Dangerous Liaisons: Emilie Du Chatelet and Voltaire’s Passionate Love Affair
Counting cards and dodging authorities
A quick inspection of the “most famous historical couples” listicles doesn’t offer many surprises. I may not know the details of their romantic lives but I’ve seen enough movies about Anthony and Cleopatra, Napoleon and Josephine, Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson, among others, to know my way around history’s top ten love stories. But I’d never heard of the intense, 15-year relationship between Voltaire and Emilie du Châtelet, the wife of an obscure but wealthy Frenchman.
Nor had I come across a pairing that was as exciting — and as startling — as the one between Voltaire and du Châtelet. It was du Châtelet’s genius that inspired Voltaire to produce many of his best-known works.
Likewise, Voltaire’s belief in du Châtelet spurred her to undertake significant work of her own, including a stunning translation of Newton’s Principia which helped usher in the French school of theoretical physics.
“Let us be certain of who we want to be. Let us choose for ourselves our path in life, and let us try to strew that path with flowers.”―Émilie Du Châtelet
