Beyond the Limit: The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya [Hardcover]

Joan Spicci (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A real-life Russian mathematician is the unlikely heroine of Joan Spicci's historical novel Beyond the Limit: The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya. Based closely on Kovalevskaya's actual experiences, the book follows the young woman through the 1860s and '70s as she fights to get a mathematics doctorate at a time when such an education was unheard of for women. The daughter of a prominent St. Petersburg family, Kovalevskaya arranges a marriage of convenience to a young former revolutionary so that she can escape her parents' hawk-eyed supervision; she unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with her husband, but is terrified that motherhood might interfere with her education. Spicci's engaging story is set against the whirl of St. Petersburg society and the political upheavals of the 1860s.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Beyond the Limit, a novel researched for more than ten years by mathematician and educator Joan Spicci, is the true story of Sofya Kovalevskaya's remarkable personal journey, from the constricted life of a teenage girl in St. Petersburg to the triumph of becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics and join the ranks of Europe's great mathematicians of the nineteenth century.

For more than one hundred years, Kovalevskaya's struggle has inspired women of all nations to fight for educational opportunities equal to those available to men. But while she is known for the science and mathematics Opportunity Days sponsored in her name at major universities, the full drama and power of her life has never been told as it now unfolds in this thoroughly researched novel.

Based on Kovalevskaya's own writings, and many other primary sources, the story of her life plays out against a panorama of the turbulent, intellectually challenging 1860s and 1870s, as it follows a brilliant, complex woman on a quest that seems almost impossible to imagine, more than a century later. Friends with some of the intellectual giants of her time, ranging from Dostoevsky to Darwin, she was the equal of them all, as chronicled in this extraordinary work.

In the Russia of the 1860s, young women did as their fathers bid them, and after marriage was arranged, they did what their husbands told them to do. But Sofya Krukovskaya was different. Born to a family in which science and mathematics were already part of its heritage, Sofya takes every opportunity to learn more about mathematics in tutoring sessions. But her tutors know that if she is to realize her potential, she must study at a university. In order to do that, she lies to her family and makes a marriage of convenience with archaeologist Vladimir Kovalevsky, enabling her and her sister Anya to leave Russia and seek education at a German university.

However, leaving Russia is only the first hurdle she must vault to pursue her dream of becoming Europe's first woman mathematician. When she applies for admission, she is refused by stubbornly prejudiced university officials, forcing her to study covertly with the great mathematician Karl Weierstrass, under whose guidance she is at last able to gain her doctorate.

Very close to her sister Anya, a talented writer whose revolutionary fervor takes her to the powder keg of the Paris Commune of 1871, more than once Sofya has to forsake her own goals to save Anya from ruin, and even death.

Married in name only for many years, Sofya and Vladimir have a complex, volatile relationship. Loving each other, they're forced by the needs of their careers to withstand long separations and other trials. Across Europe, through tragedy and finally triumph, their story is richly told against the backdrop of history.

Mathematician and educator Joan Spicci's compelling narrative accurately documents Sofya's educational and professional struggle, in Beyond the Limit.

This fascinating, intimate portrait of Sofya Kovalevskaya's life confronts issues of women's rights and feminism that continue to face women who pursue careers in the sciences in the twenty-first century.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (August 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765302330
• ISBN-13: 978-0765302335
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 4.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,816,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars truly compelling!, June 1, 2003

By	"sboggs42" (Albuquerque, New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Limit: The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya (Hardcover)

This is a true piece of art, a compelling love story wrapped into the trials and tribulations of humanity's pursuit of balance with being true to oneself and to those you love. This true story is beautifully told of the tribulations faced by a woman in pursuit of mathematics in a world unaccustomed or accepting of women. I couldn't put it down!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating., February 15, 2003

By	Charles P. de Young (Charlotte, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Beyond the Limit: The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya (Hardcover)

It is difficult to realize the nature of the contemporary world without the perspective of history. This book tells a story of what a talented woman had to go through to gain an education in 19th century Europe. Sofya Kovalevskaya engaged in a sham marriage to gain the education unavailable in Russia, and very difficult to obtain in Europe. The turbulent world, the vortex of politics, nihilism, the Paris Commune, all intervened to make her quest even more daunting. Her success as a mathematician was impressive, and one must remember the tremendous handicaps she labored under to fully appreciate them. Contrast her experience with what she might have obtained in the 20th century, and one feels a joy that in some ways we have stepped a bit forward.

Joan Spicci manages to tell the tale with skill, and she has the big advantage of telling an interesting love story as well, for the marriage, became a marriage in fact as well as name. No fairy tale romance, but a relationship filled with conflicting goals, and the constant intrusion of the world. It is a story of men and women trying to juggle science, politics and complex personal relationships. This book is well worth reading, but I suspect easily missed, so don't let it slip by.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond The Limit, April 2, 2003

By	Lois A. Butler (Palatine, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Limit: The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya (Hardcover)

We enjoyed this book immensely and recommend it to all readers who enjoy history. The book captures the struggles of women who persued higher education in a time of world governmental and social change. The romantic twists and turns of the characters are sure to keep the reader's interest from cover to cover.