Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
Kim Todd, . . Harcourt, $27 (328pp) ISBN 978-0-15-101108-7
Metamorphosis has long fascinated humankind, but few people more than Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), who spent her life illustrating this mysterious process in insects. Merian grew up in Germany, married, had two daughters, left her husband to join a Labadist (pietist) community in West Friesland, moved to Amsterdam and, at age 52, traveled to Surinam to search for insects. Beyond that, little is known about this remarkable woman except for a few letters and her beautiful engravings and watercolors, most of them published in her books on insect metamorphosis. Todd (
Reviewed on: 10/02/2006
Genre: Nonfiction
Hardcover - 328 pages - 978-1-84511-431-2
Paperback - 352 pages - 978-0-15-603299-5