MADAME CURIE

Here is a book that might -- through its very impersonality and objectivity -- prove pedantic. Far from it -- the very simplicity of the method gives dignity and beauty and drama to this biography of the most extraordinary woman of our generation. I found every page absorbingly interesting. The early part of the biography carries the reader into the home of her childhood; then one follows the difficult, poverty-striken years of adolescence and young womanhood, before her sister's marriage made it possible for her to carve her own career. And then the career is the story -- the woman is science personified -- her marriage, a too-brief glowing thing, brightens the early' years, but fame can do nothing to offset the supreme loss. Her younger daughter has shown Marie Curie as wife, mother -- but first and last, scientist. Literary Guild choice for November. Sure to be a big seller.