The English Chemist: The Story of Rosalind Franklin

by Jessica Mills

The controversial story of one of the twentieth century’s most famed scientists, Rosalind Franklin, who discovered the two-chain helical structure of DNA in 1952— but was then cheated out of the Nobel Prize.Rosalind Franklin knows that to be a woman in a man’s world is to be invisible. In the 1950s, science is a gentleman’s profession and in the years after WWII there are plenty of scientists who want to keep it that way. After being segregated at Cambridge, then ignored and criticized in the workplace, she has no intention of being seen as a second-class scientist and throws everything into proving her worth. But despite her success in unlocking the very secret of life, the ultimate glory is claimed by the men she left in her wake. Inspired by the true story of a woman so many tried to silence, Rosalind is a tale of hope and perseverance, love and betrayal.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2024

Reviews

[Charla Yearwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I wanted to like this book but it was difficult for me to follow. I was never certain of the timeline or where I was in the story. Was she reflecting on a past experience or referring to what was happening in the moment? I also struggled to understand who was who or how they knew and connected with one another. The whole time I felt like I was missing pages and missing context. After a while I just gave up trying.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars
(I use 1 star for books that I get mad at and want to throw at the wall. Or that I DNF.)

I was totally lost for most of this book. It jumped around in time and location. She's working with different people and then she's not working with them and maybe they stole her results. She had an affair with a French scientist and maybe it continued after she left Paris. She went on a trip to the Alps with someone ten years later, but I wasn't sure whether they were romantically involved or not.
The one thing that I didn't know that I learned from this book is that Rosalind Franklin was Jewish.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story needed to be told

There were so many men in the book and it would have helped to use their last names as it was somewhat confusing. Also the different labs and what everyone was doing was not easy to follow. Obviously Rosalind was brilliant and her work was not given enough or any credit. Such a pity this continues to happen to women. DNA is the most fascinating discovery but it is hard to understand the technology of x-ray that made it possible. Not sure you got a sense of Rosalind until the end of the book. Maybe that should have been the beginning.

[Stephanie Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, I really wanted to like it. There was a lot of rambling going on - half-finished conversations, jumping from one location/time to another in the middle of a paragraph. It could be quite confusing. I did like how the author made Franklin personable and human while highlighting her struggle to be taken seriously as a female scientist in a man's world. Even with the information given, it's unclear about Franklin's contributions and the huge leaps she made with discovering the structure of DNA. I might have scored this a 4 or 5 if it were a biography rather than historical fiction.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I found reading this book to be a somewhat strange experience, I am always glad to see more attention called to Rosalind Franklin. The righteous anger simmering throughout her interactions with thise given far too much leeway speaks as much to that time as to now.

An extra star both for the writing of her inner workings and for writing Watson as purely awful as he is, and Francis and Maurice as mealy-mouthed as they have proved to be.

[Joanne Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first read a review of this book I immediately decided to read it. The discovery of DNA was a defining moment in science and related to most of the work I was involved with in my nursing career. In addition my high school science teacher had said that she had once worked as a student in the lab with Watson and Crick on this project. The book did not fail to provide a look into the lab and people who worked on this project. A worthwhile read about a very important discovery.

[Ruth Chermok · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fictional account of Rosalind Franklin who helped develop the model of DNA. She was never given credit for her contributions. However, aside from intro of a bunch of characters, some not relevant…you have to be a chemist to enjoy the book.

[Lily Orefice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the story of Rosalind Franklin but I think the author could’ve done a better job at how she ordered the series of events.

[JESSICA Provinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Amazing tale and heartbreaking story of a genius whose contributions to science were sadly brushed under the rug.