Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace

An Amazon Best Book of December 2017: In this biographical novel from author Jennifer Chiaverini, we journey into the life of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, now largely considered to be the world’s first commuter programmer. Unknown to me, Ada was raised in the shadow of a famous father, as the only legitimate daughter of poet Lord Byron. We soon learn the eccentric Byron abandons his new family a month after Ada’s birth, never to see either his child or wife again. Ada’s mother becomes obsessed with purging all things creative and imaginative from Ada’s upbringing, in the hopes of saving her child from the same perceived mania that plagued her poet husband. With an ever-changing cast of tutors and governesses, and forbidden from most artistic outlets, Ada throws herself headfirst into academia and mathematics. Chiaverini expertly illuminates the adversities Ada faced in melding her analytical prowess with the creative thought she was told for so long to suppress. While Ada was largely unrecognized for her accomplishments while alive, this novel is a generous ode to one of history’s most extraordinary female trailblazers. --Sydney Dale