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Honor and Dishonor

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Honor and Dishonor ;;-::"- Ito im- this rate L; T-TATr'D^ :red Honor andDishonor lin :ory alls. Ped ent. -of- ; lit- in 1910,Marie droppedin at asa n a warm April night having an informal dinner with eto the Borels,who were severeblack dress she had lbe the Perrins.Instead ofthe now wore a fashionablewhite teur worn sincePierre's death she pinnedto her waist'She seemed low gownwith a singlepink rose replacedby a subtlerelaxation' the t.ansformed;the hard scowl "What Perrinasked Marguerite Borel was happenedto her?"Jean ted, the next morning. rie's Althoughsheprofessedtohaveno..sociallife,'andher inti- daughterEve later wrote that almost no one knew her mat;ly, Marie did havea small coterieof loyal friends consist- ing mostly of thosewho understoodher work: Therewere the dedicatedAndrd Debierneand JeanPerrin, an exPertin cath- ode rays,the disintegrationof radium, and the composition of heat and light. |ean'swife, Henriette,like Marie's sister Bronya,was a calmingpresence and addressedMarie with the intimatetu.Thenthere were the Borels:Emile, who had been named dean of the EcoleNormale Sup6rieure'and Mar- 165 Bansene Gorosurru guerite,the daughter paul of Appell, dean of the Schoolof Sciencesat the Sorbonne. Hertha Ayrton, who was a well_ known scientistand pioneer in England,swomen, .igtrt, movement,also was a closefriend. Although Herthafvj in London,distance did not impedetheir friendship.Both were outsiders:Marie, polish; Hertha,Jewish. The author C.org. Eliot (Mary Ann Evans, who choseto write under a male pseudonym)had helped subsidizeHertha's education and had basedthe character of Mirah, the talentedIewish outcast in Daniel Deronda,on her. All of thesefriends were to be involvedin what wassoon to be calledthe..Great Scandal.,, What had happened paul was Langevin.pierre,s former studenthad long been a dearfriend orlne curies and he was Pierret chosensuccessor at the EPCI.Five years younger than Marie, he was a tall man with military bearing,p.rrl,r*rrrg eyes,a severebrush haircut, anda fashionablehandlebar mus_ tache.Langevin was both a physicistand a brilliant mathe- matician.In 1906,Langevin had reachedthe conclusionthat E = mC (energy.qul, masstimes the speedof light squared), only to find that a fellow scientistnamed Einstein hailalready publishedthis discovery. Marie Curie wrote to Henriette perrin that she ..greatly appreciated ILangevin's]wonderful intelligence.,,He [.rp.i her prepareher course lecturesat the sorbonneand refined her presentation.She found him a sympatheticfriend who wassoon asking her for adviceon what he termedhis,disas_ trous mistakeof a marriage"to feanneDesfosses, the daugh_ ter of a working-class ceramicist,who he fert held him bi'ck from greatdiscoveries through her violent nature and con_ stant demandsfor money.Langevin "as wrote that he wasdrawn to Marie to a light . and I beganto seekfrom her a little Obsessive Genius 167 of the tenderness which I missedat home."Jeanne Desfosses Langevinwelcomed Marie into their household,where Marie met the Langevins'four children.In the springof 1910,]eanne complainedto paul's Marie about cruelty toward her and Marie chastisedhim. In return,he showedMarie a harf-heared gash whereJeanne had broken a bottle over his head. Most of what we know of the Curie_Langevinrelationship comesfrom friends, accounts,and most significantlyfrom letters Marie wrote paul to which a detectivein his wife,s employpurloined from the deskat the smallapartment near the Sorbonne thar Langevinhad rented.Bylulyof 1910,these letterssuggest that paul Marie and had becomelovers. Here wasa friend,soul mate,and potentialpartner in sciencewho might replacepierre. It would be a secondchance for Marie to repeatthe best daysshe had known. with this ferventwish shewrote him, It wouldbe sogood to gainthe freedomto seeeach other as much as our various occupationspermit, to work together, to walk or to traveltogether, when conditions lendthemselves. Thereare very deep affinities between us which only need a favorablelife situationto develop.. The instinct whichled us to eachother wasvery powerful. What couldn,tcome out of this feeling?. .-t b"li.rr. that wecould deriveeverything from it: goodwork in com_ mon, a good solid friendship,courage for life and even beautifulchildren of lovein the mostbeautiful meaning of the word. Although shehad toleratedher husband'spast infidelities, /eanneLangevin, upon first suspectinghis relationshipwith Bansena Goroslrrrn the famousMadame Curie, flew into aragethreatening to kill Marie. Perrin momentarily calmedJeanne, but sheand her sisterwaited in a dark streetnear Marie's apartment. As Marie walked by, feanne accostedher and ordered her to leave Franceimmediately or die. Afraid to return to her house, "This Marie fled to the Perrins.fean Perrin noted, illustrious woman had been reducedto wanderinglike a beastbeing tracked."Paul Langevin advised Marie that his wife was entirelycapable of murder and advisqdher to leaveFrance. Sherefused. Finally, it wasdecided tha[ temporarilythe two would no longer seeeach other. But wlen Langevinand Curie left Parisfor the InternationalCongrfs of Radiologyand Elec- tricity, JeanneLangevin told her sis/erthat the trip wasonly a subterfugeto hide their affair.sh/renewed her threatsagainst Marie and threatenedto expogdthem.When Marie arrived at the conference,Rutherford was the first to noticeher condi- "Madame tion. He wrote, Curie lookedvery worn and tired and much older than her age.She works much too hard for her health.Altogether she is a very pathetic figure."Stefan Meyer,who had developedhis own radium standard,was more cynicaland told Rutherfordthat the very visible attacks of nervesand exhaustionthat causedher to leavecommittee meetingsonly occurredwhen the discussiondispleased her. After the conferenceMarie and paul returnedto paris,and then shejoined her childrenin I'Arcou€st,on the northern coastof Brittany,a preferredsummer gathering place for sci_ entistsand professors(so much so it wasnicknamed..Fort Science").The Borelsand perrinswere in residence.Mar_ gueriteBorel had become Marie's close friend and confidante. One night Marie grabbedMarguerite's hands and pouredout her fear that though shewould walk through fire for paul ObsessiveGenius o kill Langevinhe might yield to Jeanne'spressure, desert science I her for a more lucrativeprofession, or sink into despair.,,youand {arie I are tough. He is weak."In spite of this, just as shehad eave with CasimirZorawski, she deluded herself that they would ,use) find a way to be together. 'ious Marie avowedher love for paul and dramatizedthe fact eing that shewas risking her reputation for his sakeand might .,Think was evencommit suicideif thingsdid not work out: of rIlC€. that, my Paul,when you feel too invadedby fear of wronging two your children;they will neverrisk asmuch asmy poor little lurie girls, who could becomeorphans between one day and the :lec- next if we don't arrive at a stablesolution.', In what can only tly u be interpretedas a fit of jealousy,Marie cautionedLangevin tinst that if he resumedsexual relations with his wife and if she dat had anotherchild they would both be..judgedseverely by all ndi- those,alas already numerous, who know If that shouldhap_ ired pen it would meana definiteseparation between us. I can I for risk my life and my position for you, but I could not accept :fan this dishonor.. If your wife understandsthis, she would use was this method right away." rcks This was followed by severalletters to paul, instructing ttee him, in a mixture of pragmaticcruelty and passionthat r. demonstratedher insensitivity,on how he might rid himself "Don't and of his wife. let yourselfbe touchedby a crisisof crying ern and tears.Think of the sayingabout the crocodilewho cries sci- becausehe hasnot eatenhis prey,the tearsof your wife areof ;ort this kind." Shepleads with Langevin,',WhenI know that you lar- arewith her,my nightsare atrocious. I can't sleep,I manage nte. with greatdifficulty to sleeptwo or three hours; I wake up out with a sensationof feverand I can'twork. Do what you can 'aul and be donewith it. We can'tgo on living in our current L70 Bensene Gor,osntrrr state."Marie, who had to be cajoledinto marrying the placid "My Pierre,was now aflame.A letter ended, Paul,I embrace you with all my tenderness.. I will try to return to work even though it is difficult, when the nervous systemis so stronglystirred up." Langevin,however, seems to havebeen ambivalent. Once before he had separatedfrom his tegP€sfirous wife only to beg her to return. Langevindilno(leave his wife nor did he stop seeingMarie. The usuallyquiet Andr€ Debiernehad a loud argumentwith PaulLangevin, blaming him for Marie's increasingbad healthand emotionaloutbursts. She seemed distractedat work and paid little attention to her daughters. The situationwas made worse by a seriesof disappointments that struckMarie one after another:At the urging of friends and perhapsto makeLangevin proud, sheannounced her can- didacyfor a Chair in Physicsat the Academyof Sciences,the most powerfulscientific body in France.Members read their papers,met for symposia,and gavelarge grants for scientific study.The other applicantsfor this chair wereweak, save for EdouardBranly, an inventorwho wasinstrumental in helping Marconi developthe wirelesstelegraph. For this elitemale organization, Marie Curie'saction came as a bombshellthat resultedin negativecomment not only from men but from women who found her a threat to their "science femininity. is uselessto women,"wrote the influen- tial writer JuliaDaudet, and MadameMarthe
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