BIOGRAPHY

Alice, Margaret. “The Philosophers of the Scientific Revolution.” In Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century, pp. 135-47. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.

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.

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.

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.” In Women in Mathematics, pp. 49-69. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1974.

Focuses on du Châtelet's intellectual achievements in the context of her culture and social status; mainly biographical.

CRITICISM

Barber, W. H. “Mme du Châtelet and Leibnizianism: The Genesis of the Institutions de Physique.” In The Age of the Enlightenment: Studies Presented to Theodore Besterman, edited by W. H. Barber, pp. 200-22. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1967.

Traces the growth of du Châtelet's interest in Leibniz's thought.

Besterman, Theodore. “Emilie du Châtelet: Portrait of an Unknown Woman.” In Voltaire Essays, and Another, pp. 61-73. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.

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.

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.” In Women Founders of the Social Sciences, pp. 23-83. Ottawa, Canada: Carleton University Press, 1994.

Includes du Châtelet among those women advocating the importance of reason and experimental science, surveying both her scientific and moral essays.

Schiebinger, Londa. “Noble Networks: Emilie du Châtelet and Physics.” In The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science, pp. 59-65. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.

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.