Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua
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Description
In 'The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage' Sydney Padua transforms one of the most compelling scientific collaborations into a hilarious set of adventures
Meet two of Victorian London's greatest geniuses… Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron – mathematician, gambler, and proto-programmer, whose writings contained the first ever appearance of general computing theory, a hundred years before an actual computer was built. And Charles Babbage, eccentric inventor of the Difference Engine, an enormous clockwork calculating machine that would have been the first computer, if he had ever finished it. But what if things had been different? The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage presents a delightful alternate reality in which Lovelace and Babbage do build the Difference Engine and use it to create runaway economic models, battle the scourge of spelling errors, explore the wider realms of mathematics and, of course, fight crime – for the sake of both London and science. Extremely funny and utterly unusual, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage comes complete with historical curiosities, extensive footnotes and never-before-seen diagrams of Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered computer. And ray guns.
*Winner of the British Book Design and Production Award for Graphic Novels* *Winner of the Neumann Prize in the History of Mathematics* *Nominated for the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album and Best Writer/Artist*
An utter joy… Padua has done her research: she has teased out the connections between Babbage, Lovelace and what would seem to be the whole of Victorian culture and society – and done so in a way that appears almost effortless on the page, her light, easy graphic style an excellent vehicle not only for deep and complex thought, but for excellent, and sometimes excellently corny, jokes. This is a book to reread, not just read — Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *
The wittiest, best-researched and most original tribute yet paid to the achievements of Ada Lovelace… An astonishing debut… Ingenious as a textbook, marvellous fun as inventive biography — Miranda Seymour * Literary Review *
