The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes
The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes
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The Age of Wonder
How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

Author: Richard Holmes

Narrator: Gildart Jackson

Unabridged: 21 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/16/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, Science

Synopsis

The Age of Wonder is a colorful and utterly absorbing history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the eighteenth century gave birth to the Romantic Age of Science. When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discoveryastronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophicalswiftly follow in Richard Holmes's thrilling evocation of the second scientific revolution. Through the lives of William Herschel and his sister Caroline, who forever changed the public conception of the solar system; of Humphry Davy, whose nearsuicidal gas experiments revolutionized chemistry; and of the great Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to Coleridge and Keats, who were inspired by the scientific breakthroughs of their day, Holmes brings to life the era in which we first realized both the aweinspiring and the frightening possibilities of sciencean era whose consequences are with us still.

About Richard Holmes

Richard Holmes is Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia. His is a Fellow of the British Academy, has honorary doctorates from UEA and the Tavistock Institute, and was awarded an OBE in 1992. His first book, ‘Shelley: The Pursuit’, won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1974. ‘Coleridge: Early Visions’ won the 1989 Whitbread Book of the Year, and ‘Dr Johnson & Mr Savage’ won the James Tait Black Prize. ‘Coleridge: Darker Reflections’ won the Duff Cooper Prize and the Heinemann Award. He has published two studies of European biography, ‘Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer’ in 1985, and ‘Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer’ in 2000.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on January 08, 2025

Whereas Newton, Hooke, Locke and Descartes were pop stars of the first scientific revolution in the 17th century, Richard Holmes looks at what Coleridge called a “second scientific revolution,” the era of scientific breakthrough between Captain Cook’s first circumnavigation in 1768 and Darwin’s jour......more

Goodreads review by Kemper on October 28, 2009

There's nothing like reading a book about really smart and energetic people back in ye olden days to make you feel like a lazy piece of crap. I'm sitting here in front of a magic box where I could type in the words 'Hubble telescope' in an image search and instantly see pictures of distant planets a......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on February 10, 2021

The Age of Wonder is a book I have savoured over many months. I worked my way slowly through it, enjoying every word and every miracle the author captured here. Excitement, newness and possibly drove the brightest minds of the age to discover wonderous things. And there is a pervading presence of th......more

Goodreads review by Kelly on December 02, 2012

I think the time has come for me to admit that I am either not going to finish this, or at least that I will finish it in very slow chunks over a much longer period than I had planned. Holmes' book purports to put forth a unifying thesis about how science influenced the Romantic generation. All the n......more

Goodreads review by fourtriplezed on November 17, 2022

The idea of reading history is to hopefully learn from one's curiosity on the subject at hand, and I was lucky to learn about the Romantic Generation in the Age of wonder. Author Richard Holmes has dominated the telling of this story with the lives of outstanding astronomer William Herschell, Humphr......more

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