Madame Curie by Eve Curie

Author:Eve Curie
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: GENERALITIES
Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd London

She obeyed him—she always obeyed—but she felt tired in body and mind. She grew discouraged and accused herself of intellectual impotence, of "stupidity." The truth was simpler: in this woman of thirty-six the sheer animal life, worn down for too long, was claiming its rights. Marie needed to cease being "Mme Curie" for some time, to forget radium—to eat, sleep and think of nothing.

This could not be. Every day brought new obligations. The year 1904 was to be exhausting—especially exhausting for Marie, who was pregnant. The only favour she asked was a brief holiday from the school at Sevres. And in the evening, tired and heavy, coming back from the laboratory on Pierre's arm, she sometimes bought, in memory of Warsaw, a tiny portion of pressed caviar, for which she felt an irresistible, morbid longing.

When the end of her second pregnancy arrived her prostration was extreme. Apart from her husband, whose health was her torment, it seemed that she no longer loved anything; neither science nor life, not even the child which was about to be born. Bronya, who had come from Poland for the delivery, was in consternation before this new Marie, this defeated woman.

"Why am I bringing this creature into the world?" she never ceased asking. "Existence is too hard, too barren. We ought not to inflict it on innocent ones . . ."

The lying-in was painful, interminable. Finally, on December 6th, 1904, a plump baby was born, crowned with shaggy black hair. Another daughter: Eve.

Bronya's apparent calm, her sensible mind, somewhat dissipated Marie's melancholy. When she went away again she left more serenity behind her.

The smiles and antics of the new-born child, who was cared for by a nurse, enlivened the young woman. Very small children softened her to tenderness. In a grey notebook she listed, as she had done for Irene, the story of Eve's first movements and her first teeth; and as the child developed the nervous condition of the mother grew better. Relaxed by the forced rest which accompanied childbirth, Marie insensibly regained her taste for life. She approached her laboratory apparatus with a pleasure she had forgotten; soon she was seen again at Sevres.

Vacillating for a moment, she had found her steady step again: she had returned to her hard road.

Everything interested her again: the house, the laboratory. She followed the events which shook her native country with passionate interest: in Russia, the Revolution of 1905 had broken out and the Poles, carried away by the mad hope of deliverance, supported the anti-Tsarist agitation.

Marie to Jtscph Sklodovski^ March z$rd y 1905:

I see that you have the hope that this painful trial will bring some benefit to our country. This is also Bronya's opinion and Casimir's. May that hope not be disappointed! I ardently wish for this, and think of it without ceasing. In any case I believe it is necessary to support the Revolution. I shall shortly be sending some money to Casimir for this purpose, since I cannot—alas!—be of any direct use. .

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