SOURCE: Ehrman, Esther. “The Writings of Mme. du Châtelet.” In Mme. du Châtelet, pp. 46-83. Leamington Spa, Eng.: Berg Publishers, 1986.

In this excerpt, Ehrman gives a synopsis and analysis of du Châtelet's translation of Mandeville's Fable of the Bees and other works, including her partial Grammaire, the Examen de la Genèse, and the Discours sur le bonheur.

Mandeville's the Fable of the Bees, a Rendering and a Feminist Manifesto1

The controversy which surrounded Mandeville's work must have been in full swing during Voltaire's stay in England. The debate centred on the third edition (1723) of a satire which had originally appeared as an anonymous pamphlet in 1705, entitled The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves Turn'd Honest. The writer, who had translated a number of fables by La Fontaine and Aesop and had indeed composed several of his own, here presented an entertaining moral tale, in verse, exposing...