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

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

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 163 ratings · 75 reviews

The year was 1765. Eminent botanist Philibert Commerson had just been appointed to a grand new expedition: the first French circumnavigation of the world. As the ships’ official naturalist, Commerson would seek out resources—medicines, spices, timber, food—that could give the French an edge in the ever-accelerating race for empire.

Jeanne Baret, Commerson’s young mistress a...more The year was 1765. Eminent botanist Philibert Commerson had just been appointed to a grand new expedition: the first French circumnavigation of the world. As the ships’ official naturalist, Commerson would seek out resources—medicines, spices, timber, food—that could give the French an edge in the ever-accelerating race for empire.

Jeanne Baret, Commerson’s young mistress and collaborator, was desperate not to be left behind. She disguised herself as a teenage boy and signed on as his assistant. The journey made the twenty-six-year-old, known to her shipmates as “Jean” rather than “Jeanne,” the first woman to ever sail around the globe. Yet so little is known about this extraordinary woman, whose accomplishments were considered to be subversive, even impossible for someone of her sex and class.

When the ships made landfall and the secret lovers disembarked to explore, Baret carried heavy wooden field presses and bulky optical instruments over beaches and hills, impressing observers on the ships’ decks with her obvious strength and stamina. Less obvious were the strips of linen wound tight around her upper body and the months she had spent perfecting her masculine disguise in the streets and marketplaces of Paris.

Expedition commander Louis-Antoine de Bougainville recorded in his journal that curious Tahitian natives exposed Baret as a woman, eighteen months into the voyage. But the true story, it turns out, is more complicated.

In The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, Glynis Ridley unravels the conflicting accounts recorded by Baret’s crewmates to piece together the real story: how Baret’s identity was in fact widely suspected within just a couple of weeks of embarking, and the painful consequences of those suspicions; the newly discovered notebook, written in Baret’s own hand, that proves her scientific acumen; and the thousands of specimens she collected, most famously the showy vine bougainvillea.

Ridley also richly explores Baret’s awkward, sometimes dangerous interactions with the men on the ship, including Baret’s lover, the obsessive and sometimes prickly naturalist; a fashion-plate prince who, with his elaborate wigs and velvet garments, was often mistaken for a woman himself; the sour ship’s surgeon, who despised Baret and Commerson; even a Tahitian islander who joined the expedition and asked Baret to show him how to behave like a Frenchman.

But the central character of this true story is Jeanne Baret herself, a working-class woman whose scientific contributions were quietly dismissed and written out of history—until now. Anchored in impeccable original research and bursting with unforgettable characters and exotic settings, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret offers this forgotten heroine a chance to bloom at long last.(less)

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published December 28th 2010 by Crown

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Apr 02, 2013 Michelle Lancaster rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-ve-reviewed

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 count...more 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 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/faculty...(less)

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Mar 22, 2012 Muccamukk rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish, non-fiction

Saw this one in Science News and thought I might like it. But then when I got it Dad snaked it, and took forever to read it, and I just got it back last week. It's a non fiction book detailing the life of a French peasant who was, astonishingly, the first woman known to circumnavigate the world. Dad loved it, but I bailed about half way through. The author just couldn't resist editorialising and speculating. I understand that she had extremely limited sources, especially once they left France: s...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Lori L (She Treads Softly) rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 t...more 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 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.
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Jan 10, 2012 Leeswammes rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is well-written and researched, to the extend that I almost felt I was watching a documentary with original filmed material. There are detailed descriptions of life as a poor worker in rural France, life as a rich man, what women could and could not do, Paris in the 1760s, travelling for months at a time on a ship with 300 others, encountering natives, and much more.

The information is based on log books, contemporary biographies by people who were present on board, as well as other con...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maybe it is because I now have many wonderful followers of my blog or maybe it is because so many wonderful fellow bloggers leave wonderful comments on my blog posts…well, honestly, I don’t know why, but for some reason I now receive many, many offers of free books to be reviewed. And now, unlike in the past, many, many of these many, many offers of free books are books that are fabulous. And unknown.

My favorite kinds of reads. Small, unknown treasures.

This book is one of those small, unknown t...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Donna rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, science

This is certainly an intriguing story. Jeanne Baret was a French peasant herb woman who was also the work collaborator and mistress of botanist Philibert Commerson. In 1765 she disguised herself as a man and set sail with Commerson on an expedition to circumnavigate the globe. The problem with the book is that there is only a tiny amount of real information about these people and their motivations and what really went on onboard the ship. Unfortunately that doesn't stop Ridley from speculating b...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Iben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-bookshelf

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret tells the tale of an extraordinary woman who embarks on a journey through a world not usially thought of as male-dominated, the world of botany. On this journey the peasent-born Jeanne disguises herself as a man on a two year long expedition around the world to document plantlife.

I was taken in by Jeanne from the beginning. Here is a woman who is both clever and resourceful, and who completely changes her life from what it "should" have been.
I could easily imagine...more

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Jan 11, 2013 VerJean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Any non-fiction book that tells the story of an unknown (to me) and unusual historical character and fascinating history of something we all take for granted - - - gets a 5 star rating !
Not only for Ms. Baret, but the story of botany, ship voyages.
These are my cryptic notes - made to help my memory of some facts:

Herbal woman-rural France-met Commerson, became his ‘live-in’ & aid/co-worker.
Philibert Commerson has passion for Botany - Naturalist
works with Swedish Linneaus who created nomenclat...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Al rated it 2 of 5 stars

The biography of a cross-dressing plant-loving globe-circling (but unfortunately man-dependent) Frenchwoman in the mid-1700s.

Ridley makes a disappointing number of suppositions and then runs with those suppositions, basing large chunks of later information on what she is merely assuming might have happened. She also ascribes thoughts and feeling to Baret that simply cannot be confirmed. Despite a few such catches, Ridely writes an engaging biography that I picked up and read all the way through...more

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May 04, 2011 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: armchair-travel, french_history, history, non-fiction, science, botany, exploration, biography, women-explorers

I felt like I was seeing and experiencing the world through Jeanne Baret's eyes in this completely engaging narrative of the first woman to travel around the world at a time when women were not even supposed to be *allowed* on ships. This peasant herb woman, Jeanne, passed herself off as the male assistant to a French botanist tasked with identifying and collecting flora & fauna on a planned voyage of discovery and exploration around the world. This deception was necessary because naval rule...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Sissy rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wish I could say the author did justice to the enticing and largely unknown tale of Jeanne Baret (Jean/ Baret, Bare, Bonnefoy etc). The author, Glynis Ridley, has produced a work that seems largely motivated by her own ideals and more than eager to speculate widely based on skeletal facts leading to long passages where she presumes to know what "Jean" is going through, what her relationship with Commerson was like and most annoyingly projecting 20th century feminist expectations on all of the...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, non-fiction

In 1765, King Louis XV ordered the first French expedition around the world. Philibert Commerson was appointed the voyage's botanist and charged with discovering medicines, spices and other resources. No women were allowed on ships on this kind of voyage but Commerson's mistress, twenty-six year old Jeanne Baret managed to come aboard posing as Commerson's young male assistant. She was able to keep the ruse up for quite a while but eventually it all fell apart. Even so, she was the first woman t...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Sabina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This is the story of Jeanne Baret, a young woman who, disguised as a man, joined a French expedition in 1765 and became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. She was the mistress of the expedition's offical naturalist, Philibert Commerson, and, crucially, had a lot of botanical knowledge herself due to her profession as a herb woman. She contributed a lot to Commerson's success, a contribution which went competely unacknowledged. Her life among some 300-odd men on board must have been inc...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Crow Quill Studio rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: exploration

A fair portion of this text is based upon conjecture (or educated guesses), but it is still a really compelling book.

The reader is taken onboard the Étoile, one of two vessels engaged in France's first circumnavigation of the globe. And we are introduced to Jeanne Baret, an "herb woman" from the peasant class who more than proves her worth during a grueling two-year voyage at sea (while attempting to conceal the fact that she is a woman).

I found the descriptions of life onboard the ship and in t...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Jenny Brown rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is fiction, not history. Ridley found an intriguing couple of paragraphs about a woman who disguised herself as a man and voyaged around the world, and then, lacking any other primary source material--no word of Barets has survived--Ridley goes on to invent an entire book's worth of narrative, none of it grounded in primary sources.

The book is full of carefully painted scenes describing what Ridley imagines might have happened, down to which berry her subject picked on the shores of Tierra...more This is fiction, not history. Ridley found an intriguing couple of paragraphs about a woman who disguised herself as a man and voyaged around the world, and then, lacking any other primary source material--no word of Barets has survived--Ridley goes on to invent an entire book's worth of narrative, none of it grounded in primary sources.

The book is full of carefully painted scenes describing what Ridley imagines might have happened, down to which berry her subject picked on the shores of Tierra del Fuego, and what malady it was supposed to cure. A list of herbal remedies with no attribution, found bound into Baret's lover's papers, is interpreted based on its handwriting differing from Baret's lover's as a lover's gift from a young Baret. Scenes on shipboard are painted vividly, although there is no basis in fact for these scenes. The phrases, "must have felt" "must have thought" "must have wanted" appear on page after page. So do Baret's tumultuous emotions, which are described minutely in scene after scene, based on nothing but what the author assumes her subject should have felt.

Ridley's imagination so is heavily influenced by 21st century feminist academic theory that she cannot resist the temptation to turn Baret into a saintly icon, the Noble Peasant Herbal Woman, as real as the Noble Savage of the philosophes except much duller.

Ridley takes a few obscure sentences written in conflicting accounts published by gentlemen who sailed with Baret--and makes what she imagines they really mean the mainspring of the book, claiming that Baret was gang raped. From there Ridley imagines her becoming a pathetic victim of post-traumatic stress that dominates the rest of her life. This would be poignant if it were believable, but coming as it does after hundreds of pages of the author making up scene after scene from whole cloth, I could not find it believable. Especially not when once the subject of the putative gang rape is brought up Ridley leaves her hitherto proto-fictional prose style behind and erupts into paragraphs of smug, constipated, academic codespeak to describe the imagined rape.

I would have liked very much to learn about the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. But like so many women of her times Baret left no literary remains. The few paragraphs others wrote about her may have been deeply inspirational to Ridley, but the Baret she invents is a figment of her imagination, created to embody her own strongly held beliefs.

The objective historian puts down this book knowing only that a woman named Baret existed, and traveled the world dressed as a man and acting as the servant of a botanist. What she really did, felt, or experienced remains unknown.

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Feb 11, 2012 Linda Robinson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jeanne Baret was an unusual woman, not just by 18th century standards, but for any time on earth. Disguising herself as a man for a 3 year trip around the world in a ship roughly the size of a big townhouse, packed to the gunwales with male sailors, servants and officers was an act of bravery or magical thinking or extreme stupidity. We don't know what was in her mind because there are no accounts of her adventure written by her. She's been erased from history. Until this book. Part historical a...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Kay rated it 5 of 5 stars

I wish I could have lunch with Jeanne Baret, just us girls, and talk about what all the circumnavigation experiences felt like, what she felt. That she did so much good botanical, herb-woman work, unremarked, shows how far passion can take us, how much we can bear to follow our passion. She's shown as a beast of burden, a victim, an unacknowledged brilliant botanist, but she got to pick the plants, the herbs, to find them--to follow and live out her passion--at a huge price, yes, but the rarity...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Amy L. Campbell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, blogged, non-fiction, reviewed

Note: Review copy sent by publicist.

Ridley has not only managed to not only write the daily details of life Baret would have faced on her voyage, but also included how and why she interpreted primary documents the way she did. This level of transparency ought to be particularly fascinating and useful to historians who wish to follow up, enrich, or repeat Ridley's research.

In the case of Baret, there were several persons on the ship who were determined to hide when her identity as a female was re...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Kate K. F. rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I began this book, I was quickly drawn in by the story of Jeanne Baret who was an herbwoman in France who circumnavigated the globe with Bouganvillea's expedition. The writing is well researched and Ridley knows how to make the past approachable, yet I finished this book feeling unsure. My uncertainty is due to how Ridley presents the discovery of Baret's sex during the journey as she puts a modern reading of the historical sources. This can be important but as most of the book is spent exp...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Pamela Beason rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: History aficionados

Shelves: nonfiction

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway--I love those 'contests'! This is a nonfiction book, and I learned a lot about the time period, the state of science at the time, and life on a sailboat. Generally speaking, I love any book that helps me "escape" to somewhere else, but I tend more toward what is called "creative nonfiction" where a story is inspired by true events and told from the point of view of a particular historical character. This book reads more like a master's thesis, documenting...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psych-womens-studies, memoir-biography, won-on-goodreads

I was fortunate to win a copy of this book on Goodreads.

This is a hard review to write, and I'm very torn as to how to do it as I have mixed feelings about this book.

The importance of this book can't be denied - it is an exploration of the life of Jeanne Baret, who stowed away with her lover Philibert Commerson, masquerading as a man, to circumnavigate the globe and collect plants for their botany exhibits. This act alone was massively couragous. She survived a "hazing" at sea, rough conditions...more I was fortunate to win a copy of this book on Goodreads.

This is a hard review to write, and I'm very torn as to how to do it as I have mixed feelings about this book.

The importance of this book can't be denied - it is an exploration of the life of Jeanne Baret, who stowed away with her lover Philibert Commerson, masquerading as a man, to circumnavigate the globe and collect plants for their botany exhibits. This act alone was massively couragous. She survived a "hazing" at sea, rough conditions, harassment from fellow passengers on the ship, and her gender was finally revealed only when she was threatened with disrobement and rape. She carried heavy equipment, she starved, she did the hard work or gathering the samples, and let Commerson have the glory. She nursed him back to health, she battled seasickness, and there are many many more things she conquered to complete her tasks of plant identification and gathering.

Her contributions to France and the study of botany can't be overstated. Her notes and samples were critical to the science, and her notes ended up within his papers. Due to the status of women at the time she wasn't properly credited. Her life had several personal tragedies, which are also discussed.

There are many conflicting reports of her journey, and the author does a good job piecing together what few facts are available, and even presenting conflicting accounts. She does speculate about her feelings based on what were the cultural norms at the time. This is a heavily researched book, and it's about time that Baret was properly celebrated as a scientist and early example of the contribution of women.

The bad part is the book is, well... dry. I had to struggle to get through it, not because the story isn't important to know, but because the book reads more like an academic study or research paper, not a casual memoir/biography.

I think this book is very, very valuable, and it certainly needed to be written. I don't know how it could be made more "exciting" as the details about events and conversations are so sparse that it can't be told in any other way. The author did a phenomenal job.

Would I recommend this for the average "curious" reader? No. Would I recommend this as part of a Women's Studies or Science curriculum? Absolutely! I think this book would be excellent for the right audience. (less)

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Apr 12, 2013 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ruth by: book club

Shelves: non-fiction, atascocita-library-branch-book-club

I gave this book three stars because I'm still glad I read it and learned about (another) woman written out of the history books. The writing itself, however, deserved two stars. I had such high hopes for The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, but unfortunately the book did not deliver. The author is a college level English professor, not an historian, and it shows. Like other commenters before me have mentioned, this would have been a great work of historical fiction. Instead, it is a mediocre work of...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: giveaways

I was excited to receive a copy of this book on goodreads through a giveaway. I love a book with a sense of adventure and the outline of the book promised to fulfill on that. The Discovery of Jeanne Baret is a nonfiction biography of a French woman who disguised herself as a man in order to join an expedition around the world. The book promised to be good, except there was such a great deal of conjecture as to what she MUST have thought and what she MUST have been feeling, that it was a great di...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Michelle added it · review of another edition

While Jeanne Baret is a fascinating subject and admirable heroine for any woman, the execution of The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe suffers as Glynis Ridley interjects too much supposition for a woman who left virtually no paper trail. No one could possibly know her thoughts or her feelings, and yet that is precisely how Ms. Ridley fills the pages. There is a bit too much reading between the lines on firsthand accoun...more

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May 26, 2012 Sherrie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: already-read

This book is all about one women's voyage on a ship full of men. She is in disguise while taking this trip. What is her reason? No one knows for sure as there is no written word for Jeanne Baret. Her history in this story has been forgotten or written out of the history books. The author tries to give you a sense of what was going on at this time and does a great job of telling the story. Jeanne Baret is an herb woman so she knows something about plants. But during the 1700's women were expected...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Marcie rated it 5 of 5 stars

If anyone asked me a month ago what I thought about Jeanne Baret, I would not have known who they were talking about. However after reading The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley I can now say that Jeanne Baret was quite a woman. Jeanne lived in the 1700's. This time in history was not kind to women. Woman were thought of as feeble, unintelligent and impassioned. Jeanne Baret was none of these things. She grew up and lived in France until she met Philibert Commerson and became not only h...more If anyone asked me a month ago what I thought about Jeanne Baret, I would not have known who they were talking about. However after reading The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley I can now say that Jeanne Baret was quite a woman. Jeanne lived in the 1700's. This time in history was not kind to women. Woman were thought of as feeble, unintelligent and impassioned. Jeanne Baret was none of these things. She grew up and lived in France until she met Philibert Commerson and became not only his lover but also his assistant on an expedition to take her across the globe. Commerson was a botanist who was enamored with Baret and her knowledge of plants. When King Louis XV ordered an expedition around the world to gather information about medicinal plants and information that would help France become the leading expert in these areas, he appointed Commerson the prestigious position of working on this voyage.
Commerson needed someone knowledgeable and hard working to assist him on this journey. None other could compare to Baret. They devised a plan so that Baret could accompany him on this trip. Baret disguised herself as a man. She took on the arduous task without complaint. She worked harder than most men ever do. Her job was back breaking in miserable conditions. She tried very hard to hide the fact that she was a woman however she didn't fool everyone and because of that she faced dire consequences.
The Discovery of Jeanne Baret is a fantastic read. I don't have a particular love for botany but I love discovering historical gems. Glynis Ridley did a fantastic job with uncovering the mystery of Jeanne Baret. She also gives historical background information and explains as to why something is a big deal or what it means for that period of time. This is important because today we don't face the same restricting conventions that people faced in the past. This book is interesting from cover to cover. It's well written and very informative. I'm so glad I had an opportunity to read this novel. If you love history, botany or love reading about people who defy conventions this is a great book to read. (less)

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May 19, 2011 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

It started out reading like a research paper, but it really grew on me. You don't have to love botany, woman's issues, explorers, the Atlantic, the Pacific, science in general, or even history to be captivated by this true story. On occasion, Ridley's interpretations annoyed, since it seemed she made quite a few assumptions about Baret, that might or might not be true. She seemed to be very attached to Baret, which is understandable due to her clearly very intensive and extensive research, so I...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Joyce rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was disappointed in the book The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynnis Ridley. Although it did contain interesting facts about Jeanne Baret and her trip around the globe, there was too much explanation throughout the book about various aspects of Jeanne's involvement on this trip. This book was obviously written to a more scholarly mind than mine. Although the plot line had sounded very interesting to me, too much of the book was bogged down in scholarly explanation of details. What I thought w...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Teri rated it 3 of 5 stars

In the Age of Enlightenment, European countries put great store by exploring the little known, and unknown, parts of the globe. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville is in charge of a French expedition to circumnavigate the globe. As part of this expedition, various scientific projects are included. The eminent botanist Philibert Commerson is one of those scientists, and he is accompanied by an assistant. Woman are considered bad luck on French ships, so the assistant, who had been living with Commerson...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Nezka rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, plants-gardens, narrative-history, biography

Fascinating and dramatic narrative history of the first French-sponsored circumnavigation of the globe, of which 1 person was a woman--Jeanne Baret--disguised as a man. I wish I could say hilarious hijinks ensue, but there is nothing hilarious about them. The quest for botanical treasures and new land for the French empire have remained to Western history, but Glynis Ridley does a phenomenal job in recreating this woman amongst "civilized" men and "noble" savages, though much of it is psychologi...more

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Biography Memoir

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

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