The Other Einstein was a difficult read. I'd never done any research on Einstein, only read his book "On Relativity." Reading about him from his wife's point of view, especially such a negative one was hard. Usually, we think of Einstein as a pillar of genius, thus he MUST be a wonderful person. That's not the take in this book. He's made all-too-human (as he ought to be), and it was a little unexpected.

Mitza, Mrs. Einstein, is a fascinating character. She develops richly throughout the novel, and I enjoyed getting to know her. While this version of her is fictionalized, I think she's the kind of lady I'd like to know and be friends with-brilliant, kind, and willing to share knowledge.

Give this book a try. You'll enjoy it.

Marie Benedict has written a fascinating story about the Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić. So much of history has not been recorded and so Benedict has taken liberties with the few simple facts she does have at her disposal and embellished them to create a wonderful love story, that slowly shows the true personalities of these two genius characters.

Using her imagination she develops the relationship that could have brought Mileva and Albert together and also been the reason it could not succeed. There is factual evidence of the type of society they were living in. So the idea that a woman of such intelligence could not be successful on her own, or that she could not have it all, a family, a marriage and a career is frustrating to a reader in present day. I definitely sided with Mileva and wanted her to have everything she dreamed about.
I was angry with Einstein for taking credit for her work and for not learning how to make their marriage work. So though Albert Einstein is a legend in our time, this story leaves some doubt in my mind that he could have been as successful as he was without his wife's assistance. I have lost some of the awe I had of him. This novel paints Einstein as a smart, successful but not always pleasant human being.

Mileva begins the novel coming to Zurich to study. She has forgone personal pleasures, including friends and parties to get ahead with her studies. When she meet Einstein, she tries to avoid falling for his charms. She knows that success comes at a price. When she begins getting involved emotionally, she fears that she will lose herself in the relationship. Einstein reassures her, "No, Miss Maric. Surely bohemians such as ourselves - separate and apart from others with our vision and all our cultural and personal differences - can have both." When she tries to put some distance between them, Einstein tells her he will wait for her as long as it takes. "Never before have I been so certain of someone or something as I am of you . I will wait, Miss Maric. Until you are ready."

though this starts as a wonderful love story and I was routing for the success of their love story, it ends quickly when I think Einstein is threatened by Mileva's intellect. She possibly could have been more successful than Einstein if times were different and women could show their ability. If she had been a stronger person, maybe with a different husband she could have been the name we remember today, along with Marie Curie.

Though women today have found more of a voice in business, and they can show their inteligence and make a name for themselves...there is still a debate over whether a woman can have it all, career, marriage and family and be happy.

I received an ARC copy of this book thanks to the publisher and Net Galley. I absolutely adore historical fiction and was very anxious to read this book. Having said that I must confess that I had a hard time with this book, I found it very dry. I would pick it up and put it down and then try again. I did finally finish but it took me forever. I think a lot of my problem was it was written in the first person, I always struggle with those for some reason. I would recommend it because overall it was an interesting narrative however I would not be able to say that this was something I couldn't put down.

This was such an emotional yet wonderful read for me. I rated it 3.5/5 stars. This novel is one of those novels that reads like there's a different story and a different life lesson on every page. I was so entranced by the story and the writing. So, so lovely and heart-warming, and is one of those books that I'm going to remember for a long time.

So romantic at first, so sad at the end. It's this The Other Einstein another wonderful, wonderful book by Sourcebooks written by Marie Benedict.
This story is so precious, so romantic, told with the times it deserves.
It's a delicate book, dense, true, intense, human and with the great rhythm, success, miseries, failures of life, very well portrayed and represented.
It is so realistic that you can feel very vividly places, protagonists, their joys, sadness, victories, failures, human miseries and mediocrities.

I start to tell you I didn't know anything of Albert Einstein's private life.

To me he was the discoverer of the theory of general relativity but I didn't know if he had wives, children, nephews, nieces. Nothing.

Of course when I read a lot of time ago, yes I am so sorry with my readers, the author and Sourcebooks for this big delay, that there was the chance of reading a book about the wife of Einstein I thought intrigued: why not?

Sometimes I think that it is better not discovering anything about these great minds, because more I understand life, more I understand that each of us live with great or small miseries and that, unfortunately no one is unaffected by it. Maybe, no, without maybe, a great mind is affected by human miseries more than a common mortal.

The story starts focusing on little Mileva and her family. Mileva is a kid with great mental potentialities and born with a disability: she limps while she walks.
After all it's not a great lack, there are many cases like the ones of Mileva/Mitza Maric, Serb origin, but we are at the end of 1800's there were still many prejudices and life could be hard for someone born with some so-called lacks or deformities as called this disability by the parents of Mitza.

His dad believed and encouraged the mental, scientific potentialities of his daughter, although the wife skeptical, would want to protect her from life in general and men first of all. Mitza revealed not just her external beauty but also a wonderful mind.

So she went to studying at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, where she knows: "Mr. Einstein" as she calls him, a sort of Prince Charming a man who would have chooses her as her princess although she wasn't perfect. Like in a fairy-tales she loved so badly: The Little Singing Frog.
With the other girls at the dormitory the idea of staying always distant from men for developing their big ideas in scientific terms the best thing that they could do but, love is love and Maric falls in love for Einstein.
She doesn't know what to do and so she spends some time at the University of Heidelberg for trying to understand her feeling returning in the fertile Polytechnic and re-meeting Albert soon and discovering that she would want to spend the rest of her life with him.
Albert is passionate, tender, cute, sweet, original with that curly hair so characteristic. Maybe not beautiful, but a true mind.

In the while during a vacation at Lake of Como, they still didn't have a work and Albert Einstein met the strong opposition from his family regarding this potential marriage because Mitza wasn't Jewish, but christian, the girl remains pregnant and Einstein disappears exactly as he was so present in her life.

The baby born but Einstein won't never meet this baby absorbed as he was by his life, his scientists friends, his theories, and his meetings and reunions.
It is a behavior more common than what we think, and it involves also important men: neglecting their children, seen maybe just extremities of their own ego, but too much taken by themselves for understanding what it means to create another human being with their partner and caring for them.
Yes, there is to add that the baby was hidden because she was born outside the marriage, and so never publicly revealed for an obvious scandal and for not ruining the career of the brilliant Einstein.
The author specifies that the destiny of this first daughter, in the novel dead for a horrible death maybe hasn't been so sad.
Maybe, true, she was adopted because not born in a regular marriage and so rejected but grew up by I guess a very wealth and rich family in this second case and very loved!
Who knows what happened to her: maybe there are other genial people in this world considering who her biological parents were.

Another strange behavior always kept by Einstein and that could give more than a suspect: he hasn't never spent any time at the house of the parents of the girl he said he loved so badly. No money, no time. Of course, but if you love someone you want also to seeing maybe the rest of the family of the object of your love. It's normal. But who knows why Einstein was interested in Maric.

A terrible suspect: maybe he understood her potentialities. Maybe he needed her brain for completing his work about relativity? Who knows...

Anyway Maric will re-join Albert Einstein for trying to see if he could have married her and in this moment the first daughter they had dies or disappears, we don't know exactly what happened.

In the while, this one is a novel but maybe there is the possibility, Maric influenced a lot Albert Einstein's work, helping him to elaborate the theory of relativity, and I don't doubt it for a second , because she was in love for him tremendously.
In the book the idea that Maric was one of the principal minds who helped Einstein to elaborate the theory of relativity but cheated by the husband several times devastating.
Just Albert Einstein has taken all the honors for this discovery while Maric that in the time became his wife had had other two children was relegated at the role of a housewife while she was a beautiful mind.
The comparison with the couple Pierre and Marie Curie very sad, because these two have always been a real couple, and they shared all their thoughts and considerations and without any fear or jealousy for their respective minds.
Pierre Curie, with great pride, maturity and wisdom helped his wife to coming out and to become a name in the scientific panorama.
A very well good job this one from Pierre Curie and an act of true love and consideration for her partner but also for another scientist that his wife was.
Two unforgettable names, connected, also as we all know with the discovery of radiations, and the possibility of curing cancer with it.

The life of Maric is a poor life, when she discovers that everytime she tells her intuitions to her husband "Aren't we Einstein, One Stone?" he tell for reassuring her, she does see just manipulation. His husband doesn't recognize her work with him as a real couple or also two loyal collaborators should have done.

The appropriation, considering that they were married and they could have been very happy together and partners in life and work, of intellectual property is a horrible gesture and unforgivable because it's like to try to steal the essence of another human being. Someone we won't never be in grade to be, because, simply we are just...other.

Of course this one is just a novel and we can't know if this story was real but I know that if this story was real and if Einstein took advantage from his wife for his work without giving her anything in return the story of general relativity should be re-written adding other people's credits.
Sometimes it happens: sometimes there is an intuition and the strongest part of the story wins over the weakest one.
Just it's...Horrible. Horrible, when it happens.
In discoveries it happens very often.

What Maric obtained once she divorced from Albert Einstein, he started an affair with his Jewish cousin Elsa in the while was to obtaining the money of the Nobel Prize for the education of their two children.

I highly suggest to you to read this beautiful book. You will appreciate at first the freshness of the tale, the hope of youth, and then the adult age, plenty of delusions and a beautiful mind who, unfortunately didn't meet the best man for coming out as she would have deserved.

I can tell you my delusion for the character of Albert Einstein (I had always thought he was a funny man) portrayed as a man self-absorbed, egoistic, plenty of ego and violent with his wife.
I guess that discovering a big theory able to change the destiny of the modern physics means a lot but what he did, avoiding to see his first baby, the destiny still unknown, not wanting to discover who the parents of Maric were, including the siblings of the girl, treated as people without consideration, and important only when he wanted to says good-bye without too many compliments to the wife, thinking: "I will leave her and the children with her parents" when he started his relationship with Elsa, many years later gives a poor portrait of this man presenting us an elegant, wonderful, surprising idea of his hidden wife, who, for love, created Albert Einstein the Genius.


I thank so much NetGalley and Sourcebooks for this stunning, very well-written, wonderful, sad, beautiful, masterpiece.

Right, so keep in mind this is a work of fiction technically. Based loosely on real events that Marie Benedict found through the lives of the Einstein's. The characters were amazing and the relationships so dynamic. I'm actually so disappointed in Einstein as a person if any of that is actually rooted in truth. The writing definitely had me enraptured when I got into it.

I LOVED Mitza. So much. I felt everything she felt throughout the story with her. Einstein is one of the greatest scientific heroes recorded in our recent history, but through this story we find his many flaws and see the discrepancies between men and women of science during that time. It's so interesting how, because Mitza didn't finish her degree, she lost out on a lot of fame and recognition.

One of my favorite lines in the story is "we may be Ein Stein, but it has become clear that we are of two hearts." Mitza says this to her husband after it becomes clear he has let his recent fame go to his head. The amount of heartbreak Mitza went through in her life is nearly unbearable. I hate the way he treated her like she was second class or some type of possession after he was the one who essentially ruined her life. He could have been so different. Mitza's life could have been so different.. It makes me wonder if she would have been more famous and discovered more theories than her husband had they never pursued their connection. Why did things change for him? Is this a warning that we should let our mind guide our big decisions rather than our hearts?

An interesting perspective on history that is rarely talked about.

Oh my goodness after reading this book, I honestly see Einstein in a totally different light. Even knowing that this is a work of fiction, it was a moving book. I hope that the first Mrs. Einstein's life wasn't like it was portrayed in the novel but knowing that the author did her research, there is a strong possibility that her life was close to the book.

First Line: The end is near.
Summary: We all know who Albert Einstein is. But do you know the other Einstein? Mileva Maric is a young Serbian woman with a lame leg and a mind for math and science. She always expected to live a life alone in the pursuit of a degree and job in physics. While attending the university in Zurich she meets a young man, Albert Einstein, and her plans for her life change.
Highlights: I had never heard of Mileva Maric until I read a YA novel by Margaret Petersen Haddix. She sounds like a fascinating woman that has been forgotten by history. Married to one of the greatest minds in history and working alongside him there is great controversy about if she was a contributor to the theories and breakthroughs of her husband. I like that the author has fleshed out and brought this woman to life. I understood her plight with herself about giving up her dream to marry. As a reader I could feel her pain and struggle as I read.
Lowlights: Unfortunately when reading historical fiction and learning about a person there is elaborations or stretches. But there are also truths. It is always hard to see a well-known figure made human and see the faults that lie within them. Benedict presents Albert’s faults and it tarnishes him a little.
FYI: Very informative about the early life of Albert Einstein.

Marie Benedict's The Other Einstein was a fascinating read, and one that is significantly adding to my TBR pile--with nonfiction, for a change! (Lots of great suggestions in the author's note at the end--thanks, Ms. Benedict!)

The author freely admits that her book is a fictionalization of Mileva Maric Einstein's life and that she makes use of much speculation (especially with regards to exactly how much of a contribution the first Mrs. Einstein made to her husband's famous Theory of Relativity--I'd love to think that her version is the truth, but it's probably a bit of a stretch and I doubt it could ever be proved), and as such I kind of hoped that Albert wasn't as much of a, well, b@stard as he seems to be in the book. Though I can still hope that at least one pretty jarring scene is completely fictional, Princeton University has been kind enough to publish volumes of Einstein's writings and correspondence and their English translations online, and I've now read the memorandum myself that made me gasp out loud when I read that part of the book (18 July 1014, Memorandum to Mileva Einstein-Maric, with comments in Volume 8--but don't read it until after you've read the book!) and then the next few letters after that one, and...just whoa. I'm not sure I'll ever hear the name "Albert Einstein" again and be able to think purely happy thoughts about him. How can a man be so scientifically brilliant and so spectacularly not brilliant in his personal life?

(Interesting side note from the letters, not the book, since Mileva wouldn't have known this: Albert wouldn't let his second wife/cousin(!) Elsa be there when he spent time with his sons from his first marriage, because "it is not right to have the children see their father with a woman other than their own mother" yet he had no such scruples about divorcee Elsa's children from her first marriage spending time with their mother and a man who wasn't their own father...double-standard much? Oh, and just to really make it next to impossible to look up to him as a father figure and husband--he apparently briefly considered proposing to Elsa's 20-year-old daughter Ilsa instead... Yeah. He's a prince among men. But a brilliant scientist.)

Anyway.

Though the story was a bit slow in parts, overall I quite enjoyed it. I look forward to both reading more about Mileva (and her children!) and more from Ms. Benedict in the future.

Rating: 4 stars / B+

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Let me start by stating that I realize that this is a work of fiction. That being said, if it were happening today, more than 100 years later, I have to wonder if Mileva would have tolerated the behavior he exhibited? I was truly disturbed by the emotional abuse she endured, and his ability to convince himself that SHE was the selfish one. And worse, to take full credit for work to which she at the very least contributed? How could such a bright woman live in that situation so long?

Slight ranting aside, I enjoyed the glimpse into history, even if it was speculative. I spoiled the ending for myself by giving in to the urge to look Mileva Maric up as I was reading... I think it actually helped me to know they divorced. The book, while difficult to get into, was ultimately fascinating.

"I confess to beginning this book with only the most commonplace understanding of Albert Einstein and hardly and knowledge of his first wife, Mileva Marić. In fact, I had never even heard of [her] until I helped my son...with a report on...Albert Einstein and it mentioned briefly that...his first wife was also a physicist. I became intrigued." (Marie Benedict, Author)

Marie Benedict's research about Mileva, her education and scientific promise, and her marriage to Albert Einstein led her to create a fictionalized account of her life. In telling her story, she has revealed the cultural schism alive and well in the 1900's world between women defined as breeders and caregivers and men as providers and authority. The author stipulates "whenever possible, in the overarching arc of the story - the dates, the places, the people - I attempted to stay as close to the facts as possible, taking necessary liberties for fictional purposes."

Mileva Marić was born December 19, 1875 in what is now Serbia. Much to her parents chagrin, Mileva was born with two handicaps that would make her future difficult - a strong independent spirit and a deformed hip causing her to noticeably limp. From her mother's perspective, her superior intelligence and headstrong ways coupled with an unappealing physical deformity precluded marriage and children- the only options for women at the time. Her father saw that her precocious mind and unlikely marriageability could lead her to pursue a meaningful life in the scientific world; if they would let her in the all-boys club world.

Mileva's sheltered life with her parents did not prepare her for socializing with others in a more sophisticated setting. She was quickly manipulated by a narcissist classmate, Albert Einstein, who took advantage of her brilliance and naivete. Albert, flagrantly violated social norms of student behavior, skipping class and defying authority. Discriminated and isolated by her male classmates and professors, Mileva was vulnerable to Albert's attentions and charms. Trapping her in his web, Albert drew on her strengths to finish his education- leaving Mileva, a shell of lost potential, pregnant and without a degree.

Mileva and Albert were passionately in love in their early marriage and reveled as partners in scientific discovery. Mileva openly shared her thoughts and revelations on topics such as relativity; only to see Alfred positing them for himself and singularly receiving awards and accolades. After graduation, Albert's slipshod work ethic and laissez-faire attitude in college led to poor recommendations and employment rejections. Mileva, during this time, struggled to hold her marriage together.

Over time, Albert's charm offensive disintegrated as his ambitions were stymied, his flagrant infidelity was discovered by Mileva, his cruel mental abuses and repeated betrayal of Mileva's intellectual contributions finally reached a tipping point in a violent physical attack that led Mileva to find the strength to regain control of her own future despite the stigma of divorce and raising children outside of a "normal male dominated household".

I was given this ARC by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
I was really looking forward to reading this fictionalized story about Einstein’s first wife and probably the driving force of the genius we now celebrate. Unfortunately, this story did not work at all for me.
The main character felt emotionally unavailable, even though the story is mostly narrated by her. I can understand that the circumstances that surrounded her upbringing may have had an influence on her ability to interact in social situations, but the more I read the more I felt like she did not want to participate in life and only report on the passing events. The secondary character and her love interest, the famous Albert Einstein, was completely impossible to relate to and gave off the impression of someone unkempt and very sloppy.
The plot was interesting enough; depicting the life and events of Einstein’s first wife. There was nothing special or spellbinding.
The writing left the reader wanting for more. As a love story there wasn’t much romance that came across and no heart warming butterflies could be felt as the romance between those two lovers and geniuses unfolded. The entire story felt like a very thought out and detailed depiction of events without much emotion, which made it difficult to get through it.
Overall, I felt let down by this story and I had hoped for a bit more closeness to the main character. It is very difficult for a reader to find interest in a main character that is being kept at arms’ length.

Sadly, this is one of my blogger shame books - a review copy that I received last year, but that fell through the cracks and didn't make it onto the blog. I'm glad that I have finally worked it into the schedule, because I enjoyed it a great deal. Marie Benedict brought the history of the Einsteins to life in a meld of fact and fiction that captivated me from beginning to end.

Admittedly, I feel like I know very little about Albert Einstein. Other than crazy hair and the theory of relativity, very little about him stuck with me from what little we were taught in school. That could be due to the fact that I was not particularly interested in math or science (that's why I became a lawyer), so my curriculum in school just didn't touch on his life and accomplishments. That being said, from what little I was taught, I know that neither of his wives were mentioned.

This is the story of Einstein's first wife, Mileva "Mitza" Maric, who was, by all accounts, a brilliant physicist and mathematician in her own right. Mitza and Albert met at the Polytechnic, where Mitza was the only female student in the physics/mathematics studies. This was during the time when it was very rare and very difficult for a female to attend any form of advanced education, and she was looked down upon by society and her male peers for even attempting the feat.

What follows is an account of Mitza's life, love, marriage and heartbreak (both factual and fictional) that will draw you in and have you fighting mad on her behalf. I was totally sucked into her character and had a great emotional connection... and I hated Albert by the time the story was over. I admired her tenacity and ambition while she was in school, and felt indignant on her behalf throughout half of the book. I wanted her to stand up and take her life back - but that was something very difficult for a woman to do 100 years ago. Mitza's story highlights how far womens' fight for equality has come over the last century, and just how difficult our situation was historically.

While Mitza's contribution to Albert's work is still a matter of speculation, other aspects of their story have been verified including the illegitimate child, infidelity, and Albert's poor treatment of Mila during the latter part of their marriage. It really made me see Albert Einstein in a different light. He may have been a genius, but that doesn't mean he was without flaws - very serious ones. I wish we knew more about Mitza's contribution to his work so that if she is, in fact, due some credit for his achievements, she could receive posthumous honors.

I recommend this book to all women, no matter where you may fall on the feminist spectrum. It definitely made me more appreciative of the rights and opportunities that we have today, and provided a better understanding of the limitations women had (particularly in academia) in the past. I would love to see this author write something about Madam Curie, who had a cameo in this book.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received from the publisher, Sourcebooks.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC of The Other Einstein.

I'll be honest, of course I know who Einstein is. Of course I know that he was a quirky German scientist who introduced E=MC2. But other than that I know very little. I had never even once considered his wife(s) or the fact that he married his intellectual equal.

I don't want to give any of the story away, except to say that it was yet another example of a brilliant and talented woman being erased by history. I love that their stories are finally being told, even if they are sad, these women were still innovators and trail blazers. They deserve to be recognized.

This book is written like historical fiction, but too much of it is unknown or made up ...

I found Milena Einstein interesting but this book didn't call to me every night to be read like many books I read. I really wanted to love this book but something just didn't work for me, I haven't quite figured out what didn't work.

Albert wasn’t only Einstein that was quite bright. His first wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić, was a brilliant physicist and a strong mathematician and her contributions to the special theory of relativity have been hotly debated for more than a century.

This book takes what is known about her as it’s jumping off point. That she was considered unmarriageable because of her limp, that her father encouraged her to study, that in 1896, the extraordinarily gifted Mileva was the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zürich. That she met and fell in love with charismatic fellow student Albert Einstein there, that he promised her a bohemian lifestyle with them as equals in love and science. How Albert’s star quickly eclipsed her own regardless of this promise.

It is a fictionalised account, but a well-imagined one particularly when it comes to describing the time and places they lived. I have to be honest, I wasn’t quite so keen on the characterisations, somehow I didn’t feel they were authentic, particularly Mileva’s. Her desperation for love is understandable and I know it makes lunatics out of us all. I went through an emotionally abusive marriage so I even understand how if the most confident of women in an age when sexual equality is at least in site can be flummoxed then it was even more likely before women even had the vote. But she becomes so nuts over Albert so quickly – and it really is all the book is about for far too long. I found myself missing the character I’d first been introduced to.

As their marriage and working partnership decays the Albert Einstein we meet is very different from the man I’d always imagined him to be too. And because this is a fictional account I had problems with this, partly because I didn’t know what was true and what was not. But after I did some of my own research into it I felt even more uncomfortable. The premise and Albert’s character within this book is entirely possible, but there isn’t an awful lot in the way of evidence, by the end it felt like a character assassination. As a feminist I felt doubly uncomfortable- I want to support Mileva but these aren’t her words and may not be her truth. If they’d even been a thorough afterword clarifying what was evidenced, what was extrapolated and what was imagined I would have closed the book with the sense of having learned something, as it was I felt I’d been hoodwinked into jury service.

3 Bites

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing, for the powerful novel "The Other Einstein", by Marie Benedict. This book really threw me for a loop! Dare I say that I am much less of an Albert Einstein fan any longer?! I recommend this novel, as it is the story of Albert Einstein's wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić, whom was a brilliant scientist herself. A powerful woman in her youth, overcoming endless obstacles to study in a most prestigious university. Mitza's and Albert's love was a powerful force, which built Mitza up, then gradually destroyed her. I feel rage for her lack of acknowledgement, as it appears that Albert Einstein would not have become the popular scientist that he's ultimately become, without her.