Ahead of her time
I do like a good historical fiction novel, and this one really fits the bill. It is based around the real life daughter of Emilie du Chatelet, Lili. She is a girl full of questions, who seems to have inhrited her mother's vigorous mind. Although the real Lili died before her second birthday, this story charts ficticious Lili's coming of age, her journey of self-discovery, at a time when women were accessories, and not intended to have their own thoughts and opinions. The novel comes across very well, and in a very convincing fashion. Also , really nicely done, a lot of ideas of the Enlightenment are brought the fore by scientists and philosophers speaking within the text which makes the ideas come alive in a way that no dry text book probably could. I thought it was very good indeed.
