The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

A graphic novel about Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, and their quixotic Victorian escapades designing computers and algorithms nearly a century before their time? As fascinating as that may already sound, it’s only the beginning. This is the only graphic novel I’ve read that has footnotes to the footnotes—immensely amusing footnotes. While reading this book, I feel constantly in the presence of insane genius. (But please read this book on physical paper. It is a work of art.)

I had to read this one twice. First, with just the pictures, it’s a lighthearted steampunk fantasy: episodic tales of Victorian humor and cool mathematics. Second, reading the copious footnotes and endnotes, it’s something heftier: an exhaustively researched account of two pivotal figures in math history. Padua’s art is so skillful I’m not even jealous, just awed.

Babbage’s computer, the Analytical Engine, was never built, but in this steampunk graphic novel, he and Ada do, enlisting Queen Victoria (who at last provides the government funding that was denied Babbage), George Eliot, and a host of others in a brilliant imagining based on thorough research and astounding comprehension. Padua even visually renders the massive machine and its operation. I can’t emphasize enough the richness of this book, or commend the herculean effort that must have gone into its making. A gem and another invaluable contribution to the long resurrection of Ada Lovelace.