{"product_id":"beyond-the-limit-the-dream-of-sofya-kovalevskaya-9780765302335","title":"Beyond the Limit: The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeyond the Limit  a novel researched for more than ten years by mathematician and educator Joan Spicci  is the true story of Sofya Kovalevskayas 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 Europes great mathematicians of the nineteenth century.  For more than one hundred years  Kovalevskayas 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 Kovalevskayas 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 Europes 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  theyre 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 Spiccis compelling narrative accurately documents Sofyas educational and professional struggle  in Beyond the Limit.  This fascinating  intimate portrait of Sofya Kovalevskayas life confronts issues of womens rights and feminism that continue to face women who pursue careers in the sciences in the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651375095861,"sku":"ByrdShop_0765302330","price":233.52,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780765302335.jpg?v=1781834236","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/beyond-the-limit-the-dream-of-sofya-kovalevskaya-9780765302335","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}