A Pointless Death

Abstract

Stéphanie’S refusal devastated Galois, whose fervent spirit longed to find what science had denied him in his love for her. He spent the last days of his prison sentence impatiently waiting to return to his political militancy, which was all that was left for him to make his life worth living. He had lost all hope regarding Stéphanie. She would never love him, and mathematics, his other great love, had also betrayed him, in a way. Though convinced that his theories were exact, and that they were valid for the future of algebra, he was aware that continuing to hope they would be understood by the Paris academic establishment was sheer madness. His only hope now was his faith in republican ideals, and he was eagerly looking forward to rejoining the Friends of the People.