Emilie du Châtelet

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  • Alice, Margaret, "The Philosophers of the Scientific Revolution," Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century, Boston: Beacon Press, 1986, pp. 135-47. (Considers du Châtelet as the most significant of women scientists during the scientific revolution; primarily a biography with some discussion of du Châtelet's major works.)
  • Barber, W. H., "Mme du Châtelet and Leibnizianism: The Genesis of the Institutions de Physique," The Age of the Enlightenment: Studies Presented to Theodore Besterman, edited by W. H. Barber, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1967, pp. 200-22. (Traces the growth of du Châtelet's interest in Leibniz's thought.)
  • Besterman, Theodore, "Emilie du Châtelet: Portrait of an Unknown Woman," Voltaire Essays, and Another, London: Oxford University Press, 1962, pp. 61-73. (Attempts to correct and redirect scholarship on the life and work of du Châtelet, emphasizing her originality and her skills as a scientist independent of Voltaire's influence.)
  • Edwards, Samuel, The Divine Mistress, New York: Van Rees Press, 1970, 275 p. (Portrays du Châtelet as vain, superficial, hysterically jealous, and demanding, giving minimal attention to her writings.)
  • Hamel, Frank, An Eighteenth-Century Marquise: A Study of Emilie du Châtelet and Her Times, London: Stanley Paul & Co., 1910, 384 p. (Narrates the story of du Châtelet's life and work with concern for allowing her personality and merits to stand apart from her connection with Voltaire.)
  • Kelley, Loretta, "Why Were So Few Mathematicians Female?" The Mathematics Teacher 89, no. 7 (October, 1996): 592-96. (Suggests du Châtelet as an object of study for teachers seeking to include women in the history of mathematics.)
  • McDonald, Lynn, "Women and the Emergence of Empiricism," Women Founders of the Social Sciences, Ottawa, Canada: Carleton University Press, 1994, pp. 23-83. (Includes du Châtelet among those women advocating the importance of reason and experimental science, surveying both her scientific and moral essays.)
  • Mitford, Nancy, Voltaire in Love, London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1957, 288 p. (Accounts for Voltaire's life during his relationship with du Châtelet, focusing on their personal and social relationships rather than intellectual projects.)
  • Osen, Lynn M., "Emilie de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet," Women in Mathematics, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1974, pp. 49-69. (Focuses on du Châtelet's intellectual achievements in the context of her culture and social status; mainly biographical.)
  • Schiebinger, Londa, "Noble Networks: Emilie du Châtelet and Physics," The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 59-65. (Traces the development of du Châtelet's learning and writing through the scientific and social connections she was able to make and discusses the limitations gender placed on her career as a scientist.)

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