Une femme honorable : Marie Curie, une vie

by Françoise Giroud

Ce livre est ma lecture de la vie de Marie Curie, telle qu'elle m'est apparue depuis que j'ai été conduite sur ses pas et qu'elle ne m'a plus lâchée, cette ensorceleuse aux yeux gris. Femme d'orgueil, de passion et de labeur, qui fut actrice de son temps parce qu'elle eut l'ambition de ses moyens et les moyens de son ambition, actrice du nôtre enfin, puisque, entre Marie Curie-Sklodowska et la force atomique, la filiation est directe. D'ailleurs, elle en est morte.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Womens, France

376 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Françoise Giroud, born France Gourdji was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician.

Reviews

[R Arnaud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Malheureusement, les excès stylistiques et les opinions de l'auteur auront trop masqué le sujet. On arrive mal à décerner ce qui relève de la biographie et ce qui relève de l'imagination ou des opinions de la biographe. Cela est d'ailleurs d'une certaine ironie : Marie Curie fût un exemple d'humilité et d'éthique professionnelle, valeurs qui manquent grandement à cette approche biographique.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelf for a while, bought around the time I read three other Curie biographies and when I thought I couldn't read the story again just then. In the years since then, I realized that Lydia Davis translated this bio, which is kind of an added reason to read it, though I don't think one feels Davis' imprint too strongly here-- the first couple chapters seemed kind of jumpy and with unnatural transitions between sections, and at first I thought that was Davis, but in later chapters, the writing mostly settles down to pretty normally competent, so now I think this disjunctions were just setting pieces in place.

As biographies of Curie go, this one is pretty good. Giroud gives a decent bit of attention to the Langevin affair, and she does a really good job (no surprise, given that it was originally French) of presenting the particulars of the French culture of the time, and surprising to me, explaining how the French cultural approach to science impacted Curie's work-- this was really significant, if I can trust what is said here, and I don't remember this being even mentioned before this bio.

On what feels like a more speculative level, Giroud goes places with personality that I don't think the other bios did. She's willing to say up front how the two Curie daughters are different from one another in terms that aren't always so flattering. Likewise, she is critical of Marie and Pierre's limitations. Giroud is additionally willing to characterize Marie's genius in specific terms: she is amazing at recognizing things, at making observations and building conclusions from a mass of facts collected with great effort; Marie is the ant that builds the mountain a grain at a time. Pierre, Giroud suggests, is of a different sort, the kind of leaping and then bored genius we usually think of as being associated with the term. All of these features of Giroud's text are harder to back up, but are by and large more interesting than the facts of the case, even the facts of French science. I felt like that added a lot to the story, the broad outlines of which I was already very familiar with.

It's also good, I think, the Giroud chose moments and movements in Curie's life to emphasize, and didn't cover everything in the same depth.

[Mireia Ramirez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Describe a Marie con simpatía. Un libro entretenido e interesante.

[Connie Sulbaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tenía la errónea idea por ignorancia que las biografías son aburridísimas, y que a menos que te interese MUCHO la persona de la que trata, no sería interesante o valioso el libro en términos generales. Pero guau, esta obra me demostró lo muy equivocada que estaba. Y que conste, nunca me he interesado especialmente por la ciencia ni tampoco por Marie Curie, sabía de ella lo mínimo posible. Creo que esté es uno de esos libros que todo el mundo debería leer, es poético, se puede aprender mucho no solo de Marie Curie, sino del contexto tan precario histórico y social en el que tuvo que sobresalir a base de muchísimo esfuerzo, a base de literalmente, dejarse la vida en ello... Me ha dejado con el corazón roto

[Amélie Brouillard · Rating 3 out of 5]

though marie curie sometimes appears as this lonely woman, she had some really strong friendships going for her. and she was dedicated to her life's mission of furthering science. what a great life.

[Maxime Rivard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une biographie de Marie la mère, la fille, la sœur, la diplomate, l’amie, la femme et la maîtresse, mais en aucun cas de Marie la scientifique et double prix Nobel.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellente biographie de Marie Curie. Avec un parti pris féministe qui ne pouvait que me plaire !

L'historienne en moi aurait apprécié une datation un rien plus rigoureuse mais c'est amplement compensé par la plume de Françoise Giroud.

[Linda Dittes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very well written and researched biography of a phenomenal woman. Need I say more!