Breaking Barriers: A Novel Based on the Life of Laura Bassi

by Jule Selbo

Overview

They said, "No!" She asked, "Why?" The answer was always the same: "Because you're a woman." She vowed to shatter each barrier they placed in her way.

Inquisitive and precocious, Laura Bassi grew up on the Italian Peninsula in the 1700s, dreaming of studying science at the famed University of Bologna. It was the Age of Enlightenment and although forward-thinking philosophical ideas and scientific discoveries flourished, the prevailing edict was that college was no place for a woman--no matter how capable, intelligent, or innovative. Laura was told to trust that she would find fulfillment as a dutiful wife and mother.

But why, she wondered, couldn't she have it all?

Smugly assuring themselves of Laura's failure, the ivory tower establishment fought to keep her out of their hallowed halls. Yet, despite restricted access to libraries and laboratories, Laura earned the respect of Europe's top scientists and scholars. She was determined to earn a doctoral degree and teach college physics, something no woman had ever done.

Renouncing the societal norms of the day, Laura never stopped working towards a time when a woman would have the same opportunities as a man, be held to equivalent standards, and realize equal rewards. But first, she had to master Newtonian physics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947431294
Publisher:	Barbera Foundation Inc
Publication date:	04/01/2020
Pages:	316
Sales rank:	637,846
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Jule Selbo is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, and novelist. She has written feature films, and written and produced television series for major studios and networks. Credits include George Lucas's Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, HBO's Women Behind Bars-Prison Stories, and the feature Hard Promises, starring Sissy Spacek; her Disney credits include the animated features Hunchback of Notre Dame Part Deux, Cinderella II, and Ariel's Beginning. Her plays Boxes and Isolate have won regional theater awards. Her novels include Find Me In Florence (2019), Dreams of Discovery, A Novel Based on the Life of John Cabot (2019) and Pilgrim Girl (2005, co-written with Laura Peters). She is a professor at California State University, Fullerton, and has written books on screenwriting and film history, including Screenplay: Building Story Through Character (2015), Film Genre for the Screenwriter (2015), and Women Screenwriters: An International Guide (2016, edited with Jill Nelmes), contributed to Journal of Screenwriting as well as anthologies on film and essays in magazines such as Décor Maine. She is a writer on the podcast MeetCute. She holds a PhD in film from the University of Exeter in England and holds seminars on writing in the USA and internationally.

Editorial Reviews

2020-07-23
A historical novel focuses on the life of a groundbreaking scientist.

In this book, part of the Mentoris Project’s series celebrating noteworthy figures in Italian and Italian American history, Selbo explores the life of 18th-century polymath Laura Bassi. Bassi overcame barriers and prejudice to become the first woman to teach at the University of Bologna. The story opens with 5-year-old Laura asking challenging questions and showing her thirst for knowledge. She begins studying at home with tutors and demonstrates an aptitude for learning and an affinity for the new forms of scientific research that are being developed at the time. Although her mother worries that her daughter’s lack of interest in socializing will doom her to spinsterhood, Laura ends up marrying a fellow academic who supports her research and the laboratory that she establishes at home when the university does not allow her to work on its campus. The author blends lush historical details (“She walked down the center aisle, elegant in a deep blue beaded silk gown, her hairpieces studded with crystals and pearls”) with Laura’s more intellectual pursuits, maintaining a balance between creating the setting and examining more esoteric topics. The book skillfully invokes the Enlightenment themes that drive Laura’s work—science and religion, experiments versus theories, the pursuit of learning—developing them in the text as well as inserting them in characters’ conversations. Readers with limited historical backgrounds will have little trouble following the plot, as Selbo puts Laura’s letters to other prominent scientists, Roman Catholic Church politics, and the characters’ daily lives in the necessary context. The author also adds details and cameo appearances by historical figures who will be familiar to those with knowledge of the era. The novel hews closely to Bassi’s documented history and does an excellent job of plausibly and satisfyingly filling in the blanks of her story. The book is informative without being didactic and delivers an enjoyable narrative that also achieves its educational goals.

An engaging tale based on the life of an intriguing woman.

Kirkus Reviews