Book description
Jeanne Villepreux-Power was never expected to be a scientist. Born in 1794 in a French village more than 100 miles from the ocean, she pursued an improbable path that brought her to the island of Sicily. There, she took up natural history and solved the two-thousand-year-old mystery of how of…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Lady and the Octopus as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I devoured this biography of Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794–1871), the inventor of the modern aquarium, in one afternoon. Written by a marine biologist and cephalopod expert, the book is intended for young readers (ages 10–18), yet I found it immensely engaging as an adult. Jeanne revolutionized marine biology by creating the modern aquarium to observe sea creatures—particularly the argonaut octopus—in their natural environment, and she confirmed that argonauts craft their own shells.
I was fascinated by the obstacles she overcame—her career was overshadowed by sexism, betrayal from fellow scientists, and misfortune, including the loss of much of her work in a…
From Isabelle's list on The best books that convinced me to stop eating octopus salad.
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