Voltaire in Love (New York Review Books Classics)

I cannot contain my excitement that this book has finally been republished and with Adam Gopnik writing the foreword it is simply too thrilling! Gopnik's francophilia in Paris to the Moon makes him at least an amenable heir if not a rival to the ever-readable Nancy Mitford who I have adored for simply ages though I struggled to find this book for years! I found it in a benighted library storage section - a dusty but noble first edition from 1957 last checked out in the sixties. I read the book in one weekend delighting in the union of all my intellectual passions - science, art and politics handsomely esconced in courtly intrigue and the ever-surprising fallibilities of human nature and genius in particular.Mitford's chatty style renders Voltaire (a contemporary sacred cow of intellectual history if ever there was one) in the most appealingly personal of lights - mortal, guilty, loving, loathing, goaded, goading and most importantly creating relentlessly. But she reserves her potent grand revelation for Émilie du Chatelet - that unsung female intellectual to whom history has not been as attentive to as it has to her illustrious lover. Mitford is unvarnished in her presentation - she doesn't flinch from the many vicissitudes that shaped Émilie's stormy life like gambling, betrayal, vanity , impetuosity and unhealthy possessiveness but there are details that make one understand why she was so dear to the people around her other than the usual intelligence, beauty and social position like her preference for studying and how she could expound the details of tedious lawsuit without being boring about it. To this day the description of her rooms by Madame de Grafigny at Cirey where the intellectual soul mates and heirs to the Scientific Revolution happily worked sends a shot of longing through me -"Her bedroom is panelled in yellow and blue, the alcove for the bed lined with Indian paper, the bed covered with blue moire - everything, even the dog's basket, is to match. The looking glasses have silver frames, beautifully cleaned. A big glass door, decorated like a snuff-box, leads to the library which is not yet finished, it will have pictures of Paul Veronese. Beside the alcove there is a tiny boudoir; one could fall on one's knees it is so pretty, panelled in blue with a ceiling by a pupil of Martin...Each panel has picture by Watteau....A big armchair and two footstools to match are all upholstered in white taffeta. This divine boudoir has one window leading on to a terrace with an admirable view. The other side of the bed there is a dressing-room paved with marble, panelled in grey wood and hung with delightful prints. Everything is in perfect taste, including the curtains which are embroidered muslin."This translation owes a lot to Nancy Mitford's naturally vibrant style but it's the sort of elegant detail left out of more serviceable biographies. Mitford who was a novelist portrays personality and place so deftly but doesn't do more than pay a distant reverent homage to Emilie's scientific achievements and Voltaire's radical social ideas. This is not a major loss in Voltaire's case as he is perhaps over-studied but someone (and I'm thinking of Matt Ridley here whose exciting biography of Francis Crick I so thoroughly enjoyed) needs to review and situate the importance of Émilie's intellectual contributions. And yet another account is necessary say by Lisa Randall perhaps echoing the sentiments Virginia Woolf thundered into existence about Aphra Behn in A Room of Her Own but in relation to science rather than literature naturally. But all that does nothing to detract from the sheer pleasure of reading Mitford whose observations can be so startlingly on point even as they are couched in the most gossipy language. See this insightful reading of their respective betrayals -"... in spite of the burning, volcanic quality of her love for Saint-Lambert, her soul was not involved. She could never have written to him, as Voltaire wrote to Mme Denis, 'Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes in the twinkling of an eye, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delights of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed. I shall love you until I die.' Emilie's betrayal of Voltaire was spectacular; his of her was fundamental."I have enjoyed most of Nancy Mitford's novels and all her biographies especially The Sun King and Madame du Pompadour but none of them is as tenderly rendered as Voltaire in Love - it was a book I anticipated liking very much but ended up loving completely. To see it back in print and so nicely foreworded makes me unspeakably happy!

Nancy Mitford's Voltaire in Love is an entertaining book, full of historic characters, revealing both their best and worst attributes in politics, society, the arts, and the bedroom.The book is primarily about the long affair between Voltaire and his mistress, Mme. Emilie du Chatelet, which was certainly a meeting of two exceptionally brilliant minds of the Enlightenment. Yet the book really covers the early adult years of Voltaire and does not cover his later successes and fame.Voltaire, a graduate of Louise-le-Grand Jesuit School, was a brilliant but sarcastic student, who became popular with his witty poems and plays. Yet his satire often went to far which on more than one occassion resulted in imprisonment in the Bastile. Like Moliere, Voltaire wrote witty comedy that appealed to the sophisticated upperclasses. Yet early in his career he is forced into exile to London where he wrote plays for Queen Caroline and King George. Gradually his star rose in the French court of Louis XV. Queen Marie Leczinska found him charming and gave him a pension. Louis XV also gave him a pension but was less comfortable with Voltaire than was his wife and his father in law, Stanislas Leczinska, ex-king of Poland. The king's famous mistress, Mme. Jeanne-Antoinette de Pompadour, was an admirer of Voltaire also and there is some evidence that she came to his rescue when he ran afoul of the censors of Louis XV. Thus much of the book is about the highest levels of French society and their impact on the arts, sciences, and humanities.As is the case with many bright and opinionated thinkers, rivalry and jealousy and ambition create the conditions for long lasting enemies. This is the case between Voltaire and Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, a philosopher whom Voltaire seemed to disdain. However Voltaire's primary rivalry was with Abbe Desfontaines. Abbe Desfontaines was found molesting male adolescent chimney sweeps and was sentenced to burn at the stake for sodomy. Voltaire was one of his only allies and Desfontaine was saved. Yet, amazingly, Desfontaine became extremely critical and bitter and vindictive toward Voltaire leading the reader to recognize that no good deed goes unpunished.The attempts of Frederick II of Prussia to lure Voltaire into his court was amazing underhanded strategy. Frederick II, creating a completely male homosexual court, seemed to be obsessed with Voltaire and secretly tried to undermine him in France so that offers to come to Prussia would be more appealing.The book however is primarily about the affair of Voltaire and Emilie du Chatelet. They were quite a pair, both studious and brilliant, who allowed each other ample space to think and create. Voltaire and Emilie both popularized the works of Sir Issac Newton and advanced the fields of science and mathematics. French scholarly society prefered to continue to support Descarte's theories, primarily because he was French, a loyalty that Voltaire saw as standing in the way of rational thought. The book takes us through the many journeys of Voltaire and Emily outside of their remote mansion in the countryside. We see Emilie struggle in a game of strategy with King Frederick II for the loyalty of Voltaire. We see Voltaire trying to be supportive during Emilie's outrageous gambling addition. Her son, Florent-Francois is virtually raised in a home with two fathers. Eventually Emilie falls into lust for the handsome bright Saint-Lambert and wishes to continue her 3 man life with a rich lenient legal husband, her older more mature lover who has become her best friend, and her younger sex toy boyfriend. Unfortunately she becomes pregnant with Saint-Lambert and at age 43 dies 2 days after giving birth.Well written, well documented, engaging, entertaining, and full of witty satiric details, this is an accomplishment that you will enjoy.

I loved the interpretation of the information the author collected. She gave a good social/ historical context to her prose. I'm sorry she seemed to run out of steam and didn't cover Voltaire's time in Switzerland. However, the book was still an enjoyable read.

I'm a great fan of Nancy Mitford, but was disappointed in this book. She, I felt, overdid the erudition, and the whole thing became a little boring - not her usual attention-keeping style. Sorry, I would give this one a miss, as I didn't learn anything I didn't already know.

Really enjoyed this true but unusual story. Well-written and engaging. Still feels very fresh despite being authored in a completely different age. I've now read all of Nancy Mitford's works...and feel sad there aren't more to discover.

Excellent reading, very enjoyable. Highly recommend to those who love France and all things French, including their magnificent Voltaire. Merci.

If there were more historical biographies written like this then kids would really learn it at school. She tells a good story, makes the characters interesting and you have an idea of the gestation of ideas and philosophy.