The immense celebrity of Marie Curie resulted in the popularization of a very simplified version of her life. She became a secular saint. In this biography, author Susann Quinn reconstructs a rich an complex history of the woman we thought we knew. Starting with the family archives, Susann Quinn casts new light on the tragic events and the patriotic passion that Marie Sklodowska Curie experienced in Poland. Comprehensive, never before published excerpts from the diaries of Marie Curie allow the reader to witness the joyous intimacy of her marriage with Pierre Curie, and to understand the depth of her despair at his untimely death. Marie Curie's successes are widely known, her failures less so. Nor do we often hear of her struggle to be accepted and recognized by the exclusively male scientific community of the day: despite her Nobel Prize, Marie Curie was not elected to the Academie des Sciences because of her gender. She was also profoundly humiliated by the public scandal (gleefully nourished by the French press) provoked by her liaison with her colleague Paul Langevin. A definitive, thought provoking look at the life and work of a French heroine, as well as the discoveries that preceded her and followed in her wake.

Susan Quinn is an American journalist who is also the author of a biography of Karen Horney.