I agree with your assessment that DiMeo pushes back against previous writing about the life of Lady Ranelagh. The book for me was very readable and flowed perfectly. Dimeo writes with almost a fictional flourish that brings Lady Ranelagh to life. I did not know about Lady Ranelagh before reading this book and feel that DiMeo provided a full biography that could be enjoyed by people with a wide range of interests. One of the most important points that I enjoyed was that Lady Ranelagh was a significant inspiration for her younger brother Robert Boyle. Boyle became the founder of modern chemistry and he exchanged letters and ideas about chemistry with his sister. Previous scholarship placed her around Boyle but did not explain her contributions to Boyle’s work. DiMeo also uses digital scholarship to support her argument. DiMeo shows the connections in letters exchanged between Lady Ranelagh and members of the Hartlip correspondence circle. Overall, DiMeo crafted a wonderful book that revolves around a misunderstood woman in Early Modern England.

I really liked this book and felt that it intertwined so many themes of this era. Using the life of Lady Ranelagh the author was able to chart her expeditions in an upper-class academic society as a woman. Although I struggled to pinpoint her purpose for this book, I think it lies with some great historiographical significance as this is the first book written solely about her, and also uncovers new ideas about the roles of women in academia during this time