The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe by Glynis Ridley introduces Jeanne Baret, a young woman who was an expert in herb-lore. She posed as a young man in order to assist her lover, the naturalist Philibert Commerson, on French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville's round-the-world expedition from 1766-69. This is a fascinating account of that trip and the oversight history has dealt Baret - ignoring her contributions to Commerson's work, as well as her abuse during that voyage.

Ridley's The Discovery of Jeanne Baret is a well researched portrayal of what likely occurred during the expedition based on the few written documented facts available. Because a French show more Royal ordinance forbade women being on French Navy ships, Baret had to disguise her sex in order to assist Commerson. In her disguise, whether it was truly fooling anyone or not, Baret worked harder than many men and most certainly harder than Commerson.

Ridley points out that Baret very likely discovered many or most of the plants on the expedition. She certainly discovered the bougainvillea plant, which was named for named for the ship's commander. The one plant named after Baret during the trip has since shed her name.

While Ridley does have to make some assumptions, I felt like they were very likely accurate ones, based on the information and this period of history. Certainly it must be acknowledged that Baret's major contributions to Commerson's work have been largely ignored until now and, additionally, that this was not a kind period of time for women.

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret is not only well researched, it is well written. I would imagine that anyone interested in botany and historical biographies would certainly enjoy this account, but I also felt it is a narrative that would be very accessible to anyone. I know I thoroughly enjoyed this historical overview of Baret's life.

As is my wont, I fully appreciate that Ridley includes eight pages of pictures, an afterword to the paperback edition, notes and references for each chapter, notes on source materials and illustrations, sources and a select bibliography, acknowledgements, an index, and a reader's guide.

Very Highly Recommended - it's early in the year but this may make the top nonfiction list by the end of the year. I enjoyed it immensely. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

Disclosure: I was given a copy of The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Crown Publishing Group for review purposes. show less

A profoundly annoying book. Great story - the first woman on record to sail around the world, Jeanne Baret disguised herself as a man and did not just accompany her lover Commerson on Bouganville's voyage of discovery, she worked as hard or harder than most of the expedition as a botanist's assistant. It appears however that the records are scanty and Ridley fills the gaps with great screeds of guesswork, including what the characters were thinking and feeling, much of which seems anachronistic to me. I feel that this would've been better as a novel with an epilogue explaining what is known about our heroine. (Reminded me rather of "The Stolen Woman" which suffers from the same speculative structure). Read it if you are interested in show more the story but read it with a grain of salt... show less

Fascinating, informative story about Jeanne Baret, the first woman to circumnavigate the world - in disguise (at first) to be sure, but undertaking all the hard work and privations of her otherwise male companions. Not only does Glynis Ridley do a masterful job of telling the story, teasing out the original sources and drawing insightful inferences, but she makes the central character come alive in a thoroughly believable way. The history of apothecaries and their plants-women was a revelation, at least to me.

Summary: Jeane Baret was born in rural France at a time when most peasants never travelled further than 20 miles from home, yet she became the first woman in history to circumnavigate the globe. Her lover, the eminent botanist Philibert Commerson, had been selected to accompany the expedition ordered by King Louis XV, to identify plants from around the world that could be used to support the French drive for expansion and colonization. Baret, with considerable botanical knowledge of her own, disguised herself as a boy, and came aboard as Commerson's assistant. But maintaining her disguise on a ship full of hundreds of men was a difficult proposition, with terrifying consequences if she should fail. Working from the limited available show more sources - Baret left behind no account of her own - Ridley works to uncover the truth about Baret's experiences, and to bring to light an exceptional woman who has been largely forgotten by history and science both.

Review: Seeing as I am a) a woman, b) a scientist, and interested in c) the age of exploration and d) the age of sail, I can't quite believe that I'd never before heard of Jeanne Baret. Hers is a really fascinating and inspiring story, and this book deserves a lot of credit for introducing me to such an interesting part of history that I'd missed. I stayed glued to the pages much more than I would normally expect for non-fiction or biograpy, and learned a lot - not just about Baret, but tons of other interesting trivia. (For instance: bougainvillea was named by Commerson in honor of the expedition's captain, Bougainville, and Peter Piper was actually a Frenchman named Pierre Poivre who was in charge of increasing Mauritius's yield of exotic commercial crops - including peppercorns.)

However, as much as I enjoyed the Baret's story, I was less enthralled with Ridley's way of telling it. The hand of the historian is very apparent in Ridley's prose, much more so than in most history and biography that I've read. Rather than telling the story and then revealing the sources, or integrating the source material as she goes, Ridley often talked about the sources and their veracity first, then gave us her interpretation, and rarely provided enough direct quotes for the reader to draw their own conclusion. I guess this method of unveiling the story from the historian's point of view underscores the "discovery" part of the title, but I found it somewhat distracting. It also occasionally read like Ridley was not quite sure about her interpretation but was trying very hard to convince us that it's right. However, sometimes I was left with the feeling that she was over-interpreting complex events and emotions based on a single phrase or instance of word choice.

One thing that she seems certain of, however, is what happened when Baret's gender was made known to the crew (namely: gang rape.) While I don't disagree with Ridley that this is a possible - even likely - interpretation of events, I do think that it is based on a lot of inference, and little-to-no direct evidence, and I was not a fan of the way she kept bringing it up as if it were fact. She was similarly prone to describing Baret's emotions and thoughts as if they too were documented, when she had already told the readers that Baret left behind no journal or account, and had in fact criticized previous historians of the expedition for interpreting what primary sources were available based on their own personal and cultural prejudices. Again, I didn't often disagree with Ridley's conclusions, but thought it a bit disingenuous the way they were presented as being truth rather than interpretation.

While I did have some issues with the means of telling, overall I did quite enjoy the book. Any story engaging enough to shine through the pages and capture my interest despite my issues with the narrative style is one worth reading. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: I think this will be interesting to a lot of history readers, primarily those interested in the age of exploration or the history of women in science. show less

One of those little gems you stumble upon occassionally without any prior warning, but turn out to be so enriching. A really gripping tale of a young woman in 18th century France, intelligent and desperate for learning, but prevented by her sex and lowly station in life from ever fulfilling her potential. So she seizes her chance when the wealthy dilettante whose mistress she has become is offered a position upon a major scientific expedition to the South Seas. She disguises herself as a boy and boards the ship as her lover's assistant and embarks on a voyage a woman in that time could only dream about. She pays a high price for her temerity. predictably perhaps, her imposture is discovered, and she is raped by a group of sailors, which show more results in her becoming pregnant. But she survives the voyage and makes her way home, and lives to a ripe old age. A really amazing, and well-written story about someone that very few people will have ever heard about. Highly recommended. show less

A fascinating look at a woman I never knew existed--the first woman known to have circumnavigated the globe. Jeanne Baret was a French peasant woman who became an assistant to a French physician and naturalist, Philibert Commerson. She was an herb woman who gathered and sold natural remedies to the male doctors for use on their patients. Baret became Commerson's housekeeper and mistress after the death of his wife. They moved to Paris together when Commerson was offered a government post in the Royal gardens. In 1765 he was offered the position of naturalist on the expedition led by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville to explore the South Pacific in hopes of discovering lands and useful crops for France's empire. Baret could not be an show more official member of the expedition as women were forbidden on French naval ships; she disguised herself as a boy to accompany Commerson. Commerson needed her help both in the field to gather specimens and as a personal nurse, as he suffered from a recurring leg infection. The trip was long and filled with hardships and is described in detail by Ridley.

My one problem with the book is Ridley's tendency to project contemporary emotions on her subjects. This problem is not unique to Ridley, indeed it seems to be a pattern in recent histories. Admittedly there are sections of the story that beg for explanation, especially Bourgainville's decision to ignore what appears to have been the open secret of Benet's actual gender and allow her to continue on the voyage when he could have put her ashore in Rio de Janiero.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of science and the history of women in science. show less

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret
A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe
By Glynis Ridley
Crown Publishing Group, Random House 291 pgs
978-0-307-46353-1
Rating: 4 - Read This Book!

Jeanne Baret was an 18th century woman, lover, wife, mother, herb woman, botanist, sailor, adventurer, administrator and sometime cross-dresser. Think about that for a minute. Baret was born a French peasant in 1740, a woman who typically would never travel more than 20 miles from the parish of her birth. A country woman at a time when she would have been chattel, she boarded a ship in 1766 with her lover, the imminent naturalist Philibert de Commerson, and sailed around the world, collecting flora and fauna for the glory of show more the French Empire. Awesome.

Jeanne Baret was born in the Loire valley in 1740 to an illiterate couple, as 80% of the population at that time were, who rose before the sun and worked hard all day. The average life expectancy was 26. Philibert de Commerson was born near the city of Lyon in 1727 to a prosperous lawyer and estate owner. Much to his father's displeasure Commerson was consumed with a fascination for botany and made it his life's work, traveling across Europe collecting. At some point during the early 1760s Baret and Commerson became acquainted and the naturalist began paying the herb woman to teach him everything she knew. They became lovers during this time and he moved her in as housekeeper. Tongues wagged and soon the couple decamped to an apartment in Paris. Imagine again what this experience must have been like for Jeanne Baret. She had gone from dirt floors, no shoes, no heat in winter and no meat to eat, to a lovely apartment in a beautiful, cosmopolitan city in Enlightenment France, with plenty to eat, no privations. How far she had come!

In 1766 Commerson was charged by the French government to join an expedition to sail around the world in search of lands in which to spread the empire and discover new crops. Luxuries such as coffee and nutmeg would be worth millions if France could grow these commodities domestically. It was to be a trip for a duration of two years and Commerson and Baret would not be separated, besides which she was indispensable to their work. Maritime military regulations prohibited women on board, so our conspirators hatched a plan: Baret would bind up and impersonate a man for the opportunity of a lifetime.

This is such a fascinating story. No one teaches this stuff. Such devotion between Commerson and Baret is rare indeed. Especially on Baret's part. I have two quibbles: 1) things move slowly for the first half of the book, but oh the second half! The second half is well worth waiting for. And 2) I have reservations regarding the author's ascribing mental processes and emotions that might reasonably be inferred but could not possibly be known. However, this is an accepted practice and it enables the facts to become something more than that. They become a human story. I do recommend this book, especially for history buffs and women's studies enthusiasts. Bon voyage!

You can find the author here: http://louisville.edu/english/facultyandstaff/department-of-english/glynis-ridle... show less