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The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer (Pantheon Graphic Library) by [Sydney Padua]

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Sydney Padua

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer (Pantheon Graphic Library) Kindle Edition

by Sydney Padua (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

390 ratings

Part of: Pantheon Graphic Library (21 books)

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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THE THRILLING ADVENTURES OF LOVELACE AND BABBAGE . . . in which Sydney Padua transforms one of the most compelling scientific collaborations into a hilarious series of adventures.

Meet Victorian London’s most dynamic duo: Charles Babbage, the unrealized inventor of the computer, and his accomplice, Ada, Countess of Lovelace, the peculiar protoprogrammer and daughter of Lord Byron. When Lovelace translated a description of Babbage’s plans for an enormous mechanical calculating machine in 1842, she added annotations three times longer than the original work. Her footnotes contained the first appearance of the general computing theory, a hundred years before an actual computer was built. Sadly, Lovelace died of cancer a decade after publishing the paper, and Babbage never built any of his machines.

But do not despair! The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage presents a rollicking alternate reality in which Lovelace and Babbage do build the Difference Engine and then use it to build runaway economic models, battle the scourge of spelling errors, explore the wilder realms of mathematics, and, of course, fight crime—for the sake of both London and science. Complete with extensive footnotes that rival those penned by Lovelace herself, historical curiosities, and never-before-seen diagrams of Babbage’s mechanical, steam-powered computer, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is wonderfully whimsical, utterly unusual, and, above all, entirely irresistible.

(With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pantheon
Publication date

April 21, 2015
File size

124202 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

James Gleick, author of The Information
“Don’t be fooled by the word ‘comic.’ Sydney Padua tells a story that is tender, passionate, and true.”

Charles Petzold, author of Code and The Annotated Turing
"So there. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is learned, clever, funny, and above all very silly in the best sense of the word."

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The immensity of Padua’s research and the wit and allusions of her prose are striking, saying as much about what drove her to explore the possibilities of her protagonists’ relationship as about the protagonists themselves. Permeated by delightful illustrations, obsessive foot- and endnotes, and a spirit of genuine inventiveness, it’s an early candidate for the year’s best.”

Martha Cornog, Library Journal
“Padua’s extravaganza is very much for the whimsical intelligentsia and will speak to those interested in computers or math who will delight in the abundant background materials.”

Bookpage
“Sydney Padua’s impeccably researched, yet playfully imagined graphic biography is a treat for history buffs and graphic novel lovers alike…With fantastically detailed art, footnotes and diagrams…, this is a whimsical graphic account like no other.”

Margaret Quamme, The Columbus Dispatch
“Reading The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is like auditing a dozen high-level, inventively taught college classes simultaneously: more than a little overwhelming yet fascinating.”

Etelka Lehoczky, NPR.org
“Sydney Padua’s new book is definitely ‘Yowza!’ material.”

Discover Magazine
“An outlandish, enlightening tale.”

Nancy Szokan, Washington Post
“Informative and entertaining . . . . It’s a book that makes you a lot smarter as it makes you laugh.”

The Takeaway
“Novelist Sydney Padua has found quite a pair: the girl with the unstoppable brain; the male inventor 24 years her senior, part-poet, part-genius; this Victorian odd couple, dedicated to crime foiling and cleverness, is easily worthy of Holmes and Watson with a title to match.”

Maria Popova, BrainPickings.org
“Immensely delightful and illuminating …a masterwork of combinatorial genius and a poetic analog to its subject matter.” --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

SYDNEY PADUA is an animator and visual effects artist, usually employed in making giant monsters appear to be attacking people for the movies. She started drawing comics by accident and is still trying to figure out how to stop. Originally from the Canadian prairie, she now lives in London with her husband and far too many books. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is her first book. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00N6PBHAS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pantheon (April 21, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 21, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 124202 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #611,226 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #137 in Steampunk Graphic Novels
- #156 in Graphic Novel Biographies & Memoirs
- #191 in Historical Fiction Graphic Novels

Customer Reviews:
390 ratings

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Customer reviews

5 star		82%
4 star		11%
3 star		2%
2 star		4%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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C. W. Smith

Exceptional as Non-Fiction, Not So Much as a Traditional Story, Gorgeous Art Regardless

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2016

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I kept waiting to review this one, though I finished it awhile back. For some reason, I thought it might "grow on me" and change how I felt overall. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

First off, and what I tend to lean very heavily on with my graphic reading, the art is gorgeous. Padua's lines and movement and layouts and character design and cats and and and... Everything in this book is worth noting when it comes to the artwork. Unless you simply hate her style outright, you will love the artwork.

As for the story itself, I really thought this was more of a graphic novel / complete arc story when I bought it. Yes, it has a sense of movement, but it doesn't act as one story. Instead, it's a compilation of different adventures. While I didn't mind this format, honestly, none of the tales ever fully took off for me. Again, I loved the art, but what story it told... I found it hard to care about.

This brings me to the best-worst part of the novel: the historical footnotes. I LOVED that her research informed every line and scene in this. Her research astounded me. The footnotes were quite interesting and added to the story in an awesome way. However, they were equally distracting, some taking so long to read that the flow of the original tale was not only up-ended but tossed out the window, too.

I tried reading the story without the footnotes, but it fell flat, not seeming as rich as before. When I read the footnotes first, then went back to the story, I couldn't always remember what fact went with what, and it lost the richness, too. And--for me--reading both jumbled both fact and fiction to where it was hard to follow the story.

In the end, this works as a much better non-fiction book about these two historical figures--even if the majority of it takes place in a fictional, pocket universe. And maybe it was simply me that had problems with this flip-flopping in the story. Regardless, the art is gorgeous and, for me, totally worth the price of admission.

10 people found this helpful

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Virtualrealist

Fun history

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2021

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The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer is a graphic novel by Sydney Padua. My only complaint about this was I couldn't adjust the font size on my Kindle, so the footnotes were very difficult to read. The rest of this is so much fun.

I knew nothing about Charles Babbage, but I had heard hints about Ada Lovelace's involvement in creating the first computer. That she was Lord Byron's daughter makes her all the more fascinating because he is an unusual character. She took her passion in a very different direction but with no less fervor. While this graphic novel takes liberties with the history, Sydney Padua is very upfront about what is true and what might be embellishment via footnotes throughout. A very fun way to explore history!

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PhredTop Contributor: Manga

A muddle. Not entirely unpleasent

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2018

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Two stars for the graphic thingie, he thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua is a tad harsh. I did not exactly dislike it but I think this is a to warn those too impressed with the high star average rating. Padua has written a family friendly books, as in no bad words or graphic sex, but what exactly she has written is hard to divine. To get back to it, Graphic “thingie” because I do not get what this book is supposed to be or whom it is primarily about.

There is actual history behind this book, so it might be a graphic history or bio. Except that most of the graphic content is made up or unattested to as portrayed. So maybe it is a fictionalized history, so Graphic Novel. The barrage of overly long footnotes are intended to document the basic events so maybe a history. But there is also a din of science and such so maybe a science book. Well actually the footnotes become such a drag that even Ms. Padua not only admits that they are too many and too long ,she even posts dialogue and illustrations over a few as a way of admitting she needed to be edited.

Critical to the purpose of this book is to honor the real mathematical contributions of Lady Lovelace. Except that she never seems to be much more than a side kick to the nerdy, classic Victorian English enthusiast and inventor Charles Babbage. We get pages of detailed explanations of how Babage's proto computer, whichever machine none where finished, was supposed to work and almost no examples of Lovelace's math or programing. So who is the star of this book? Does Lady Lovelace get her proper recognition?

Did I mention that the Thrilling Adventures all take place in an alternative time line pocket universe? Most of the stories are stories of things that never could have happened and the rest do not appear in the record of this universe.

Let’s try this another way:
If you can filter past the incredibly long and convoluted footnotes (Suggestion: if you footnote a letter you do not need to included entire letter just to prove you did your research.) there are some fun little made up stories about math and economics and stuff. None of it having much to do with the Babbage Analytical Engine, or was it the Difference engine? lt;, hardly matters, neither was ever finished.

Or if you can filter out the events that never happened there are some intelligent discussions of economics and various other technical or mechanical things, including a layout of how the Babbage engine, which ever one it was might have worked if it had been finished.

Lady Lovelace does appear and we do get her biography. Not much on her math or programming, but the general opinion was that she was good at both and never esp respected for it, er them.

If you have read this far and are unsure what he Amazing Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is about or what it is relating or basically: is it worth muddling through. My work here is done.

One person found this helpful

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Views from Annapolis

It's an innovative and entertaining approach that gives a lot of good historical information along with an interesting portrait of the ...

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2017

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This book is essentially two parallel threads; one an entertaining and fanciful alternative history concoction; the other a true and well informed historical portrayal of Lovelace and Babbage. It's an innovative and entertaining approach that gives a lot of good historical information along with an interesting portrait of the two personalities.What I found really useful, and I don't think you'll find elsewhere, is Ms. Padua's work on putting all the pieces together to present what the actual completed machine might have looked like.
Some years ago a read a standard biography of Babbage. If you're really interested in a complete picture of Babbage, I would not say that "The Thrilling Adventures...." is a substitute for that, but it is a very useful adjunct to it. It does give a better feel for who these people actually were, and a much better emphasis on Ada Lovelace.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Tielhard

At a loss how to describe this wonderful comic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2020

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This may be the most enjoyable comic I have read for a very very long time. I am just not sure how to describe it. It is definitely an historical investigation of Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and the calculating engines Babbage concieved and Lovelace was inspired by to almost glimpse the potential of computing. It is a slapstick journey across a steam punk London that never was. It is also a popular science explanation of the unfullfilled dream of mechanical computation. On top of that there are some wonderfully silly vignettes of the mathematical and literary Victorians at thier most eccentric. Then of course there is Brunel as he never was but everyone thinks he was. The drawings of both the main characters, Lovelace and Babbage are charming and engaging but the best characters by far are Brunel, Eliott, Babbage's footman and Wellington's horse. Unless you are an organ grinder's monkey or a poet you should love this comic.

Susan Stepney

have thrilling adventures and fight crime

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2016

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The tale of a Pocket Universe in which Lovelace and Babbage live to complete the Analytical Engine, and use it to have thrilling adventures and fight crime (the crimes of street music and poetry, that is).

This starts off as a relatively straightforward account of Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, and the never-to-be-completed Analytical Engine, the famous programmable mechanical computer, told in lovely graphic novel format. But that real life story ends unhappily, and too soon (Lovelace died at the age of 36, and Babbage never completed his masterpiece).

Rather than the book stopping at page 40, the fictional story begins, in an alternate universe, where the laws of time are a little more fluid, the engine is completed, and the super-geniuses Babbage and Lovelace, agents of The Crown, team up to fight crime, meet Wellington and Brunel, banter about computers, and have thrilling steampunk adventures, all gloriously illustrated, and copiously footnoted.

Those footnotes are there to point out the links (sometimes tenuous, often not) between what is happening in the tales, and what happened in reality. There is a lot of research behind these brief tales, with some footnotes having endnotes of their own, with more copious material; and some of those endnotes have further footnotes of their own. These tell of the (real life) events behind the (sadly so very fictional) scenes being illustrated.

Sometimes a page of research is captured by a quick joke, or a single panel. But one whole story depends on it: the visitor who distracts Coleridge when writing Kubla Khan is none other than that destroyer of poetry, Lovelace herself! The evidence is convincingly presented; only one tiny detail argues against it, scrupulously recorded by the author: “Some may object that she was born eighteen years after the composition of the poem, but this anomaly is easily explained”.

Overall, this is a delight, especially if you are interested in the Analytical Engine, and the history behind it. The individual stories probably do not stand on their own, but when supported by triply-nested footnotes, and superb illustrations, everything comes together brilliantly.

2 people found this helpful

J. Shanks

Loved it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2016

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The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is an odd hybrid of a book. It quite happily mixes fact and fiction with liberal smatterings of "celebrities" of the day (Queen Victoria, Brunel, Marian "George Eliot" Evans, Charles "Lewis Carroll" Dodgson, Wellington, Dickens, etc.). There are lots of lengthy footnotes, endnotes and a few other pages of text which may be off-putting to to some graphic novel/comic book readers, but the cartoon elements may likewise deter "serious" readers. However, neither party should be put off as, whilst there are extensive notes, which impart a lot of facts, they are in-keeping with the humour of the comic strips and everything is lovingly joined together by Sydney Padua who has clearly enjoyed her research and has a genuine affection for her lead protagonists. The art is quite lovely and the writing is to a high standard. Even the binding is praiseworthy! No prior knowledge of the subject matter is required to enjoy this rip-roaring romp where you can even have fun learning along the way!

One person found this helpful

Kevin Trebell

Lovely and well presented vision of what might have been with two of the great minds of their age

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2015

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I ordered this having seen some great reviews (and being reminded of it whilst watch a recent documentary on Ada).

I've known about Ada for many years and her huge importance in the formation of my industry alongside Babbage as this was my area of study (in fact one of the languages I learned to code in was named after her).

This book is a little different though, starting with the history of Ada and Babbage and their relationship but moving in to a fictional world where Ada did not die young and their adventures continued. It's wonderful in the way it visualises what might have been had these two brilliant minds finished their work.

The book is presented nicely, the cartoon artwork is lovely and the copious footnotes add a lot of depth to the book. It has also has a nice steampunk vibe to it, seeing the inventions of these two realised in a Victorian world.

Overall I love this and reckon it's a great read for those who want to learn a bit more about them or who just want a fun read.

One person found this helpful

PaulE

Delightful!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2015

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This is an absolutely delightful graphic novel, both well researched and beautifully drawn.
It’s also the first time I have thoroughly approved of the ending of a story being altered to make it less sad.
Buy this book, then buy it again for your friends.

9 people found this helpful

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