>>More Guides
>>More on this book
>>Order this book

About the Author

Barbara Goldsmith is a noted author and historian. Her best-selling books include The Straw Man, Little Gloria . . .Happy at Last, Johnson v. Johnson, and Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull, soon to be a major motion picture produced by Kathleen Kennedy for Universal Studios. Goldsmith's books have been honored as, variously, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Review finalist, a Boston Globe Best Book of the Year, and received an American Publishers Association Book Award, among other literary awards. She is also the recipient of four doctorates and two Emmy Awards. She has written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. Among her honors are an appointment to the President's Commission for the Celebration of Women in American History, the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Literary Arts of the Guild Hall Academy of the Arts, the Poets and Writers "Writers for Writers" award, and the American Publishers Association Literary Award. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Goldsmith is dedicated to working for human rights and the freedom of expression. In 1986 she conceived the "PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards," which consistently turns the media spotlight on imprisoned writers invariably securing their release. Of the thirty-one writers imprisoned or missing at the time of her awards, twenty-eight were subsequently set free.

Goldsmith lives in New York City.
 

Obssesive Genius
Reading Group Guide
 

Discussion Questions 

1) Her own illness and those of her family defined Marie Curie's life. In what way can you point to her scientific drive as a way to cope with the repercussions of illness? How did Marie's own bipolar illness affect her career?

2) As the young Polish Manya, how did Marie's distant relationship with her mother shape her personality? Did Marie, as a mother, pattern herself after her own mother?

3) How did the inherent contradiction of Marie Curie's childhood—growing up Polish under a repressive Russian tsar—play itself out throughout Marie's adult life? How, in some ways, did this early schism help her control her emotions?

4) Marie Curie's achievements are astonishing and her success as a female scientist in a sexist scientific climate is a further tribute to her character and conviction. How has the mythology of Marie's life, and the misattribution of her merits (she is better remembered for the discovery of radium than for the inroads she made into radioactivity and atomic science), eroded the impact of her work? How did Marie's partnership with her husband enable her to make a great discovery? How did this partnership affect her standing as a scientist? Reviewing Marie's insatiable desire for knowledge, would she, in your opinion, have succeeded in her discoveries, with or without Pierre?

5) Marie planned to return to Poland upon finishing her degree at the Sorbonne, but she remained in France for the rest of her life. Do you think she would have left Warsaw for Paris, knowing this? What effect did her decision to remain in France have on her patriotism?

6) A week before his death, Wladyslaw Sklodowski wrote to his daughter, then Marie Curie, about her success at isolating radium. "What a pity it is that this work has only theoretical interest." How do you understand his remark?

7) In contrast to her unwavering sensibility as a scientist, Marie Curie's ability to judge amorous relationships proved somewhat impaired: twice she suffered the debilitating effects of unrealistic love affairs. Discuss this fundamental lack in her understanding of the mores of society.

8) Marie Curie's relationship with her daughters was complex. Her relationship with her younger daughter, Eve, took years to fully develop. Was Marie's treatment of Eve understandable? In what ways do you think Marie was insensitive to Eve's differences? Was she helpful or hurtful to her older daughter, Irène?

9) What do you think of Eve Curie's description of her mother, after the death of Pierre Curie, as "a pitiful and incurably lonely woman"? How would you describe Marie's communication with Pierre even after his death? How did her loyalty to his memory influence her later work?

10) As the winner of two Nobel Prizes, did Marie Curie effectively secure the future of women in science?

11) Marie Curie seemed oblivious to the dangers of working with radium. Barbara Goldsmith attributes her denial of the dangers of the substance to "love." How else might you explain Marie's denial?
12) When the author visited Hélène Langevin-Joliot, the granddaughter of Marie Curie, Hélène, asked her, "Haven't we [Curies] all had wonderful lives?" Discuss this statement with regard to what we know of Marie, her daughters, and her granddaughter.

13) Did Marie realize the full implications of radioactivity (a word she coined)? When Irène said she was glad her mother died before the advent of the atomic bomb, what did she mean by this statement?