Mary Somerville

• Author's preface; Prologue; Perceiving what others do not perceive: the 'peculiar illumination' of the female mind; 1. Head among the stars, feet firm upon the earth: the problem of categorizing Mary Somerville; 2. Creating a room of her own in the world of science: how Mary Fairfax became the famous Mrs Somerville; 3. Science as exact calculation and elevated meditation: Mechanism of the Heavens (1931), Preliminary Dissertation (1832), and On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834); 4. The earth, the sea, the air, and their inhabitants: Physical Geography (1848) and On Molecular and Microscopic Science (1869); 5. Personal Recollections (1973): Mary Somerville on Mary Somerville; 6. Memory and Mary Somerville: in the public eye and historical memory; Epilogue: science, voice, and vision.

'Kathryn Neeley explores Somerville's unique position: she was accepted as an eminent scientist, but also celebrated for the way she conformed to Victorian norms of womanly behaviour.' The Lancet