Book About Blanche and Marie: A Novel

( 1 )

Overview

Hailed internationally for his unique ability to shape historical facts into tales of extraordinary depth and probing insight, Per Olov Enquist has long been regarded as one of the world's foremost authors of literary fiction. In The Book about Blanche and Marie, Enquist has once again found inspiration from the historical record, this time exploring the complex relationship between two of the twentieth century's most remarkable women: Blanche Wittman, the famous hysteria patient of Professor J.M. Charcot at ...
See more details below
Available through our Marketplace sellers.
Other sellers (Hardcover)
  • All (17) from $1.99   
  • New (5) from $1.99   
  • Used (12) from $1.99   
Close
Sort by
Page 1 of 1
Showing All
Note: Marketplace items are not eligible for any BN.com coupons and promotions
$1.99
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(1646)

Condition:

New — never opened or used in original packaging.

Like New — packaging may have been opened. A "Like New" item is suitable to give as a gift.

Very Good — may have minor signs of wear on packaging but item works perfectly and has no damage.

Good — item is in good condition but packaging may have signs of shelf wear/aging or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Acceptable — item is in working order but may show signs of wear such as scratches or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Used — An item that has been opened and may show signs of wear. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Refurbished — A used item that has been renewed or updated and verified to be in proper working condition. Not necessarily completed by the original manufacturer.

New
3/23/2006 Hardcover 1st New 1585676683 HARDCOVER STORE DISPLAY ITEM, UNREAD NEW BUT HAS A VERY TINY BIT OF SHELF WEAR FROM STORE DISPLAY OR STORAGE, CLEAN & COMPLETE PAGES & ... COVER. Read more Show Less

Ships from: San Antonio, TX

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
Seller since 2008

Feedback rating:

(13339)

Condition: New
New, unread, unused and in perfect condition.

Ships from: East Patchogue, NY

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$3.25
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(1646)

Condition: New
2006-03-23 Hardcover 1st New 1585676683 HARDCOVER STORE DISPLAY ITEM, UNREAD NEW, NICE, CLEAN & COMPLETE PAGES & COVER.

Ships from: San Antonio, TX

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
  • Express, 48 States
  • Express (AK, HI)
$15.03
Seller since 2007

Feedback rating:

(22507)

Condition: New
BRAND NEW

Ships from: Avenel, NJ

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
$36.69
Seller since 2007

Feedback rating:

(7866)

Condition: New
Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.

Ships from: Richmond, TX

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • Canadian
  • International
  • Standard, 48 States
  • Standard (AK, HI)
Page 1 of 1
Showing All
Close
Sort by
Sending request ...

Overview

Hailed internationally for his unique ability to shape historical facts into tales of extraordinary depth and probing insight, Per Olov Enquist has long been regarded as one of the world's foremost authors of literary fiction. In The Book about Blanche and Marie, Enquist has once again found inspiration from the historical record, this time exploring the complex relationship between two of the twentieth century's most remarkable women: Blanche Wittman, the famous hysteria patient of Professor J.M. Charcot at Salpetriere Hospital outside Paris, and Marie Curie, the Polish physicist and Nobel Prize winner. While the scientist tries to understand the nature of radiation, Blanche, her assistant and, at the time of her death, a triple amputee as a result of exposure to radiation, fills three notebooks with her exploration of deceptively simple question: What is love? With rights sold in ten countries, The Book about Blanche and Marie is at once a haunting look at scientific martyrdom and an intimate and moving portrait of a friendship between two uniquely brave and talented women.
Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Ruth Franklin
The Book About Blanche and Marie offers a sort of feminist revisionism, restoring the forgotten figure of Blanche to her rightful place and insisting that Marie's passion is as valid as her work. But I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for Marie as her affair of the heart took on ridiculous proportions, with her contribution to science diminished to "that deadly blue light."
— The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Swedish novelist Enquist (The Royal Physician's Visit) finds various riveting facets in the working friendship between Marie Curie and her lab assistant, Blanche Wittman. Fixating on "the utterly perfect bodies of these two women," Enquist zeroes in on what befell Blanche's, and on what it has to say about being modern. After working with the uranium-rich ore called pitchblende, Blanche got radiation poisoning; she eventually had both legs and one left arm amputated. She moved around on a wagon and lived in Marie's Paris apartment, where she died in 1913. (Curie died in 1938 of radiation sickness.) Blanche kept several notebooks, collectively entitled The Book of Questions, in which she revealed her obsession with love, first stoked years before by the doctor who treated her for hysteria at age 18, J.M. Charcot-the renowned head of Salpetriere Hospital (Paris's asylum for mad women) whose public experiments were duly absorbed by the young Sigmund Freud. As Enquist fancifully, lugubriously and rapturously riffs on, extends, and wonders after the notebooks (which really exist), Blanche, Marie (suffering the scandal of her adulterous relationship with Paul Langevin) and the conflicted Charcot get alternating POV chapters, and the modern sensibility that sprang from her body-scientifically scrutinized and dissected, but ever resistant to being known or possessed-emerges beautifully. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The ordeals and sacrifices of two remarkable women are analyzed with penetrating intensity in the Swedish master's latest. Following the method employed throughout his oeuvre, and with particular success in his recent fictions The Royal Physician's Visit (2001) and Lewi's Journey (2005), Enquist connects his own history and sensibility to the stories of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Marie Curie and her ill-fated research assistant (and eventual soulmate), Blanche Wittman. Those stories are told in three "Books" composed by Blanche after her lethal exposure to radiation, both during Mme. Curie's experiments and in earlier years when she was a patient treated for "hysteria" by eminent neurologist J.M. Charcot, and also his assistant, then his adulterous lover. Moving backward and forward in time, Enquist presents Blanche's ruminations on her treatment at Saltpetriere Hospital (a filthy, overcrowded "black castle in the middle of Paris"), where she became a de facto emblem of the "madness" of love; Polish-born Marie Curie's self-destructive affair with a married scientist, which evoked outraged anti-Semitic protests and drove her from France; and the sad final years of both women, when Marie became a disgraced outsider in the land where she had earned unprecedented honors, and Blanche a (still sentient, forever impassioned) torso "living" in a wooden cart. In a masterly display of concision, Enquist packs an imposing enormity of historical and scientific information into a searching exploration of the phenomenon of love; a complex meditation on the riddles that challenge his characters' ingenuity-how do we manage to love, given the fragility and impermanence of the body, and how can humanemotion and experience be measured and quantified, much less comprehended?The result is a reading experience that carries the impact of an Ingmar Bergman film based on a novel by Thomas Mann. It's astonishing, and it's unforgettable.
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781585676682
  • Publisher: Overlook Press, The
  • Publication date: 3/23/2006
  • Pages: 240
  • Product dimensions: 5.70 (w) x 8.30 (h) x 0.92 (d)

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 5
( 1 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(1)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review
  • Posted February 24, 2011

    interesting and informative

    Very good! Never knew much about Marie Curie--really enjoyed it! Good information for a report also.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)