Author's preface; Prologue; Perceiving what others do not perceive: the
'peculiar illumination' of the female mind; 1. Head among the stars, feet
firm upon the earth: the problem of categorizing Mary Somerville; 2.
Creating a room of her own in the world of science: how Mary Fairfax became
the famous Mrs Somerville; 3. Science as exact calculation and elevated
meditation: Mechanism of the Heavens (1931), Preliminary Dissertation
(1832), and On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834); 4. The earth,
the sea, the air, and their inhabitants: Physical Geography (1848) and On
Molecular and Microscopic Science (1869); 5. Personal Recollections (1973):
Mary Somerville on Mary Somerville; 6. Memory and Mary Somerville: in the
public eye and historical memory; Epilogue: science, voice, and vision.
