Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace
Jennifer Chiaverini
Dec 2017 · Recorded Books · Narrated by Virginia Leishman
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20 hr 2 min
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The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmakerand Switchboard Soldiers illuminates the life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace—Lord Byron’s daughter and the world’s first computer programmer.
The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. But her mathematician mother, estranged from Ada’s infamous and destructively passionate father, is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes.
When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize how her exciting new friendship with Charles Babbage—the brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly inventor of an extraordinary machine, the Difference Engine—will define her destiny.
Enchantress of Numbers unveils the passions, dreams, and insatiable thirst for knowledge of a largely unheralded pioneer in computing—a young woman who stepped out of her father’s shadow to achieve her own laurels and champion the new technology that would shape the future.
The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. But her mathematician mother, estranged from Ada’s infamous and destructively passionate father, is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes.
When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize how her exciting new friendship with Charles Babbage—the brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly inventor of an extraordinary machine, the Difference Engine—will define her destiny.
Enchantress of Numbers unveils the passions, dreams, and insatiable thirst for knowledge of a largely unheralded pioneer in computing—a young woman who stepped out of her father’s shadow to achieve her own laurels and champion the new technology that would shape the future.
The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmakerand Switchboard Soldiers illuminates the life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace—Lord Byron’s daughter and the world’s first computer programmer.
The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scand...
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Ratings and reviews
1 review
Lisa Berlowitz
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September 7, 2020
This might be the most boring book in modern history. The reader doesn’t do a bad job, but the language is stilted. The arc of this story is slow to develop and the characters mostly difficult to like. The book and reader transport you back to the distant past, but not in a good way. I imagine life in this time was much like this book... slow moving, only slightly interesting, and taking forever to reach the end.
About the author
Jennifer Chiaverini is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago. She used to be a writing instructor at Penn State University and Edgewood College. She is the author of the Elm Creek Quilts series and four volumes of quilt patterns inspired by her novels. She is also the designer of the Elm Creek Quilts fabric lines from Red Rooster Fabrics. Among her most recent works, is the New York Times bestselling novel, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.
Jennifer Chiaverini is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago. She used to be a writing instructor at Penn State University and Edgewood College. She is the author of the Elm Creek Quilts series and four volumes of quilt patterns inspired by her novels. She is al...
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