun -- One of Publishers Weekly's
"Best Books of 1997"
http://www.bookwire.com/pw/bestbooks97.article$3946
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