The story of our digital age is sadly lacking in its inclusion of prominent women. One notable exception is Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace. The daughter of the iconic poet Lord Byron, Ada played a critical role in shaping public perception of one of the first computing devices: Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. In her richly detailed Enchantress of Numbers, Jennifer Chiaverini presents a vivid portrait of Ada's too-short life while illuminating the significance of her professional accomplishments.

Narrated in her keenly intelligent voice, Ada's story is one of conflict between the two sides of her genetic and cultural inheritance: the fiery, artistic temperament of her father, who chafed against polite society's constraints; and her mother's desire for order and control, rooted in the conventions of England's 19th-century nobility. Ada's true gift is her ability to marry the sensibility of a poet to the keen mind of a scientist.

Enchantress of Numbers expertly balances scenes in royal salons and English country houses with Ada's reflections on the mathematical principles that helped her push the potential of Babbage's invention beyond expectations. Chiaverini's latest will appeal to readers who enjoy 19th-century historical fiction and want a glimpse into the dawn of a technological revolution.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Leave it to Chiaverini, the New York Times best-selling author of numerous effective portrayals of historically significant women, to take on the redoubtable Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, Lord Byron's only legitimate child. Trained from the nursery in science and mathematics by her mathematician mother, determined that Ada not follow her father's wild ways, Ada became enthralled with Charles Babbage's calculating machine and is now regarded as the world's first computer programmer. Here she has secrets to learn about her estranged parents, too.

The daughter of England's beloved celebrity, Romantic poet Lord Byron, Ada Byron is rigidly protected from anything that might possibly develop imaginative or poetical tendencies passed along to her through her father's tainted Byron blood. No one could have been more determined to keep her out of harm's way than her mother, who left the doomed poet a month after his daughter was born and took their lives into her own capable, if controlling hands. Surrounded by nursemaids and governesses, Ada, whose rebellious nature longs to escape, is permitted one refuge—her study of mathematics, but even in this she is closely monitored to make sure she is not carried away by her enthusiasms. Eventually, with the help of a loving husband, a brilliant female mentor, and a coterie of intellectual friends, Ada finally achieves her goals, going on to develop with Charles Babbage the first computer, though it took the world nearly a century to recognize her achievements. VERDICT After a slow start, Chiaverini (Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker) deftly draws a compelling study of a complicated woman whose relationship with her mother was equally complex. This will appeal to those interested in women in science and the dawn of the Victorian age. [See Prepub Alert, 7/26/17; "Editors' Fall Picks, LJ 9/1/17.]—Cynthia Johnson, formerly with Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MA

This intricate fictional memoir of Ada Lovelace, considered the first computer programmer, by Chiaverini (Fates and Traitors) combines biography with the style of a novel of manners. The novel opens with a lengthy prologue imagining the courtship and brief marriage of the rather odious George Gordon Lord Byron, the sixth Baron Byron, and the restrained Anne Isabella Milbanke, eleventh Baroness Wentworth. Shortly after the birth of their only child, Augusta Ada Byron, in 1815, the pair split and Byron left England, never to return or see his daughter again. Despite his absence, Ada credits the great poet with casting a shadow across her life, and her mother constantly searches for signs of Byron's mania in her. Though Ada's keen interest in mathematics is clear from almost the beginning, it is only her association with Charles Babbage that leads to her now-famous creation of the first ever computer program. Period fans will delight in the details of gowns, suitors, and rivals that fill the pages until Ada's rapid romance with and then marriage to William, Lord King, who will eventually become the first Earl of Lovelace. Chiaverini's novel is a wonderful blend of history and fiction, poetry and math. (Dec.)