Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Mahon

found only mirages,” he wrote to her. They broke the conventionally accepted rules of adultery, showing their affection in public, romping indiscreetly all over the city.
    They made an odd couple. Not only was Émilie a head taller than her lover but she was twenty-six and Voltaire was thirty-nine. Voltaire had finally found a woman who was intellectually his equal, although his superior in rank, and who respected and adored him. Émilie finally had a man who respected her brain as well as her body. He was also one of the few men rich enough to afford her expensive tastes. Voltaire taught her how to speak English so that they could converse without anyone understanding what they were talking about. She read his work and gave him gentle criticisms.
    Not long after they met, they moved into the Château Cirey, a tumbledown mansion owned by Émilie’s husband in the country between Champagne and Lorraine. The move was precipitated by Voltaire getting into trouble again for his radical political views. For the next fifteen years, they lived there together, embroiled in a private world of intense intellectual activity intertwined with romance. Émilie described their life at Cirey as “Paradise on Earth.” Voltaire lent the marquis forty thousand francs to pay for renovations to make the château livable, including a tub for Émilie’s daily baths. Playing architect, Émilie installed a kitchen inside the château, a novel idea at the time. They quickly amassed a library of twenty-one thousand volumes, more than in most universities in Europe. The marquis was happy with the renovations because the restored house gave him a place to hunt. His visits also gave their affair an aura of respectability. The marquis was not a jealous man. Since Émilie had no objections to his affairs, he refused to meddle in hers.
    The château became something like a modern-day think tank. Émilie and Voltaire entertained some of the best minds from Paris, Basel, and Italy, including her former lover Pierre Maupertuis, Francesco Algarotti, and Clairaut, hailed as France’s new Isaac Newton, who at first came to scoff, but then hung around, impressed by what they saw. Visitors to the château were only entertained in the evenings since Émilie typically put in twelve to fourteen hours a day at her work. She had taken over the great hall as a physics lab, testing Newton’s theories with wooden balls hanging from the rafters. Eventually the hall became so cluttered that it was an impenetrable maze. Émilie had prodigious energy, often sleeping only three or four hours a night. When she was on a deadline, she plunged her hands into bowls of cold water to stay awake.
    Rooms were dimly lit and the curtains were shut, the better for mental stimulation. Guests were expected to entertain themselves. Dinner was at no set time, just when Émilie and Voltaire decided they were hungry. Émilie would arrive at the dining room table powdered and perfumed and dressed as if at a court ball, dripping in diamonds, her fingers stained with ink. Guests served themselves from the dumbwaiters. Conversation was fast and furious as the lovers discussed what they were working on or argued mathematical equations. After dinner it was back to work. Late at night, they would put on plays in the little theater or Émilie would play the pianoforte and sing entire operas. There would be poetry readings at 4:00 a.m. or picnics in the middle of winter.
    Émilie and Voltaire decided to collaborate on a major project: a treatise on the works of Newton, covering the entire spectrum of his philosophical, scientific, and mathematical studies. When word first leaked, all of Paris ridiculed the idea. But when it was finally published after two years of work, Émilie had the last laugh. It was hailed as a masterpiece by every scientist of note. Although Voltaire’s name was on the cover, he acknowledged her as coauthor. She was recognized as a woman of powerful intellect and finally