Mathematics and Freedom of Expression

Ada Lovelace struggled against her repressive mother as well as fear of "madness" inherited from the estranged father she never met. Her only outlet was the study of mathematics. Her mother forbade her to follow any "imagination". As an adult, her repressed imagination conceived of the possibilities we have only now realized through computers. Very inspiring! ( )

This is a discarded library copy

***I received a digital advance copy of this through Penguin's First to Read program in exchange for my thoughts. It goes on sale Dec. 5.

For about two years I have been fascinated by whatever I can learn about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. These two were closely connected in the development of what *could* have been the world's first computer...a hundred years ahead of time. Steam-powered. Wild, right?! I think so. Charles Babbage invented the machine--although he never completed the construction of it; Ada translated a paper about it and added so many of her own notes with calculations and algorithms that she is regarded by some as the first software programmer. They were an eccentric pair of friends, and I can't get enough of them.
Enter this book. This is the fictionalized, but pretty accurate, account of Ada's life.

It's fiction, but seems to exude careful attention to facts and history; so much so, that in many cases the dialogue was far too skimpy for my tastes. Because of this, the book seemed to ride a line between novel and memoir, not being strictly satisfying in either category. The exception to this is when Ada first sets eyes on Babbage's Difference Engine, and embarks on friendship with him. That scene is a delight to read, with a greater in-the-moment feel than the rest of the book.

The book is written in the first person; however, it starts in Ada's first year of life and proceeds with excruciating slowness. In my opinion, the first-person narrative is not suited to reminiscences of a baby and toddler. I was unable to suspend my disbelief and accept that she would have such detailed accounts of what those around her did, said, felt and thought. It was over the top.

What the book does well is provide a cohesive account of Ada's life, which I only knew the highlights of. I think it could have been even better if it had condensed the accounts of her young years and focused on her late teens and adult life, especially where the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine were concerned. I found the descriptions of the Difference and Analytical Engines fascinating, and the author handled with a light touch Ada's perception of what they could mean for the future.

Content advisory: It gets PG-13 in one scene, where teenage Ada has a close encounter with her tutor whom she has fallen in love with. And because Ada's father was George Gordon, Lord Byron, there are a couple of adult themes that show up. If you know your Byron history they won't be shocking, and they're only presented as part of the family biography, not graphically shown. ( )

Fascinating story about Ada Lovelace. There was a lot of telling so I had a hard time caring about the characters. It read more like a biography than a novel. ( )