Summary

Pierre Curie is killed while walking across the street. A horse-drawn cab fails to see him in the rain, and he is run over, the wheels of the cab crushing his skull. Stunned, Marie faces Pierre's death with silent stoicism as she buries him in his mother's tomb at Sceaux. Sorbonne offers her Pierre's position at the university, the first time such a professorship had been awarded to a woman in France. The day Marie takes over Pierre's classes, she begins his lecture at the exact sentence where he had left off.

Analysis

Eve describes the death of her father, Pierre Curie, in gruesome detail. This emphasizes the horror and shock that the family felt at such a sudden death of their beloved patriarch. Marie's reaction to the death of her constant companion is to retreat further into her own self...