A clan in history
Muhammad Abdul Hai is happy reading about a family
The Curies
Denis Brian
John Wiley & Sons
OUR imaginations run wild at the slightest hint of a mystery that possibly shrouds an event or a story. We forgo the comforting nap of the afternoon and peaceful slumber of the night for the excitement of watching a mystery movie or reading a strange story. Had there been no mystery in this world, it would have been a very dull place to live in. That explains why mystery stories of the Bermuda Triangle, Loch Ness monster, etc., are ever popular with young readers.
The Curies, written by Denis Brian, is a biography of the Curie family that received a total of six Nobel Prizes in chemistry and physics. This momentous achievement alone has made the study of the life of the members of the family a fascinating experience. Every individual person of the family was a prodigy and what made them so is still an unresolved mystery. Only God seems to know the answer. The author has done a great favor to the mystery readers by producing such an invaluable document about the mysterious talents of the Curie family. The book contains lucid details of the less known side of their life, which include the controversy, the drama, the scandal and the tragedy that surround them. It is the first of its kind to provide a well-rounded, true look at both the private and professional lives of the world's most gifted scientific family.
The book is a passionate, enlightening and engaging insight into the entire Curie clan, and biographer Denis Brian has drawn the raw material from research, interviews, and correspondence with friends, families and associates of the Curies to paint such a vivid and lively picture of the Curie dynasty. Every single page is a step forward in the writer's honest desire, unlike many French news reporters, to hold bare before the readers, how these gifted individuals grew up amidst a hostile environment around them. Born in Poland, Marie Curie migrated to France where she was treated by many as a second-rate citizen since she was a foreigner. Nevertheless, the government of France rightly offered her the best possible environment and research facilities which Poland could not afford. Marie Curie was equally loyal to both the countries. She tried her best to help Poland with development in scientific research, and at the same time, she was helping the top seeded French scientists with their laboratory works.
Marie Curie was not well off in her early life. She had to work for years as a governess and tutor students outside classes to earn some extra coins to support her own education. However, the Nobel Prize money greatly eased the financial constraints in her middle age. The fame that was associated the prize, was marred by the shattering of the couple's privacy. The discovery of uranium, which was a joint effort of Curie and her husband's, was not reported as such by some newspapers in France. They, instead, reported that Marie Curie had nothing to do with the discovery of uranium because she was simply an assistant to Pierre, while the research was being done. But the fact was, they both undertook the research jointly which led to the discovery. On one occasion, Marie had to get hospitalized due to some medical problem. Being allergic to news reporters, she decided not to make it public. The next day, one newspaper published absolutely false news stating that Marie Curie was going to give birth to a baby, fathered by Paul Langevin. Some people in the news media, in connivance with a few scientists of lower calibre, even devised a plot to exclude Marie from being nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1903.
The book has so many interesting details that readers will be extremely tempted to finish it in one sitting. The elaborate description of the sad accident in which Pierre was killed under a horse driven carriage, will make readers deeply moved. Then you have the diary entries of Marie, which seem to be her intimate conversation with her dead husband. Even a quick reading of them will leave you sobbing. It will make you feel what it is like to have someone very dear missing from your life. However, when you turn to the next chapter, you will chuckle, to find how fickle minded human beings can be, when you read about the relation that develops between Marie and her dead husband's student, Paul Langevin. This relation received such hostile publicity in Europe that Marie once contemplated killing herself. So, dear readers, you can't afford to be indifferent to such an interesting biography.
Read with pleasure and learn about the most extraordinary family in science.
Muhammad Abdul Hai is Principal, ABC International School, Narayanganj.
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