Izabela the Valiant: The Story of an Indomitable Polish Princess by Adam Zamoyski
SKU: 51909782826

Izabela the Valiant: The Story of an Indomitable Polish Princess by Adam Zamoyski

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Izabela the Valiant: The Story of an Indomitable Polish Princess by Adam ZamoyskiTrawling through a vast family archive and arcane sources in half a dozen languages, Adam Zamoyski has revealed the dramatic life of his great great great grandmother, an uneducated, vulnerable girl cast into a mans world. Her aristocratic position enmeshed her in high politics and close encounters with Frederick the Great, Benjamin Franklin, Rousseau, Joseph II, Marie Antoinette and Tsar Alexander I, and earned her the enmity of Catherine the Great.

Trawling through a vast family archive and arcane sources in half a dozen languages, Adam Zamoyski has revealed the dramatic life of his great-great-great grandmother, an uneducated, vulnerable girl cast into a man’s world.

Her aristocratic position enmeshed her in high politics and close encounters with Frederick the Great, Benjamin Franklin, Rousseau, Joseph II, Marie-Antoinette and Tsar Alexander I, and earned her the enmity of Catherine the Great. She lived through revolution and no less than five wars, in which her cherished homes were devastated, her possessions looted and her children scattered.

Caught up in tempestuous love affairs which led her to nervous breakdown and the brink of suicide, exploited by her lovers, she remained undaunted and liberated herself through education. And, unusually for her time, she became a caring mother devoted to her children. She learned much by travelling extensively around Europe at a time of political and ideological change, and her observations, particularly on Georgian Britain, are remarkable.

She gradually won the admiration of learned men and intellectual honours. She pioneered schooling for children of the poor and developed her own educational methods. Fascinated by the power of objects to kindle memories and arouse emotions, she was an avid collector of anything with a sensuous association and built two unique museums to act as teaching aids.

This is a story of triumph over adversity and betrayal. It was not achieved by her looks: ‘I have never been beautiful, but I have sometimes been pretty,’ she wrote. It was achieved by force of character and resilience.

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SKU: 51909782826

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Peter
Birmingham, US
★★★★★ 5
CODE is the book you should get.
Format: Paperback
The best book to enter the field. Grateful that Charles Petzold decided to write it, even happier this was one of the first books I picked up. Recommend to everyone wanting to become a programmer, or just interested in computers.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2026
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Michael Donoghue
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 5
If you only buy one technical computer book, this is it
Format: Paperback
Disclaimer: I owned the first edition for years and read it a dozen times, mainly for pleasure since it’s not only informative but also just enjoyable to read. I’m a professional software architect and have dozens of textbooks on computer science and engineering so I’ve been around the block. This is the kind of book I would buy all for all my friends (if I had more than a couple) and family members (if they were even slightly into computers, which they aren’t sadly). Petzold does an exceptional job at describing digital logic and guides you through building a conceptual CPU from very first principles. I think his bottom up approach is the way to go and has helped me understand complex topics in an extremely simple way. When I’m not reading fiction, this is my go to bedtime reading. The second edition has about 100 more pages than the first and some content has been completely reworked and it’s great. If you ever had even a passing interest in knowing how computers work at a very fundamental level, get this book!
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Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2023
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Yura
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 4
First programmer?
Format: Paperback
As an ardent reader of the past 1st edition, I was fairly excited to get the latest version. That is, until I encountered the history chapter of the new edition. For one thing, what I do NOT understand in this second edition is the newly added description of August Ada Byron (countless of Lovelace). The author claims it was Babbage who was the first programmer to design the engines, not Ada. I am not trying to start a futile argument here about who has more or fewer contributions, etc. What I am trying to assert here is that it is undisputed that Ada (unless the new evidence arises) left *the very first demonstration* of what this seemingly imaginary machine, which didn't even physically exist, was capable of through her program. Because Babbage designed the engine itself, that doesn't automatically put him in the position of a programmer (despite Babbage being a brilliant engineer/scientist and may have had a simple or detailed program in his mind). However, it was Ada who gave a definite touch to programming concepts that ultimately led to modern-day programming. Ada deserves more recognition than a mere "tutorial writer," and she is certainly entitled to the title she deserves. Other than that, like the previous edition, this book is a must-read for people who are from related/unrelated fields. I always loved the 1st edition, and I would do too with the 2nd. Still, I think history should always be approached with more care, particularly if matters have potential controversies.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2023
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Ben Fleury
Waukegan, US
★★★★★ 5
One of the few books worth your time
Format: Paperback
If you want to learn computers, start here. Learning from a historical perspective removes complexity of trying to start with say GPUs - you learn just like computer engineers did, incrementally.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2026
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Kevin
Pawtucket, US
★★★★★ 5
An absolutely brilliant book
Format: Paperback
This is an amazing book for the right kind of reader. It's a lot like Euclid's Elements but for computers as it leads the reader through designing a computer from first principles and builds to the point of creating software and adding peripherals. It's an amazingly clear but slightly challenging read. I have given this book as a gift many many times. It's an absolute classic in my opinion.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2025

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