Maybe I loved this novel, a fictionalized version of the life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace and only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron, because I majored in math in college. I don't think that's the only reason, though. There is nothing like well-researched historical fiction, and this certainly falls into that category. Set in the 1830's and beyond. It is also, in some respects, a kind of "Mommy Dearest" story.
Ada's mother, Annabelle, falls madly in love with George Gordon, Lord Byron, and resolves to marry him despite all that she knows about his character and personality. She was, quite frankly, obsessed with the man. When they finally become engaged she has high hopes of changing him. Her obsession is so great that even the fact that he seems reluctant to marry do not deter her. Soon after Ada (actually christened August Ada) is born, Annabelle leaves Byron and returns home to raise her daughter on her own. Determined to help Ada to avoid the Byron madness, she restricts he daughter's education and human contact to tutors, governesses, and her own adult friends, emphasizing math, science, and strict morality over friends and imagination. In fact, imagination is strictly forbidden since it might cause Ada to develop an interest in poetry or the arts and turn out like her now despised father.
This is a fascinating character study of a girl and her mother. Both are highly intelligent, brilliant women, but Annabelle's coldness and strict treatment of Ada, along with her bitterness at Lord Byron, would make the reader wonder how Ada ever grew up to be a normal person. I guess that normal is not exactly the correct word. She formed a close relationship with Charles Babbage, inventor of the difference engine and contributed greatly to his work, ultimately being considered the first woman to work with the concept of computers. In all, this was a fascinating fictional account of the lives of 2 women who left their marks on the intellectual world.
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