Mary Somerville : science, illumination, and the female mind /

Both in telling the life story and in the discussion of the particular situation of women in 19th-century science, this book will replace Elizabeth Chambers Patterson's Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815-1840 (CH, Oct'84) as the definitive scholarly biography of this eminent woman of science. By weaving together the details of Somerville's life with a detailed description of the books she published, Neeley (technology, culture, and communication, Univ. of Virginia) presents an informative account of what Mary Somerville actually did and how her personal history shaped both her style and her intellectual interests. The author is clearly interested in rethinking the story of women's participation in science, and the concluding chapters of the book, which discuss in detail Somerville's account of her own life and how she is remembered, raise significant issues for women studies and the history of science. The introductory chapter suggests that Somerville's eminence depended in part on her successful blending of poetry and science, and the succeeding chapters illustrate this. This scholarly book is accessible and clear. Detailed bibliography and index. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. M. H. Chaplin Wellesley College