Evariste Galois and the Four Musketeers

.... in early 1831 Evariste Galois was well known enough in Republican circles to be at a top dinner with another famous French democrat... Alexandre Dumas... writer of the Three Musketeers...

Dumas may well have written about tough men... but he couldn't walk the talk himself... so, when Evariste proposed a toast to the King whilst brandishing a menacing dagger, Dumas wimped out of a nearby window...

Of course, government spies were present, Evariste was arrested, and quickly put on trial for threatening to kill the king...

... in court Evariste's passionate nature and truthfulness was undermining his case so much the judge ordered him silent for his own good... but he needn't have worried... the jury was made up of Parisians... republicans... and despite his obvious guilt they set him free...

... justice of a sort... something Evariste's life was so very short of...

Above are our own Four Musketeers... Ash, me, Sam (playing Evariste), and David... intrepid adventurers in Paris to track down the forgotten man...

... twas a great little trip that would have been better if I hadn't forgotten which way Charles de Gaul airport was and charged us off in the wrong direction on the way back... just far enough in the wrong direction so we missed our plane home by 10 minutes and had to doss down overnight in a frankly rubbish airport...

c'est la vie

Evariste Galois - The Basics I

There is a thoroughly decent entry for Evariste Galois on wikipedia... with all the basics you could ever need... and there are a handful of cracking books on the man (details to follow)...

... so there's no need for me to work on a straight A to Z, birth to death account... instead I'll give you my own peculiar & personal take on the simple stuff of Evariste's life....

Evariste Galois was born on 25th October in 1811, and named after the nearest Saint to share his birthday... a former Pope no less, one of the first handful after St Peter himself, barely one hundred years after Christ was born.

... but Evariste wasn't destined for a religious life... even his staunchly catholic mother who taught him at home until he was 12 couldn't steer Evariste into the arms of the church...

... instead his short life was more influenced by his father, Nicholas... or was it his father's politics...?

For Nicholas was a democrat, a proud republican, a supporter of Napoleon who managed to hang on as Mayor of Evariste's home town even when the republcians were routed, Napoleon was dead and a king was restored to the throne of France.

Impressive... and a testament to the finer qualities of Evariste's father... but the monarchists and their supporters eventually got him in 1829 ... they simply distributed a series of verse, forged so as to be sent by Nicholas and given to the very people the verses ridiculed and scandalised, his neighbours and friends...

... sensitive Nicholas committed suicide (improbably, by gas) in a room in Paris not far from Evariste's school...

Strange, and I know it's a slight diversion from 'Evaritse Galois - The Basics', but perhaps his father's persecution and demise really do form part of Evariste's basic 'basics'.... ?

... because some have claimed that barely two years later, bereft without his father, ignored by his mathematical peers, frustrated with the failure of revoltuion to re-ignite, and spurned in love, Evariste committed suicide himself...

... if you count fighting a duel to lose as suicide....

Getting closer...

We're almost into Evariste's double-centenary year... time for me to work a little harder...

... so, talking of time... the last thing Evariste is supposed to have written before the duel that killed him was... "Je n'ai pas le temps".... I have no time... dramatic, poignant... typically Galois ...

... and Italian director Ansano Giannarelli used these very words for the title of his 1972 feature film about Evariste... "Non Ho Tempo"... the film made it to Cannes in 1973, and onto Italian TV in 3 parts... but sadly I haven't been able to track down a copy...

To my knowledge, there are only two other films about the man, both named after him... one I know nothing about, a 30 minute affair directed by Daniele Baudrier (in 1984, for TV?)...

...the other, a short film from French director Alexandre Astruc, was made way back in 1965... I've seen clips, and I've got a translated transcript, but I would love to get a look at the whole thing... in fact I'd love to see all three... as part of our efforts to celebrate Evariste Galois...!

...and finally... an admission... there is one more film about Evariste Galois... made this year and covering his last night... called simply "Evariste Galois"... and I have definitely seen this one... because I helped produce it...