EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN

                        

                                         EXTRAORDINARY  WOMEN by Burlington Books

 

We have a new graded reader in our library which I highly recommend. Its title is Extraordinary Women.

It includes the stories of four great but underrated women, who achieved amazing things during their lives and left us a great legacy.

Although today they are recognised and admired, this was not the case during their lifetimes.

Colette (1873-1954) was a French novelist and journalist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1948. Even though whe wrote a series of successful novels, her husband published them under his own name.

A film about her life was released in 2018. You can see the trailer down below.

Ángela Ruiz Robles (1895-1975) was a Spanish teacher and inventor of the mechanical precursor to the electronic book 100 years ahead of her time. With her device she wanted to lighten the weight of books carried by her students. Unfortunately, she wasn't taken seriously.

Here you can see a picture of her rudimentary "tablet"with content in English.

The third accomplished woman included in this book is  Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000). She was an Austrian-American actress and inventor. Apart from acting in 30 films, she invented a secret communication system which was continually rejected, but later adopted by the US navy. Her invention can be considered a precursor to modern Wi-Fi.

If you want to learn more about this brilliant woman, you can watch the short documentary down below.

The last remarkable woman,whose life we can read about about in this book, was the artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656). She was an Italian painter who fought the prejudice of the male-controlled art world, but today her works are recognised as valuable masterpieces. Here you can see her self-portrait.