BEYOND THE LIMIT

A lightly fictionalized first novel about Sofya Kovalevskaya (1850–91), who became a distinguished Russian mathematician against daunting odds, meticulously details the turbulent times of her era and the problems she grappled with, though Sofya herself remains more elusive.

Spicci, wife of writer Fred Saberhagen and a mathematician herself, conscientiously chronicles Sofya’s perseverance, beginning in the winter of 1865 as she and her elder sister Anyuta befriend Dostoevsky and plot how they can change their lives. Anyuta, forceful, spirited, and determined to defy her well-born parents, is a writer, feminist, and would-be political revolutionary. Sofya, at fifteen, is five years younger and a talented mathematician who longs to be admitted to the university, something women are forbidden in Russia. Anyuta and her feminist friends suggest a solution: one of them will marry, in name only, a sympathetic man, and the couple will go abroad where they’ll act as chaperones for the other young women, who can enroll in universities there. Anyuta persuades Sofya to marry Vladimir Kovalevsky, a handsome publisher, ambitious scientist, and supporter of women’s rights. They leave Russia and live in Vienna, Heidelberg, and Berlin, sharing accommodation with other Russian women scholars. Sofya, determined to get a Ph.D., studies with the best professors she can find. Vladimir loves his token wife, but she, though increasingly dependent on Vladimir’s company and support, resists her growing feelings for him, fearing that she will fall pregnant and end her career. Anyuta, meanwhile, married to a French Socialist, becomes involved in the Paris Commune of 1871. When the city is besieged by the Republican forces, Sofya, ignoring the danger, goes to Anyuta’s aid, though she deplores the Commune’s violent behavior, and helps her escape when the Commune is routed. As Vladimir grows impatient with Sofya’s refusal to live properly together until she has completed her dissertation, Sofya, not wanting to lose him, searches for solutions to their dilemma.

An intriguing if incomplete portrait of an unusual marriage.