'Discovery of Jeanne Baret' an Engrossing Journey
Review: Women, science and a new world are part of the fascinating 'Discovery of Jeanne Baret'
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL Associated Press
December 29, 2010 (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=12498526"The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe" (Crown, $25), by Glynis Ridley: Readers who join author Glynis Ridley's fascinating literary expedition will discover far more than the life of the first woman to sail around the world.
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When naval commander Louis-Antoine de Bougainville set out in 1766 to circumnavigate the globe, Commerson was the lead naturalist. To accompany him in spite of a royal edict forbidding women aboard the king's ships, Baret disguised herself as a young man and signed on as Commerson's valet and assistant.
Their voyage was hardly the stuff of romantic comedy. Her pretense came with constant physical pain. She suffered eczema under the tight linen bindings that held down her breasts, and her constricted lungs strained as she climbed hills bearing the botanist's gear. The fear of being found out, and possibly raped, was constant.
She quieted rumors of gender-bending by claiming to be a eunuch, thus putting off those sailors who feared such a fate or pitied such a creature.
