Fun fact, Ethel Voynich (Wilfrid's wife) is in fact the daughter of George Boole, who invented Boolean algebra. She was famous in her own right for having written a novel called 'The Gadfly', which I believe to this day is the best selling novel in Russia. Oh and she was Irish, not English.
Author here. That connection to George Boole and her career as a novelist is what got me interested in the Voyniches in the first place, but then I found so much interesting stuff that I decided to write a series of posts on them. I'm planning on digging more into Ethel's history in a second post in the series.
Edit: something else I just found digging around is that there's a book called "The Booles and the Hintons" (https://www.amazon.com/Booles-Hintons-Dynasties-Helped-Moder...) about the entanglement between the two families through marriage and work. One result of the "Boole-Hinton dynasty" turns out to be Geoffrey Hinton.
> which I believe to this day is the best selling novel in Russia
Not even close. However, it has (had?) been included in the list of compulsory reading in schools for a very long time, so although not every Russian teen has actually read it, most should have at least heard the name of the book and the author.
I find these sorts of "unsolved mysteries" to be intriguing in the sense that they invite the reader to join in; to prove they are smarter than those who went before.
When studying I was attracted by things like Fermats Last Theorem , or a proof for NP Complete, or deciphering Voynich etc. They are mental challenges of the highest order.
Fortunately I don't have the discipline to completely immerse myself in any one rabbit hole, it's no more than a passing fancy.
I say "fortunately" because I can easily see an entire life, of a very bright person, being consumed and ultimately fail, which would be tragic.
I prefer the example in the article, interest in the subject leads to skills, which in turn lead to more fruitful endeavours. These mental challenges can be useful, as long as it doesn't turn into obsession.
