A teacher at the École normale supérieure, Dupuy first became interested in Galois while researching the institution. He also set out to provide a detailed account of the young man's political activities.
"My chief aim is to replace the vague sketches we had with an accurate portrait of this illustrious mathematician; but I confess that it would also give me great satisfaction if readers felt that, in recounting Galois's life, I had shed an intriguing light on some corners of the Revolution of 1830 and of the turbulent, vibrant years surrounding it."
For this work, published sixty-four years after the mathematician's death, Dupuy drew on the archives of several institutions, contemporary newspapers and information supplied by Galois's family, with whom he was able to make contact. The result reads like a novel, in an engaging literary style. A word of warning for sensitive readers: Galois's autopsy report appears in the appendices.
La vie d’Évariste Galois, by Paul Dupuy, was published in the Annales scientifiques de l’École normale supérieure, third series, volume 13 (1896). The text, reprinted by Éditions Jacques-Gabay, is freely available online at **numdam.org/item/10.24033/asens.427.pdf**.
