Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini

Obviously I have no firsthand experience of the years that preceded my birth, and I will not pretend to remember the contentious events of my infancy. Certainly, I have always possessed uncanny powers of perception, understanding, and synthesis, but not even I can see beyond the frame that encloses my own life.

It is a fair question, since some of the incidents I have described occurred before my birth. You may well wonder how I, no more than seven weeks old when my mother left my father and launched the great scandal that came to be known throughout England as the Separation, can claim to have witnessed the tumultuous events that provoked so much curiosity and gossip. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. 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.Įnchantress 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. 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. Any troubling spark of imagination-or worse yet, passion or poetry-is promptly extinguished. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. 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. 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. New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini illuminates the life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace-Lord Byron's daughter and the world's first computer programmer. “Cherished Reader, Should you come upon Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer nsider yourself quite fortunate indeed.Chiaverini makes a convincing case that Ada Byron King is a woman worth celebrating.” - USA Today

Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini