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'When the first woman to circumnavigate the world completed her journey in 1775, she returned home without any fanfare at all.
'Jeanne Barret, an impoverished peasant from Burgundy, disguised herself as a man and sailed on the 1766 Bougainville voyage as the naturalist's assistant. For over two centuries, the story of who this young woman was, why she left her home to undertake such a perilous journey and what happened when she returned has been shrouded in uncertainty.
'Biologist and award-winning author Danielle Clode embarks on a journey to solve the mysteries surrounding Jeanne Barret. From archives, herbariums and museums to untouched forests and open oceans, Clode's mission takes her from France and Mauritius to the Pacific Islands and New Guinea to reveal the previously untold full story of Jeanne's life as well as the achievements and challenges of her famous voyage.
'This book is an ode to the sea, to science and to one remarkable woman who, like all explorers, charted her own course for others to follow.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Dyslexic edition.
Works about this Work
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[Review] In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 18 no. 4 2021; (p. 623-625)
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'Danielle Clode writes in the first chapter on her subject, Jeanne Barret:
'All that is left of Jeanne today are a few fragmentary traces in the archives, a handful of documents, a signature here or there, a reported conversation and descriptions from others, some malicious but mostly admiring (10).'
(Introduction)
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Book Review : In Search of The Woman Who Sailed the World
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November no. 12 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography -
Wind, Water, Sunshine, Soil
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , December 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'In 1766, Jeanne Barret dressed as a man and became the first woman to sail around the world, accompanying naturalist Philibert Commerson. At the close of their journey they disembarked at Mauritius, where Commerson located a ‘charming shrub’ with leaves of many different shapes. He named it Baretia bonafidia for the woman whose clothing, or leaves, concealed who she was. As Jeanne’s biographer Danielle Clode writes, ‘It is an apt plant to name after Jeanne – rare and difficult to find, with very little written about it, and a complex history of misidentification and reclassification’. The plant’s qualities – rarity, elusiveness, an identity difficult to pin down – also reference the challenges Clode encountered in researching and writing In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World. The records in the archive do not amount to much: ‘a handful of documents, a signature here and there, a reported conversation and descriptions from others, some malicious but mostly admiring. Most of the accounts were written or rewritten long after the event’.' (Introduction)
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Interest Piqued : Jeanne Barret, an Obscure Circumnavigator
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 427 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'One of the frustrating things about being a historian is the number of times you are told by others that surely everything in your specialty must already have been ‘done’. After so many decades or centuries, what more could there possibly be to discover? One of the answers is that what interests scholars, and what topics are considered worthy of examination, changes over time. This explains how ‘new’ material – often sitting in the archives for centuries – comes to light. It also explains why women have not always made the cut, a problem compounded, as recent Twitter discussions have highlighted, by how often research about women by female scholars still goes unpublished.' (Introduction)
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Danielle Clode, In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 17-23 October 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'There had been an undercurrent of speculation aboard the Étoile about smooth-faced Jean Barret, the stoic and hard-working assistant and personal valet to the ship’s naturalist-doctor, Philibert Commerson. In April 1768, after the ship moored off Tahiti, a local man, immediately perceiving what the French crew had only guessed, cried out, “Ayenne!” – “Woman!” Jeanne Barret’s secret was out.' (Introduction)
-
Danielle Clode, In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 17-23 October 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'There had been an undercurrent of speculation aboard the Étoile about smooth-faced Jean Barret, the stoic and hard-working assistant and personal valet to the ship’s naturalist-doctor, Philibert Commerson. In April 1768, after the ship moored off Tahiti, a local man, immediately perceiving what the French crew had only guessed, cried out, “Ayenne!” – “Woman!” Jeanne Barret’s secret was out.' (Introduction)
-
Interest Piqued : Jeanne Barret, an Obscure Circumnavigator
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 427 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'One of the frustrating things about being a historian is the number of times you are told by others that surely everything in your specialty must already have been ‘done’. After so many decades or centuries, what more could there possibly be to discover? One of the answers is that what interests scholars, and what topics are considered worthy of examination, changes over time. This explains how ‘new’ material – often sitting in the archives for centuries – comes to light. It also explains why women have not always made the cut, a problem compounded, as recent Twitter discussions have highlighted, by how often research about women by female scholars still goes unpublished.' (Introduction)
-
Wind, Water, Sunshine, Soil
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , December 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'In 1766, Jeanne Barret dressed as a man and became the first woman to sail around the world, accompanying naturalist Philibert Commerson. At the close of their journey they disembarked at Mauritius, where Commerson located a ‘charming shrub’ with leaves of many different shapes. He named it Baretia bonafidia for the woman whose clothing, or leaves, concealed who she was. As Jeanne’s biographer Danielle Clode writes, ‘It is an apt plant to name after Jeanne – rare and difficult to find, with very little written about it, and a complex history of misidentification and reclassification’. The plant’s qualities – rarity, elusiveness, an identity difficult to pin down – also reference the challenges Clode encountered in researching and writing In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World. The records in the archive do not amount to much: ‘a handful of documents, a signature here and there, a reported conversation and descriptions from others, some malicious but mostly admiring. Most of the accounts were written or rewritten long after the event’.' (Introduction)
-
Book Review : In Search of The Woman Who Sailed the World
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November no. 12 2020;
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography -
[Review] In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 18 no. 4 2021; (p. 623-625)
— Review of In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World 2020 single work biography'Danielle Clode writes in the first chapter on her subject, Jeanne Barret:
'All that is left of Jeanne today are a few fragmentary traces in the archives, a handful of documents, a signature here or there, a reported conversation and descriptions from others, some malicious but mostly admiring (10).'
(Introduction)