Okay, so this took me a month to finish, but that's not because I didn't enjoy the book: it's because my copy is the heaviest hardback I've ever had the misfortune of encountering. Hence I couldn't bring it when I'm out and about, and since I do a lot reading while commuting ... yeah, it took a while.

But when I read it, I did enjoy it - a lot. Marie Curie is fascinating woman, with a fascinating life. Even though I knew basic facts about her before reading this book, I learned a lot of things I had no idea of. Such as her daughter winning a Nobel prize, or her husband dying in an accident (I thought he died of radiation poisoning too).

Since it was set about a hundred years ago, it was also interesting because I don't know much about the every day life during that time period. I definitely didn't know anything about Poland's history, so I learned a lot not just about her, even thought that would have been quite enough. She was very interesting.

I don't really have much to complain about. It told a clear story, from start to finish, and would explain enough of the history and context of events that may not make sense today, such as the scandal. Although, looking at how the world treated Kristen Stewart after her scandal, we haven't progressed as much as one would like. ( )

As a piece of writing, I'd rate this biography as merely adequate. Quinn's style is unfortunately rather pedestrian and, occasionally, even sentimental. Marie Curie herself, however, remains a fascinating subject, and there is much to learn about her here, both as a scientist and a historical figure and celebrity at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. For better or worse, Mme. Curie's co-discovery of radium and her lifelong search for other radioactive elements profoundly affected (and continues to affect)human health and history. ( )

Marie Curie should have been a spy. She certainly did a good job of being an international woman of mystery.

This is the fullest of five biographies of Curie I have read -- possibly a little too full. There is arguably a little too much about her social context; at times, this starts to bury the story. And yet, this book deserves credit for not holding anything back. For example, it says straight-out that Curie had an affair with the younger scientist Paul Langevin after Marie's husband Pierre was killed. Indeed, it says it so straight-out that it doesn't really prove it -- it makes a better case for friendship than for actual relationship.

Still, the honesty of this portrayal has much to commend it. There is only one thing that is really lacking: An acknowledgment that both Marie and Pierre Curie were autistic -- and that it was probably their autism that brought them together and made their relationship such a success. But which also brought such grief to Marie after his death; she had no emotional resources to deal with such a loss, and (like most autistics) she was strongly depressive. Perhaps even more strongly so than this book brings out.

That's a nitpick -- after all, autism was still pretty obscure when this book was published. (Maybe someday someone will add a new preface explaining that.) You can find out about Curie's autism on the web.

A bigger nitpick is that author Quinn is clearly not a scientist, and at some places gets a few things wrong. They don't matter much in the big picture, but they can be a little grating for those who do have scientific training. But even those don't really interfere with the broad story.

A final nitpick: The printing job on my copy was lousy; it appears to have been copied from a bad dot-matrix printer. This might be something to watch for; surely by now someone has typeset this thing properly!

Bottom line: This is not an ideal biography. It will probably be many years before we see a proper Curie biography. But it is the best now available. If you want to know how "Manya" Sklowdowska became "Madame Curie," this is a very good place to start. ( )

NA