DANTE AND THE EARLY ASTRONOMER Science, Adventure, and a Victorian Woman Who Opened the Heavens

Narrator David Stifel delivers this audiobook in a steady, unadorned performance. Author Tracy Daugherty illuminates the scientific and literary contributions of early-twentieth-century British amateur astronomer Mary Acworth Evershed. Her overlapping passions, astronomy and Dante Alighieri's narrative poem THE DIVINE COMEDY, fueled her professional trajectory and personal relationships. At age 40, she embarked upon a sixteen-year tenure at Kodaikanal Observatory in India. Daugherty enriches and contextualizes limited biographical details with contemporary issues of colonialism, racism, gender inequality, and world wars. Stifel differentiates letters and quoted passages with pauses and provides clear pronunciation of Indian and Italian words. Listeners will gain further appreciation for women in science. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2019]