Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini

Enchantress of Numbers is a DNF for me. I got a teensy bit over halfway through before I gave up. I feel it’s just not as engaging as I wish it were. I was really looking forward to learning about Ada Lovelace but this is just not the way I’m going to do it apparently.

Enchantress of Numbers Reminds me of those princess diaries books I read when I was 12, only with far more actual biographical information. As I haven’t really done much reading about Ada Lovelace or her family, I don’t really know how much of it is true to life. It is, however, really focused on Ada’s relationship with her mother, Lady Byron, for at least the first half I read.

Lady Byron does strike me as a bad mother, with the caveat that mothers of her rank were apparently quite absent from their childrens’ lives. Her attitude toward stifling Ada’s imagination and denying her things like fairy tales really bugs me. And later her attitude toward anything imaginative as Ada grows up is just… ugh. I just can’t. I also just cannot with the Three Furies and her reliance on them and their opinions over that of her daughter. Just no.

It’s probably a pity that I’m leaving off Enchantress of Numbers right as Ada has met Charles Babbage, but yeah… I’m just not into it and so I’m done. At least for now. Might return to see if I can finish the second half at some stage, but right now… nope.