Story of Blanche and Marie

By Per Olov Enquist

Book Overview

In 1878 Blanche Wittman was committed to Salp tri re Hospital as an hysteric and placed in the care of the famous M. Charcot who regularly displayed her in a cataleptic state before a public audience. Over time the nature of her participation in these demonstrations changed; she graduated from patient to assistant and on leaving the hospital was hired by Marie Curie to work in her Paris laboratory.

On 17 February 1898 radium was discovered and Blanche's exposure to it necessitated the amputation of all her limbs save one. As for Marie her husband and collaborator Pierre was weakened by illness and subsequently killed having wandered in front of an oncoming horse and cart.

Following this she embarked on an ill-fated love affair which in 1911 almost cost her the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Using Blanche's notebooks - 'The Book of Questions' - Enquist deftly weaves fact and fiction in a powerful tale of scientific discovery death art love and the extraordinary relationship of two remarkable women at the dawn of a century of tremendous change.

The Story of Blanche and Marie was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0099483734
• ISBN13: 9780099483731
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.6" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

sad and beautiful, like love

This book helped me understand love and human nature. The repetitive style of the prose mirrored the nature of repetetive, obsessive thoughts such as those centered on love or scientific pursuits. Ultimately it left me feeling unsatisfied and still yearning to understand, which I think is the whole point. A beautiful novel.