Audin Michèle. Remembering Sofia Kovalevskaya

Dordrecht: Springer, 2011. — 284 p. — ISBN-10: 085729928X; ISBN-13: 978-0857299284Sofia Kovalevskaya was a brilliant and determined young Russian woman of the 19th century who wanted to become a mathematician and who succeeded, in often difficult circumstances, in becoming arguably the first woman to have a professional university career in the way we understand it today. This memoir, written by a mathematician who specialises in symplectic geometry and integrable systems, is a personal exploration of the life, the writings and the mathematical achievements of a remarkable woman. It emphasises the originality of Kovalevskaya’s work and assesses her legacy and reputation as a mathematician and scientist. Her ideas are explained in a way that is accessible to a general audience, with diagrams, marginal notes and commentary to help explain the mathematical concepts and provide context. This fascinating book, which also examines Kovalevskaya’s love of literature, will be of interest to historians looking for a treatment of the mathematics, and those doing feminist or gender studies.What will you find in this book?ImagesSofya’s chronology
Genealogy
ChronologySofya’s namesStories
The wallpaper story
The asymptotes
Story of the small sine
The pathetic story of the sonata
Story of the white marriage
The Bunsen story
Story of the ugly hat
Story of the Paris Commune
Story of the return to Russia and the suicide
Story of a friendship: Gösta, Karl and Sofya in Stockholm
Story of the mixed-up letters
Story of the Danish isles and pneumonia
Story of the burned letters
Saturn, Sputnik, the asteroids, the Moon
Digressions, history, politics, books, bumps, degeneracy, Bryn Mawr, p-adic numbers and Fanny Mendelssohn, by way of conclusion
The thesis of Sofya, the Cauchy–Kovalevskaya theorem
The three memoirs of the thesis
A problem of Cauchy
Who proved the Cauchy–Kovalevskaya theorem?
On rigor (sequel)
Pause: The rings of Saturn
The solid
What is in the articles
Topicality and modernity of this work
A letter to Mittag-Leffler
Description of the letter
The letter

The mathematics of the letter
Stockholm
Sofya’s position in Stockholm
Life in Stockholm — professional life
The salary issue
Life in Stockholm — public opinion
Life in Stockholm — Anne Charlotte Leffler
Life in Stockholm — friends
Acta Mathematica
Birefringent media
A letter to Vollmar
Why dedicate a chapter to this letter?
Whence comes the text?
Sofya’s friends in Paris
The letter
The Bordin prize and Sofya’s reputation
Parisian life
On 24 December 1888 at the Academy
Her reputation, yesterday... and today?
Clearing hurdles
Sofya’s scientific independence
Sofya or oblivion
Pause: Angels and fishbones
The women of Men of mathematics
The women in the index
Master and pupil
I remember Sofya, by George, Gösta, Julia and all the rest
[i]I too remember Sofya
Sofya, Robert and I
Sofya ambiance
Le cas de Sophie K, by Jean-François Peyret
Sofya’s springtime
Some stories I haven’t told
An honorable woman