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The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter
 
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The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter (Hardcover)

by Benjamin Woolley (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Schaum Outline Series (Dec 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0071373292
  • ISBN-13: 978-0071373296
  • Product Dimensions: 24 x 16.1 x 3.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,794,329 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

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."
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6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Science and Poetry, 3 April 2000
By euge@gmx.net (Goettingen,Germany) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bride of Science : Romance, Reason and Byron's Daughter (Hardcover)
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 epoch, but Passion and Science were running in her very own blood. She was brought up by her mother, Lady Byron, and initiated by her to mathematical and rational studies, everything that would keep Ada as far as possible from the tenebrous, irrational, dangerous and very passionate style of life of her father. This life style is what had led to the separation after only one year of merriage between Lord and Lady Byron, accompained by scandals, grief and resentment. Lady Byron's reaction to it was to try to repress Ada's paternal romantic vein with science. This will bring Ada to be in contact with the best scientists of the moment and even to be remembered as the first computer programmer, but won't preclude her from being a real Byron...
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, compelling, painlessly edifying, funny, exciting...., 22 Feb 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bride of Science : Romance, Reason and Byron's Daughter (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.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A good tale, well told, but too much about Ada's parents., 6 Sep 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Bride of Science: Romance, Reason and Byron's Daughter (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

2.0 out of 5 stars 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

4.0 out of 5 stars It is a good tale, well told.
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 30 Aug 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars 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

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