The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science [Hardcover]

Denis Brian (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471273910 | ISBN-13: 978-0471273912 | Publication Date: August 1, 2005 | Edition: 1

Focusing on the lives and relationships behind their magnificent careers, The Curies is the first biography to trace the entire Curie dynasty, from Pierre and Marie’s fruitful union and achievements to the lives and accomplishments of their two daughters, Irène and Eve, and son-in-law Frederic Joliot-Curie. Biographer Denis Brian digs deep beneath the headlines and legends to reveal the Curies’ multigenerational saga in its entirety, featuring new, never-before-published personal information as well as newly revealed correspondence and diary excerpts. Brimming with endearing and often amusing anecdotes about this much-misunderstood clan, The Curies reveals a family as closely intertwined in their private lives as they were in their professional endeavors.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Brian, author of works on Einstein and Pulitzer, fills a significant gap in the Curie bookshelf with this engaging book that follows five generations of the Sklodowska-Curie-Joliot family. Beginning before Marie Sklodowska and Pierre Curie meet, Brian details their courtship and 11-year marriage, bringing the reader to the Curie dinner table and into the converted garden shed (replete with a leaking roof) where the Curies' work on polonium and radium transformed physics and won them two Nobel prizes. After Pierre's early death, Marie soldiered on for their children, Irene and Eve, and for their work, organizing X-ray equipment distribution during World War I and training numerous women to work at the Radium Institute. Irene, a nurse and wartime ambulance driver, began work in the laboratory with her mother after the war, later joining fellow assistant Frederic Joliot in a marital and career partnership similar to that of her parents'. Their joint Nobel came in 1935, a year after Marie's death. Eve, a journalist, wrote a best-selling biography of her mother and, during WWII, became a battlefield reporter. The fifth generation of this extraordinary family, Helene and Pierre Joliot-Curie, became eminent scientists, and the scientific tradition continues into the sixth generation. Brian's book illuminates 100 years of scientific history in its political and social contexts through the lives of this remarkable family. Extremely well-done and highly recommended.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Marie Curie is the only Nobel Prize winner who was ever discouraged by the awards committee from attending the ceremony. Both the revolutionary science and the public scandal that filled the life of Marie Curie receive illuminating scrutiny from Brian, a seasoned biographer of Nobel laureates. And in Marie Curie, Brian recognizes not an isolated genius but rather the stellar center of a fascinating constellation. By her side for years of dangerous research stood Pierre Curie, who shared with his wife a Nobel Prize for exploring the physics of radioactivity but who then perished beneath the wheels of a carriage, leaving his bereaved spouse to carry on without him. In his account of Marie's later life, Brian details the rare perseverance that put radium and polonium in the chemistry books. But he also highlights the personal heedlessness that exposed her to public censure for a romantic entanglement with a married colleague who ended up fighting a duel for her sake. ?And in the lives of Marie's two daughters, Brian again limns the distinctive Curie conjunction of genius and recklessness. One daughter recapitulated her mother's career by winning a Nobel Prize with her husband, but that husband renewed the family's dubious legacy of controversy through his aggressively Communist politics. The second daughter, Eve, won plaudits for her brilliant biography of her mother, Madame Curie (1937). This composite life study belongs on the same shelf as that acclaimed work. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471273910
• ISBN-13: 978-0471273912
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #543,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely great book!, July 12, 2009

By 

lew "lwndw123" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science (Hardcover)

There are enough books about Marie Curie, there is very little about her husband, none about her children. This book is about "Curie Clan" - two generations of great people and great scientists. The book finally addresses the controversy "what part of work was done by her and what by him", impact of parent's scientific achievements on Irene, and sad conversion of Joliot-Curie to Communism. Great reading, brings new lights to Marie Curie and her family, as well as social and scientific aspects of life during two generations

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book, April 29, 2009

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J. CALDERON (MEXICO CITY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science (Hardcover)

Very good book, very good bibliographical investigation in writting this biography. I recommend this book for students and teachers of physics and chemistry as an element of motivation to the study of history and philosophy of science.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Curies, January 21, 2010

By 

Adrienne E. Sanderson "Adrienne E. Sanderson" (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science (Hardcover)

The Curies tells the story of Madame Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre. This insightful volume goes back to when Marie and Pierre were very young and just starting out in laboratory experiments. A good read.