The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas,
and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe
By Glynis Ridley
Crown December 2010
252 pages
Won from Constance Reader
Jeanne Baret is a woman who accomplished incredible things
in her time, but you didn’t learn about her in school. She left behind no
written records of her thoughts, but her actions were integral to the fields of
botany, medicine, and zoology. She was a woman of poor upbringing who is only
represented in history with a birth certificate, marriage license, and death
certificate. But Jeanne Baret was the first woman to brave the perils of the
open sea (and its sailors) on a long expedition. She was the first woman to
circumnavigate the world.
Baret was a poor woman who had something invaluable to the
eminent botanist Philibert Commerson. She was a local herb woman and knew things
about plants that Commerson would not find in any book. As they worked
together, she became his mistress. Their lives and work became so intertwined
that when Commerson was commissioned to collect samples during a voyage around
the world, Baret disguised herself as a boy and accompanied him as his
assistant. Their journey through new waters to encounter new plants, peoples,
and lands is set down in careful detail in The
Discovery of Jeanne Baret.
This book is one where the author makes a lot of
assumptions. Because we have nothing directly from Baret and very little about
her, Ridley has to pull a lot of loose details together. While this can be
frustrating, I wonder what alternative we have in constructing historical
narratives. Certainly it is important for us to learn about important
historical figures, even if they fail to leave us their own versions of their
stories. So perhaps this is the only way we can learn. Writers who use this
technique assume that their readers are intelligent and willing to work for
answers. While Ridley comes to many conclusions that seem tentative, she has to
make decisions about what she thinks happened. And she assumes that you can
likewise make your own decisions and will do the work to support your conclusions
if they do not match hers.
At times, this book seems to lack some heart. Despite the
evidence and the assertions that Ridley makes, it is difficult to feel that we
really know our heroine. The men in her life who did leave personal records
behind are not exactly shining stars themselves, so it is difficult to connect
with them. But I have to conclude that reading books like this one is
important. We need the ability to celebrate the men and women who achieved
remarkable things in their lifetimes, even if they have been largely ignored in
the annals of history. Jeanne Baret should be known, and remembered, for her
courage, for her excellence in her field, and for the commitment she had to the
people and subjects that mattered most to her. Even if we don’t know the details
with certainty, it matters that we know that this one remarkable woman was the
first to defy the social conventions of her time and sail around the world.
This sounds like a fascinating topic. However it does seem like it should either be backed up by firm research or develop the character richly as one would in a novel.
ReplyDeleteIt's tough because there is just so little to go on. On one side, you have criticism because the author is doing too much speculation, but then readers feel like Baret is not fully realized.
DeleteMaybe this would have been better as a historical fiction novel? For me, the lack of primary sources would probably ruin my enjoyment of it as a straight history book.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...you make a great point. The author is a professor of English, so I wonder what led her to attempt the research route as opposed to a novel.
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