The Discovery of Jeanne Baret

In a deeply researched and engagingly written narrative of science, adventure, love, and an unprecedented voyage of discovery, Glynis Ridley reveals the true story of Jeanne Baret and her pioneering journey. Confronted with the dreary lot of an 18th century woman, Baret eschewed a life of servitude to follow her lover and eminent botanist Philibert Commerson on a naturalistic expedition. In 1766, Baret disguised herself as a teenage boy to gain a place on the first French ship to sail...
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In a deeply researched and engagingly written narrative of science, adventure, love, and an unprecedented voyage of discovery, Glynis Ridley reveals the true story of Jeanne Baret and her pioneering journey. Confronted with the dreary lot of an 18th century woman, Baret eschewed a life of servitude to follow her lover and eminent botanist Philibert Commerson on a naturalistic expedition. In 1766, Baret disguised herself as a teenage boy to gain a place on the first French ship to sail around the world, pursuing her love of botany as Commerson's principal assistant. Amid deceit and suspicion Baret traveled the world, surviving for two years on a boat with 115 men. It wasn't long, however, before crew members on the small ship began to suspect her secret. Even in her precarious position, during her travels Baret discovered the showy vine bougainvillea, among some 6,000 other specimens she amassed over the course of her life. Finally leaving the expedition to stay with Commerson on Mauritius and build up the French botanic garden there, Baret would be separated from her collection on Commerson's death, and would have to find her own way back to France. When she next set foot on French soil in 1775, she was the first woman to have sailed around the world. THE DISCOVERY OF JEANNE BARET is the story of a fascinating beacon in women's history, an ordinary woman who overcame tradition and hostility to rise from meager origins to unique fame.