Chrysalis

Enjoyed this story of a woman who had to fight against the social norms and expectations of the day (early 17th century) to satisfy her need to research and know. She was fascinated by the concept of metamorphosis at a time when many scientists and philosophers simply assumed the principle of spontaneous generation explained the appearance of flies on rotting meat, or roaches and mice from soiled clothes.

She used natural observation and meticulous scientific illustration to document the process of metamorphosis in insects, especially butterflies. Eventually, she traveled to Surinam to research and document the unknown South American insect and plant life because she had exhausted the subjects available to study in the region around Amsterdam. She struggled with being taken seriously by the scientific community and her reputation as an illustrator/naturalist went through a metamorphosis as her work was ridiculed, then plagiarized, then commended well after her death.

This book has a fascinating story line and narrative voice. It's reads like a novel and made me look at nature study and appreciation as a practice of life, not just a single act you do. The author shows how our current understanding of ecology and the study of a whole ecosystem began with Maria's work.