- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Pan; New edition edition (6 Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330484494
- ISBN-13: 978-0330484497
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 645,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Ada Lovelace, the result of Lord Byron's short- lived marriage to Annabella Milbanke, is an extraordinary figure in 19th-century society. Not only was she the daughter of a celebrity, but she was the first computer programmer the world has known.
From the moment she was born, in 1815, Ada was a controversial figure. Her mother, a woman known for her piety and intellect, had fled the marital home taking her three-week-old baby with her. In this first comprehensive biography of Lovelace, Benjamin Woolley contends that the child embodied a chasm between Romanticism as represented by her father, and Reason as represented by his wife. He examines how, as an adult, she struggled to reconcile these opposites by creating a "poetical science". But first he deals with her childhood. We learn of Annabella's ferocious educational regime, and a young girl who, understandably, took refuge in the imagination.
Woolley's achievement is in making accessible the scientific theories that absorbed Lovelace and that led to her breakthrough in computer science. His approach to her work is grounded in her domestic setting which he portrays as oppressive, and as hastening her early death in 1852 from cervical cancer. The Bride of Science is a powerful piece of work, entirely appropriate for a revolutionary woman. --Lilian Pizzichini --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"This book is a natural for handselling, not only to the literati interested in all things Byronic, but to cyberfolk, many of whom will be aware of Ada's early work in computers."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Human drama, poetry, science, historical fact and the most vividly and lovingly portrayed characters make this the most readable biography I have ever encountered. More amazingly, the technical bits that in similar books I would have skipped, were as exciting and compelling as the rest! Nobody could fail to be captivated by the remarkable Ada, Countess of Lovelace.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are so many interesting strands to this book that it feels almost unfair to single out one or two features.
The first part of the book concentrates on Ada's appalling parents, whose disastrous and controversial marriage cast a long shadow over Ada's life. Although some of the other reviewers have said that there is too much material about Ada's parents and her early life, I think it's almost impossible to make sense of Ada's personality without covering this and I found it one of the most interesting parts of the book.
Other accounts of Lovelace seem to vary between belittling her role and exaggerating it out of all proportion. Ada's role is important but it's pretty stupid to call her the first computer programmer or write her off as no more than a financial backer. Woolley avoids both extremes and is more even handed and measured in his approach .
The first part of the book concentrates on Ada's appalling parents, whose disastrous and controversial marriage cast a long shadow over Ada's life. Although some of the other reviewers have said that there is too much material about Ada's parents and her early life, I think it's almost impossible to make sense of Ada's personality without covering this and I found it one of the most interesting parts of the book.
Other accounts of Lovelace seem to vary between belittling her role and exaggerating it out of all proportion. Ada's role is important but it's pretty stupid to call her the first computer programmer or write her off as no more than a financial backer. Woolley avoids both extremes and is more even handed and measured in his approach .
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The title suggests that the emphasis of this book is science and the emerging role of woman in modern society and in science in particular. However it is more a study of changing Victorian values and ranges freely over the many passions into which men and women of the period could devote their energy - always provided that they had the financial means to support them.
Engineering and science are powerful passions but struggle to emerge from the much more powerful passion of sex. Benjamin Woolley's book is a sexual romp through the first half of the 19th century. It covers the sexual peccadilloes of Lord Byron, his sister Augusta, his wife Annabella and the attempts at suppressing the latent sexuality of Ada Byron. Sexual exploits of other members of the landed gentry are included to add spice where necessary.
The main science to emerge is ADA's 1843 paper about Babbage's Analytical Engine. It is this event, possibly the first example of a computer program, which gives the name ADA to a programming language used by the American military. Mary Somerville, who translated Laplace's Mecanique Celeste, was a good friend of Ada's and introduced her to Babbage
Other figures of science are woven into the tale: Andrew Grosse, whose experiments with electricity may have been the model for Mary Shelley's Doctor Frankenstein; "Faraday was a fan of Ada's and asked Babbage for a portrait of her", Wheatstone suggested to Babbage that Ada was the person to write the English translation of Luigi Menabrea memoir on Babbage's Analytical Engine, and it was Babbage himself who suggested that Ada should add some notes of her own to the translation. Charles Lyell was later called in to arbitrate over whether a note added by Babbage should be identified as such in the published notes.
It is a good tale, well told, although the amount devoted to Ada's parents, whilst necessary background, seems unnecessarily long. The book is 416 pages and has a good index of 14 pages, with 22 pages of notes and selected bibliography.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ada and those who influenced her - an extraordinary life
I must say that I disagree with the above criticism of the author's emphasis on Ada's parents. To truly understand Ada Lovelace it is very important to know her family background... Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2004
A good tale, well told, but too much about Ada's parents.
The title suggests that the emphasis of this book is science and the emerging role of woman in modern society and in science in particular. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2001
Good starting-point to learn about Lady Ada
This biography is a good place to start when learning about Lady Ada Lovelace and her milieu, but has a number of flaws. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2001
Science and Poetry
Who better than Ada Byron can represent the turn from Romanticism to Victorian age in England? Ada, the heiress of the great poet Lord Byron has not only lived in such transitory... Read more
Published on 3 April 2000 by euge@gmx.net
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