Mary Somerville (1780–1872) is a mathematician known in France for her translation of Laplace's Mécanique céleste (see Pierre-Simon Laplace, Bibliothèque Tangente 88, POLE, 2024). Her life bears witness to the tenacity of a self-taught scholar, which would ultimately earn her recognition. The Personal Recollections, published by her daughter, offer us a glimpse into her private life.
An unsupportive first husband
As a child, Mary Fairfax—her name at birth—reads voraciously, much to her family's displeasure. Nor does her first husband have much sympathy for his wife's mathematical interests:
"My husband had taken me to his bachelor lodgings in London, which was extremely small and poorly ventilated. I had a key to the nearby square, where I used to walk. I was alone throughout the day, so I continued my mathematical and other pursuits, but under very unfavourable conditions; for although my husband did not prevent me from studying, I received no sympathy whatsoever from him, since he had a poor opinion of the abilities of my sex and had neither knowledge of nor interest in any branch of science. I took French lessons and learned to speak it well enough to make myself understood. […]
I did not go into society; I rose early and, having plenty of time, resumed my mathematical studies. By then, I had studied plane and spherical trigonometry, conic sections and Fergusson's Astronomy. I believe it was immediately after my return to Scotland that I attempted to read Newton's Principia. I found it extremely difficult, and I certainly did not understand it until I returned to it some time later, when I studied that marvellous work with great diligence and wrote copious notes and observations on it."
