Mary Orr is the Buchanan Chair of French at the University of St Andrews. Her specialist research in nineteenth-century French studies connects its literatures, histories and cultures, and includesthe natural and earth sciences in their ambit.

'Mrs Sarah', 1824: Introduction to Standout Women in Comparative Natural History; Part One: Canvassing Cuvier, Chapter One: AFirst Natural History of the Fishes of West Africa in the Excursions dans les Isles de Madère et de Porto Santo (1826); Chapter Two: A First Natural History of Fishes Illustrated from the Life in The Fresh-Water Fishes of Great Britain (1828-38); Chapter Three: A First Scientific Biography 'from a Woman's Pen': The Memoirs of Baron Cuvier (1833); Part Two: Harnessing Humboldt, Chapter Four: A First (Plant) Geography of the Gambia: Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo (1825); Chapter Five: A Foremost (Woman) Explorer's First-Hand 'Notes': Stories of Strange Lands and Fragments from the Notes of a Traveller (1835); Chapter Six: A Refit for Larger Scientific Purpose? Pioneering Natural History Fiction Abroad and at Home in The African Wanderers (1837); Part Three: Opening Access to Expert Natural History, Chapter Seven: Scientific Illustration Second to None: Doubly Expert Pen and Ink, and the Foremost Uses of (Water) Colour; Chapter Eight: Textbook Natural History: Elements of Natural History (1844; 1850) and New Paradigms for Science Pedagogy; Chapter Nine: 'Just an Anecdote'? Pioneering Perspectives from the Life in Anecdotes of the Habits and Instincts of Animals (1852), Anecdotes of the Habits and Instincts of Birds, Reptiles and Fishes (1853) and Sir Thomas the Cornish Baronet (1856); Sarah Bowdich Lee and Pioneering Perspectives in Natural History: Lessons forToday; Appendices (1-9); Bibliography; Index

This first book-length appraisal of the pioneering perspectives of Sarah Bowdich Lee (1791-1856) on natural history in the first half of the nineteenth century pivotally highlights the intercultural, interdisciplinary and multi-genre reach of her work. The fact that she undertook it independently and transnationally over three decadeschallenges approaches to women, gender and national nineteenth-century scientific endeavour that have defined women at work in the period by their secondary roles (to more famous men in science) that also delimit their contributions and discoveries(as domestic). By focusing on how Sarah undertook her science despite the many bars to women in its fields, this study also promotes one woman's blueprint for non-conformist independent work and, in consequence, an alternative paradigm for the 'leaky pipeline' model still informing women's careers in STEM(M) today.