Macdonald, Bode, Murat, Ehrman

Since my last post, I've read an issue of The New Yorker.

I read Ehrman's biography of Mme du Chatelet, which I found very interesting. A woman who translated and commented Newton -- helps that she was rich. Murat wrote a biography of a salonniere, Mme du Deffand, who went blind in her 40s. I have never heard of her, and it seems she suffered from depression her whole life. I also read a mediocre, trite biography of H.L. Mencken, by Carl Bode. Finally, I just finished a book on Monk Lewis by E. Macdonald. Everyone I read about, it seems, died young.