Last year, I had a very interesting interview with Laurel Corona, author of Penelope’s Daughter, and received very positive feedback from my readers. So I am pleased to have persuaded Laurel to stop by again, this time to mark the publication of her new novel, Finding Emilie, which is set on the eve of the French Revolution. Laurel, as you know, for I quote her often enough, has eloquently articulated the responsibility of the historical novelist in five very powerful words–Do not defame the dead. 
Sharon: Tell us a little about the book. Who is Emilie du Châtelet, and why were you interested in her story?
I teach the Enlightenment era in my San Diego City College humanities classes, and her association with her longtime lover, Voltaire, sometimes comes up as a side note in textbooks. Quite frankly, the wigged-and-corseted women one sees in paintings from that era never interested me that much. How could starchy-looking Madame de This-or-That be any fun?
I first learned about Emilie from Einstein’s Big Idea, a DVD I show snippets of in class. Based on David Bodanis’ book E=MC₂, the program gives the history of each part of the equation, focusing on Emilie’s advocacy for the importance of squaring. What grabbed me was not the science, however, but her astonishing life. She was not only a brilliant physicist and mathematician, but a free-spirited woman who dared to be herself despite the cruel and often frivolous constraints of her society. Wild woman and scientist make quite an interesting combination, especially in light of the tragedy that put an early end to her life.
Sharon: Wasn’t it unusual for a woman in her era to be a scientist?
Women of means were able to pursue intellectual pursuits as a private matter, but their work was rarely published, and indeed credit was often taken by the men around them, including Voltaire for some of Emilie’s pioneering work on Newton.
She was unusual, but far from alone. Laura Bassi was championing Newton in Italy at the same time. Compatriots and fellow physicists Sophie Germain and Marie Lavoisier worked a few decades later. Only in recent years, by the way, has Marie been seen as a scientist in her own right, rather than a mere secretary and lab assistant to her famous husband, Antoine de Lavoisier. In FINDING EMILIE, I modeled my protagonist Lili and Jean-Étienne’s relationship loosely after that of Marie and Antoine, who was beheaded in the Reign of Terror after the judge announced that the Revolution had no need of scientists.
Sharon: You said Emilie had a wild side. What kinds of things did she do?
She was an inveterate gambler, amusing herself as a teenager at salons by using her prodigious math skills to win enough at cards to finance her purchases of the latest science and physics books. Later, she and Voltaire had to make a quick nighttime escape from Fontainebleau because she had lost a small fortune and could not pay up (a high-ranking guest was cheating, but it was improper and dangerous to make the accusation). She figured out how to make good on the debt by inventing a scheme today known as trading in derivatives.
She cross-dressed on occasion to go to meetings of scientific societies, where women were not permitted. She discouraged a dull suitor by trouncing him in a fencing match. She set up a bathtub in her parlor so she could receive houseguests while she bathed. She used her dowry to pay the greatest mathematicians in France to tutor her. But it is her scandalous love life where she really made her mark.
Her match with the Marquis du Châtelet was a marriage of convenience, and I don’t think either expected fidelity. Emilie and Voltaire lived openly as lovers for fifteen years at her husband’s ancestral home. He would come to visit from time to time, apparently unconcerned about his wife’s cozy arrangement with another man under his own roof.
Emilie and Voltaire remained lifelong friends after their affair ended, but tragically life would not be that long for her. She fell madly in love with a dashing young soldier-poet and became pregnant by him at 43, unheard of at the time. Six days after the birth of a daughter, Stanislas-Adélaïde, she complained of a headache and within hours she was dead, probably of a stroke from an embolism.
Sharon: With such a fascinating real-life character, it’s surprising she isn’t the protagonist in the novel. Why did you choose to focus on the life of her daughter instead?
First, I think it is harder to write historical fiction when the protagonist is a real character. You are basically stuck with the actual life story, and too much inventing or embellishing is a violation of what I think is an unwritten pact with readers not to misinform them. It’s worked for me better to invent the protagonists and have the real characters come in and out of their lives. Second, I fell in love with Emilie, I didn’t want my novel to end in the sad way her story does. I just couldn’t do that to readers, who I am sure will love her too.
Sharon: Tell us a little about Lili, the daughter. What is her life like?
Lili grows up in an aristocratic home, raised by a friend of her mother’s after the Marquis (knowing he is not her father) shows no interest in her. Julie de Bercy, whom Lili calls Maman, has a daughter Lili’s age, and she and this girl, Delphine, grow up like sisters. Julie is a free-thinking salonnière who introduces Lili to Rousseau, Diderot, and the Comte de Buffon, luminaries of their time. From them, Lili develops an independent mind, despite the efforts of a dour Châtelet relative to shape her into a docile, pious, unrebellious future wife and mother. Uninterested in the inanities of court life, Lili finds solace in books and in her own satirical stories of an adventurous little alter-ego named Meadowlark. As she and Delphine reach marriageable age and her life constricts around her, Lili realizes that the life of the scandalous mother whom no one will speak of may offer insight into how to avoid death by destiny. Lili goes off in search of information about her mother, hoping to find answers about how to take control of own life.
Sharon: Without spoiling the plot, what answer does Emilie have for her daughter, and for us?
Everyone is entitled to pursue happiness. The key to happiness lies in understanding who we are as individuals, and then letting our deepest self lead us. It’s up to us to use our minds and talents to escape the ordinary. Conformity is often deformity–that’s one of the themes of the book–and we mustn’t feel guilty at our efforts to resist it.
Thank you, Laurel, for another fascinating interview. I am looking forward to reading Finding Emilie once I sort out Coeur de Lion once and for all. And readers will love the fact that you’ve added a Who’s Who of characters, a pronunciation guide, an author’s note, and a discussion guide for reading groups.
_____
www.laurelcorona.com
www.laurelcorona.com
THE FOUR SEASONS, PENELOPE’S DAUGHTER, and FINDING EMILIE are now available in bookstores and online. Support your local independent bookstore and library!
My first historical love, before I discovered the Plantagenets, was Revolutionary France. This sounds like a fascinating book. I’ll get it for my Nook. Thank you for the interview, Sharon and Laurel.
Fascinating. Hopefully in my trip to the US this May for my cousin’s Bat-Mitzvah I’ll be able to get my hands on this book.
Great! I am a history buff and a science geek. This book is on the wish list now. Thank you again Sharon for another recommendation!
Sharon, on the strength of your previous interview with Laurel Corona , I bought read and thoroughly enjoyed Penelope’s daughter ( I also bought the Four Seasons but have not read it yet). I have always loved the Odyssey, and the idea of a daughter born to the absent Odysseus intrigued me. It is also a rites of Passage is this girl grows up largely away from here mother. I shall definitely be reading it again. Laura also has a very interesting take on Telemarchus.
this sounds wonderful!
Thank you for the interview, Sharon and Laurel. I need to start playing lotto as my book list is growing and growing and growing… ‘-) Another woman-scientist book is The Bride of Science by Benjamin Woolley about Byron’s daughter.
I love the way we exchange book recommendations with one another, Britta. Of course this means that we are all moving toward book bankruptcy together.
And today, Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury died, eventually leading to the conflict between Henry II and Thomas Becket.
Also, Pesach (Passover) begins today at sundown, so happy Pesach to all who celebrate.
Happy Passover, Koby!
Another Facebook note for my non-Facebook readers.
I am so glad you all like the Lionheart cover as much as I do. I want to wish a Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends and readers. How many saw Game of Thrones last night on HBO? Opinions? Oh, and today in 1480, Lucrezia Borgia was born; she, by the way, had a truly dreadful wedding night on Showtime’s The Borgias. But I think the secret of watching historical sagas may be that we not know too much of the period or the people? I’m not well informed enough about the Borgias to become indignant. Maybe superficial knowledge serves as a sheild? Or am I just looking for an excuse to keep watching Jeremy Irons? I do find myself feeling enviouis of George Martin, whose Ice and Fire series is very loosely based on the Wars of the Roses; how wonderful to be able to take his story where he wants it to go rather than the way it went in real life. I did NOT want Richard III to die at Bosworth Field, which is one reason why I enjoyed Joan Szechtman’s This Time, for she figured out how to save Richard from his Appointment in Sammara!
Thanks for this interview Sharon! I really enjoyed Laura Corona’s Penelope’s Daughter so this will definitely be going on my TBR pile!
Sorry!!! I mean Laurel!! A co-worker of mine named Laura walked in just as I was typing my comments. Many apologies to Laurel and Sharon.
Great interview, Sharon and Laurel, and the story line sounds very interesting. It’s great to be able to add more books to the non-ending list of amazing reads 🙂
The only problem, Bella, is that all our TBR lists are becoming long enough to stretch to the moon and back. I love that bumper sticker, “So many books, so little time.”
This has nothing to do with the Middle Ages, but here’s a YouTube video sure to make you all smile, capturing a dog playing with his pal in the harbor of Tory Island, off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland. What is interesting is that the dog’s pal is a dolphin. The dolphin is a female; her mate’s body washed ashore, and she seems to find comfort in intereacting with her canine friend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2vU8U0j_4E
Hi Sharon, I hope you don’t mind my posting a little notice here about some exciting news.
The British Museum are doing an upcoming exhibition entitled “Treasures of Heaven” featuring specifically Medieval religious artefacts from across Europe. The exhibition brings together items from the BM’s own collection, as well as fantastic loaned items from museums across Europe and the USA, European chruch treasuries, and items from the Vatican. Also as part of the exhibition, there are going to be talks, lectures and conferences led by the professors of Medieval History from universities all over the world, on topics such as the following:
The Holy Thorn Reliquary of Jean, Duc de Berry
A Medieval Citole
Sacred Location: The Meaning of Relics Across Cultures
Manifestations of the Medieval Cult of Relics and the Cult of Saints
Pilgrimage; Real and Virtual
Reliquaries and Shrines: Their Construction, Use and Re-use
Patronage and Relic Collecting
St Thomas Becket of Canterbury, the Charisma of Saints, and the Visual Arts in Gothic England
The exhibition runs from the 23rd June to 9th October.
Thanks, Beth, for posting this. I wish I was on your side of the Atlantic to take advantage of it.
I’m particularly excited about the Becket lecture, myself, and am planning on going and seeing the exhibition myself.
I consider myself truly lucky to be so close to the BM, even to the point where I regularly had/have lectures there for uni as part of my undergrad degree/ongoing post-graduate degree. I’ve also got contacts on the inside and I’m a member, so whipping up a behind-the-scenes tour of such-and-such an artefact that I need to do an essay on but is currently in storage or undergoing conservation is a snap. The best bit though is the book store. As a member and a student I get a double discount, and admittedly that bookstore is a significant contributor to my own precariously growing Leaning Tower of Pisa, Sharon.
Today, Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, known as ‘Strongbow’ died. He was father to Isabelle de Clare, Countess of Pembroke, who married William Marshal.
Kathryn Warner, who has one of the best blogs around, has come up with a funny royal wedding game, which Ken posted on my Facebook page. so I am reposting it here. I will be going to the wedding as Lady Eliza Smokey of Rochambeau.
Kathryn Warner posed the following question on her fb page: “What is your Royal Wedding guest name? Start with either Lord or Lady. Your first name is one of your grandparents’ names. Your surname is the name of your first pet, double barrelled with the name of the street you grew up on. Good luck! 🙂 (From Elizabeth Ashworth).”
Mine would be: Lord John of Tabby-Cyfarthfa!
Both my grandmothers had the same name which is far too modern to be Medieval sounding enough to suit me – Doris – so I’ve taken inspiration from my esteemed great-grandmother.
Lady Hephzibah Elizabeth Willow of Rochester. 🙂
That is a good one, Beth!
i wonder what happened to the true Cross?….after the battle(horns of Hattin), “Did Saladdin Destroy-this Icon or?…are there many…spoils of victory, still kept in secret, koby, sharon??.
“Finding Emilie”, for the title alone, it should be worth reading!!! When I was little, the only book with “Emilie” in the title was about a bathtub…not very glamorous. Seriously though, I am intrigued by this novel and the life of Emilie du Châtelet therefore I will add it to my ever expanding wish list. Thank you for the interview.
Thanks Beth for the heads up about the exhibition at the British Museum. I will be in London for a week this summer and was already planning to visit the British Museum and now I have another reason to go.
Haha, I love the Royal Wedding guest name game. I will be attending the wedding as Lady Juliette Vitamine of Rollin.
And today, Henry VII [VIII] of England died, and his son, Henry VIII [IX] acceded to the throne.
James. we do not know what happened to the True Cross. I believe its last mention was by the chroniclers who accompanied Richard on Crusade. After a truce (for 3 years, 8 months) was signed in September, 1192, the “Franks” arranged three pilgrimages to Jerusalem, one of which was led by Andre de Chauvigny, Richard’s cousin and close friend, and another by Hubert Walter, Bishop of Salisbury, who would later become Archbishop of Canterbury. The bishop was accorded a private meeting with Saladin, who told him that Richard was very courageous but too reckless with his own safety. Saladin also allowed the bishop to see the True Cross. After that, nothing. As an aside, Richard did not go to Jerusalem, denying himself that privilege because he felt he’d not fulfilled his vow to take the Holy City back from the Saracens.
Me again. I posted my comment above on my Facebook page, and then elaborated upon it, as I am wont to do, says the woman who writes 600 page books. Anyway, here is what I added about the True Cross.
Speaking of reckless, I always thought it was very reckless of the Franks to have taken something they valued so highly out into battle with them. Yes, I know they thought it would protect them, but that did not work out so well, did it? Hattin was one of the great battles of the Middle Ages, and at the risk of sounding blood-thirsty, I am looking forward to fighting it in my novel about Balian d’ Ibelin and Henri of Champagne. As I’ve mentioned before, I mean the real Balian, not Orlando Bloom’s fictional blacksmith in Kingdom of Heaven. And Henri was Richard’s nephew, eldest son of his sister Marie, Countess of Champagne; one of Richard’s songs written during his German captivity was addressed to Marie. Until Lionheart, I’d not intended for Balian to share star billing with Henri, but the latter turned out to be such a likable character (at least to me) that I wanted to give him more time on center stage.
When I saw Kingdom of Heaven I muttered all through it!
thank-you Sharon!”I wonder If Our muslim Brothers! and sisters Still Have (spoils of Ancient-Battles-Today)…Hidden. I know we Have St shophia,. in Isanbul as a Museam-Now. Also, Do we Have any Muslim , (Icons we Need to Give -Back) ??.
April 23, 1564 is traditionally the birth date of the Bard, William Shakespeare, the greatest writer in the English language. He died on this same day in 1616. Rest in peace, Will; we forgive you for “that” play! And today is also the birth date in 1014 of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland.
Indeed, Sharon. Also, one must not forget that Adeliza of Louvain, Henry I’s second queen died today.
Thanks, Koby! That slipped right by me.
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