Finding Emilie, Uncategorized

La Divine Emilie

I’m now in Strasbourg, France. My brain is on overload, and my stomach is on overeat at this point, and it’s nice to have a day of both mental and gastronomical fasting!

The day before yesterday I visited the chateau where I set the epilogue of my novel-in-progress. I walked around saying to myself, “this is Delphine’s house,” and “this is Lili’s room,” even though the two main characters in THE LAWS OF MOTION are fictional creations. To me, the fact that a very real and very frightened Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette stopped at Etoges on their failed attempt to flee Versailles has less resonance than Lili and Delphine’s footsteps in the worn depressions of the marble stairs and the echoes of their voices in the salon.

The Chateau d'Etoges, setting for the epilogue of THE LAWS OF MOTION.
The Chateau d'Etoges, setting for the epilogue of THE LAWS OF MOTION.

From there, I went on to Cirey-sur-Blaise, in many respects the ground zero of this trip. This is the ancestral home of the Marquis du Chatelet, Emilie du Chatelet’s husband, and it is here that Emilie lived with Voltaire for fifteen years, first as lovers then as friends (with her husband’s full support–a complicated arrangement, but workable in those times). I saw their library and study, their dining room, and the theatre they constructed in an attic space, where they and their guests performed Voltaire’s plays and Emilie sang the lead role in operas. Apparent her memory and her voice were two more astonishing things about her, in addition to her brilliance as a mathematician and physicist. So great was the couple’s renown that some of the most important people in France braved the four-day journey from Paris to this incredibly remote location in Champagne just to be in their company.

I had arranged a private tour of the chateau, since high tourist season doesn’t start until July 1. I was aware that the owner-occupant of Cirey did not speak English, so I’d been dusting off my French to make the tour work. Although she spoke in rapid fire, I understood almost everything she said, and when I asked questions or made comments (in complete sentences no less!) I was pleased she understood me every time. Of course later that evening, I was so tired I couldn’t have found my own head if I’d had to ask for it in French, but no matter! Because it isn’t clear at this

With the owner of Chateau de Cirey, Emilie du Chatelet's home
With the owner of Chateau de Cirey, Emilie du Chatelet's home

point which interior shots I am permitted to post, I’ll show only a shot of myself outside with Madame. She’s holding a copy of LES QUATRE SAISONS, the French translation of THE FOUR SEASONS.

As I expected, people who visit Cirey are primarily interested in it as the home of Voltaire. If they have heard of Emilie at all, she is usually a footnote in the great writer’s life–his companion, his supporter, his muse. For me, of course, it’s the opposite. My novel, The Laws of Motion, is not directly about her, but about the daughter she died after giving birth to at age forty-three, right at the point her work had catapulted her into the top echelon of scientists in Europe. Her translation of and commentary on Newton’s Principia is still the standard edition in France today. There’s more about her on the pages for The Laws of Motion on this site.

On the way to Strasbourg I made a brief stop at the palace at Luneville, where Emilie du Chatelet died. She is buried under the floor of the parish church there, and it was deeply moving to come to pay my respects. And now, it’s on to Ferney, where Voltaire lived after her death. Located right outside Geneva, it was in a good spot for him, since he lived more or less continually under threat of arrest for his caustic commentaries on French society. From Ferney, he could make a quick dash across the border, as I too will have to do in about a week’s time to catch the plane for home.

Marker of the spot under the floor of the Eglise de Saint Jacques in Luneville, where Emilie du Chatelet is buried
Marker of the spot under the floor of the Eglise de Saint Jacques in Luneville, where Emilie du Chatelet is buried
Finding Emilie, Uncategorized

Getting It Right, With Lots of Surprises

The authors I met at the recent conference of the Historical Novel Society were in agreement that there’s an obligation to both the subject and the reader to get the facts right in situations where the facts are there to be discovered, whether through research or direct experience.  We write fiction, and of course the imagination rules supreme, but the stories need to be grounded firmly in

Dwarfed, lower left, by the scale of the grounds at Vaux-le-Vicomte
Dwarfed, lower left, by the scale of the grounds at Vaux-le-Vicomte

their particular environment.  I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel to the places where all my books have been set–Venice, Greece, and now France, in addition to Lithuania for my narrative non-fiction book Until Our Last Breath.

Some of the most emotionally dramatic scenes in my new novel-in-progress, The Laws of Motion, are set at Vaux-le-Vicomte, a chateau about an hour by car from Paris.  Since Fontainebleau and Versailles are more famous, I expected to see only a few tourists, but it turned out the day I had chosen for the visit was the annual celebration of the courtly era at the chateau, and thousands of French people had shown up costumed for the event. It was a lot of fun to turn around and see Voltaire, or a woman in a dress I could imagine my characters wearing as they strolled the same grounds.

And, as usual, I discovered I had a lot of the details wrong.  One scene simply could not have happened the way I described, despite having pored over photos of the location before writing it.  Another whose accuracy I doubted

Celebration of the Grand Siecle at Vaux-le-Vicomte.  Notice costumed lady sacked out at lower left.
Celebration of the Grand Siecle at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Notice costumed lady sacked out at lower left.

turned out to be plausible just the way I had it.  But best of all was the moment when I saw the game room inside the chateau and discovered, to my astonishment and delight,  a table and two chairs set up for  the popular game of trictrac–just like a scene in the book where my protagonist, Lili, gets the better of a young man she dislikes. Sometimes it’s all so real it stops you dead in your tracks!

Today,  Versailles.  Always deeply conflicting to witness that kind of grandeur.  I’ll be glad to move on from it.

Uncategorized, Until Our Last Breath

In Search of the Partisans of Vilna

I kept a journal on my 2004 research trip to Vilnius, Lithuania, while I was writing Until Our Last Breath. Recently, San Diego Jewish World began an eight-part serialization of that journal, revised and edited for publication. “In Search of the Partisans of Vilna”  will run weekly on Wednesdays through mid-July.   In it, I write about specific experiences that made the  Holocaust more real to me, the emotional impact of my journey, and the insights I gained that enriched the book.

My author page at San Diego Jewish World will have links to all eight parts of the journal. It’s at the halfway point now, with entry 4 published this week.

Abba Kovner and the Partisans of Vilna
Abba Kovner and the Partisans of Vilna
Uncategorized

Where the Past Isn’t Past

Jane Rotrosen Agency clients at HNS Conference
Jane Rotrosen Agency clients at HNS Conference

I’ve been attending the Historical Novel Society Conference in the Chicago area, and have been overwhelmed by the excitement of being around so many people who love, understand, honor, and practice the art of writing.  A number of clients of the Jane Rotrosen Agency were here, including Susan Holloway Scott and Karen Harper, as well as Sheramy Bundrick, a new client of my former agent, Barbara Braun.  Also here were Margaret George, whose novel on Helen of Troy was inspirational to me in writing Penelope’s Daughter, and Lauren Willig, whom I was able to thank for writing my favorite blurb for The Four Seasons.  I also connected up with Catherine Delors, whose fantastic book, Mistress of the Revolution, has been my latest Kindle read.

I spoke as part of two panels, both on various aspects of working with real life characters, and was pleased to see that my views about balancing fact and fiction were widely shared. It’s important not to take on the burden of the scholar, because we are story tellers first and foremeost. However,  readers trust us to be well-informed and not to mislead them about important facts of history and the personalities of different eras.  I was pleased that my sentiments that we should not defame the dead because they can’t defend themselves was well enough received to find its way into the evening keynote speaker’s remarks.

I never for a minute forget how fortunate I am to have found my way to the speakers’ side of the table.  Many, many people write well and work equally hard and have not had my good fortune.  Echoing Margaret George’s reminder in her keynote address,  not to get so lost in the past that we forget to live in the present, I found a lot of joy at this conference at the opportunity historical fiction provides to live squarely in both.

With Sheramy Bundrick at HNS
With Sheramy Bundrick at HNS
Enjoying a laugh at one of the panels at HNS 2009
Enjoying a laugh at one of the panels at HNS 2009

With Catherine delors, showing off her book on my Kindle

 

With Catherine Delors, showing off her book on my Kindle