During the English Age of Reason, a woman cloistered since birth learns that knowledge is no substitute for experience. Raised by her father in near isolation in the English countryside, Emilie Selden is trained as a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. In the spring of 1725, father and daughter embark upon their most daring alchemical experiment to date--attempting to breathe life into dead matter. But when Emilie--against her father's wishes--experiences the passion of first love, she is banished to London, where she soon discovers she knows nothing about human nature--or her own family's complicated past. So begins her shocking journey to enlightenment. Also available as a Random House Large Print edition and as an eBook