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'Rich and sparkling, this is a wonderful book.' Claire Tomalin, Guardian, Books of the Year 'Exuberant!Holmes suffuses his book with the joy, hope and wonder of the revolutionary era. Reading it is like a holiday in a sunny landscape, full of fascinating bypaths that lead to unexpected vistas!it succeeds inspiringly.' John Carey, Sunday Times 'Thrilling: a portrait of bold adventure among the stars, across the oceans, deep into matter, poetry and the human psyche.' Peter Forbes, Independent 'A glorious blend of the scientific and the literary that deserves to carry off armfuls of awards and confirms Holmes's reputation as one on the stellar biographers of the age.' Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year 'No question -- the non-fiction book of the year is Richard Holmes's "The Age of Wonder", not only beautifully written, but also kicking open a new perspective on the Romantic age.' Andrew Marr, Observer, Books of the Year 'Itself a wonder -- a masterpiece of skilful and imaginative storytelling.' Michael Holroyd, Guardian, Books of the Year 'Dazzling and approachable. It's a brilliantly written account!original in its connections and very generous in its attention.' Andrew Motion, Guardian, Books of the Year 'Witty, intellectually dazzling and wholly gripping.' Richard Mabey, Guardian, Books of the Year 'So immediate and so beguiling is Holmes's prose that we are with him all the way.' Sunday Telegraph 'Brimming with anecdote, Holmes's enthusiastic narrative amply conveys the period's spirited, often reckless pursuit of discovery with an astute balance of technical detail and the wider cultural picture.' Financial Times 'Glittering.' Christian Tyler, Financial Times (Book of the Year) 'A splendid plum pudding of a book.' Nigel Hawkes , The Times (Book of the Year) 'This superb book!is a series of cracking narratives. What a privilege to have a guide such as Richard Holmes.' Daily Telegraph 'The author brings the full force of his love and understanding of the Romantic age to the lives of three pioneering figures!.Holmes's writing, like the figures he describes, is "driven by a common ideal of intense, even reckless personal commitment to discovery", and this is what makes his book so wonderful.' Sunday Times 'Exhilarating.' Daily Express 'Exhilarating in its ambition.' Scotsman (Book of the Year) 'A dazzling cornucopia.' Economist (Book of the Year) 'No one could be better qualified for the task!Scientists, like poets, need a sense of wonder, a sense of humility and a sense of humour. Holmes has all three in abundance.' Sunday Telegraph 'Heartbreaking accounts of hopes and fears, ambitions and disappointments dance along the pages!There is no dry page in this visceral, spirited and sexy account.' The Times 'Richard Holmes's stellar collective biography!gives a gripping account of the scientific research that inspired a sense of wonder in poets and experimenters alike!fascinating!this beautifully crafted book deserves all the praise it will undoubtedly attract. Well-researched and vividly written, "The Age of Wonder" will fascinate scientists and poets alike.' Literary Review 'A new model for scientific exploration and poetic expression in the Romantic period. Informative and invigorating, generous and beguiling, it is, indeed, wonderful.' Guardian 'Vividly conveys the compelling fusion of art and science in the 18th century!this is a book to linger over, to savour the tantalising details of the minor figures!"The Age of Wonder" allows readers to recapture the combined thrill of emerging scientific order and imaginative creativity.' Financial Times 'Wonderfully engaging!Holmes brilliantly illuminates the human and subjective aspects of science-making.' Scotsman 'Mesmerising!Holmes succeeds in bringing alive this period in all its complexities without ever losing the narrative pace!his writing itself proves that science and poetry can be united.' Mail on Sunday 'A seamless narrative that is laced, to good effect, with a great deal of titillating gossip. The end result is a masterpiece: informative, amusing, insightful -- and utterly compelling.' Observer 'Delicious!exuberant and thought-provoking.' New Statesman 'Fascinating in its own right; but more than that it serves as a model of how science should be taught!recovering and communicating the beauties and truths of modern science, uniting the two cultures, awaits its genius. This book provides the inspiration.' Spectator 'Compelling!a remarkable achievement. Romanticism in all of its multifaceted richness has had no guide more eloquent than Richard Holmes.' THES 'Vivid and finely constructed.' Miranda Seymour, Observer 'Magisterial!Holmes makes heavy use of personal diaries, journals, letters and notebooks!this confessional dimension!lends the book a wonderful intimacy!compelling.' Evening Standard 'Dazzling. A biography like few I have ever read.' James Wood, Guardian 'Brain food of the most interesting kind, this is a book that readers will love as much as the author's "Shelley".' The Independent
Book Description
Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes's dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement. The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, who stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 fully expecting to have located Paradise. Back in Britain, the same Romantic revolution that had inspired Banks was spurring other great thinkers on to their own voyages of artistic and scientific discovery -- astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical -- that together made up the 'age of wonder'. In this breathtaking group biography, Richard Holmes tells the stories of the period's celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight to the miner's lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant examination of the Romantic spirit and its "great journey" during the evolution of science,
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This review is from: The Age of Wonder (Hardcover)
While explaining "how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science," Richard Holmes focuses on what "became the first great age of the public scientific lecture, the laboratory demonstration and the introductory textbook, often written by women. It was the age when science began to be taught to children, and the `experimental method' became the basis of a new, secular philosophy of life, in which the infinite wonders of Creation (whether divine or not) were increasingly valued for their own sake...Finally, it was the age which challenged the elite monopoly of the Royal Society, and saw the foundation of scores of new scientific institutions, mechanics institutes and `philosophical' societies."Although Holmes poses and then responds to hundreds of questions or has others do so, "the book remains a narrative, a piece of biographical storytelling. It tries to capture something of the inner life of science, its impact on the heart, as well as on the mind. In the broadest sense it aims to present scientific passion, so much if it which is summed up in that childlike, but infinitely complex word, [begin italics] wonder [end italics]." In the Epilogue, offering an especially eloquent and compelling conclusion to his book, Holmes acknowledges that "there is a particular problem with finding endings in science. Where do these science stories really finish? Science is truly a relay race, with each discovery handed on to the next generation. Even as one door is closing, another door is already being thrown open.... "But science is now continually reshaping its history retrospectively. It is starting to look back and rediscover its beginnings, its earliest traditions and triumphs, but also its debates, its uncertainties and its errors...Similarly, it seems to me impossible to understand fully the contemporary debates about the environment, or climate change, or genetic engineering, or alternative medicine, or extraterrestrial life, or the future of consciousness, or even the existence of God, without knowing how these arose from the hopes and anxieties of the Romantic generation. "But perhaps most important, right now, is the changing appreciation of how scientists themselves fit into society as a whole, and the nature of the particular creativity they bring to it. We need to consider how they are increasingly vital to any culture of progressive knowledge, to the education of young people (and the not so young), and to our understanding of the planet and its future. Foe this, I believe science needs to be presented and explored in a new way. We need not only a new history of science, but an enlarged and imaginative biographical writing about individual scientists... "The old, rigid debates and boundaries - science versus religion, science versus the arts, science versus traditional ethics - are no longer enough. We should be impatient with them. We need a wider, more generous, more imaginative perspective. Above all, perhaps, we need the three things that a scientific culture can sustain: the sense of individual wonder, the power of hope, and the vivid but questing belief in a future for the globe. And that is how this book might possibly end." And indeed so it does. Congratulations to Richard Holmes on a brilliant achievement. Bravo!
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The fascination of History,
This review is from: The Age Of Wonder: How The Romantic Generation Discovered The Beauty And Terror Of Science (Paperback)
This is a ranging review of all that might be of interest to a history buff during the interval between the voyages of Cook in the Endeavour and Darwin in the Beagle. The author calls this the Age of Wonder. It was by his account a true age of wonder. Beware of reading this book in bed. You will alienate your partner by the frequency with which you say "listen to this" as you read another snippet.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
great research but writing that lacks a lot,
By
This review is from: The Age Of Wonder: How The Romantic Generation Discovered The Beauty And Terror Of Science (Paperback)
Look, I get this is an academic subject but to draw me in you have to write a whole lot better. I gave up halfway through this book as although I found the information on the Mongolfier brothers' ballooning, Joseph Banks' life in Tahiti and William Herschel's exploration of the stars really wonderful, the chapters all began to sound exactly the same.They'd all seem to start off introducing the topic or person with background on their parents and family life leading up to whatever it is they became famous for. Then we'd end all chapters with some connection to a Romantic poet. I also found the whole book way too English-centric. Yes, there are French scientists and inventors thrown in but I just felt could it really be that Britain rules the science waves, too? Anyway, another annoying point is the fact some totally fascinating aspects are never fully explained. Apparently back in 1700s, ordinary people attended scientific and medical lectures and this created "stars" of these people. It seems unfathomable in this day and age so was this the way the world was back then pre-movies/TV? Then there's the whole ability to actually earn a living by having royalty pay for scientists to tinker around. Again, a different era as today scientists would be employed by the private sector or in universities. There's also the case of William Herschel originally making a living in music by farming himself out as a music teacher cum conductor in small towns around England. I found that totally fascinating as if every little town competed against every other town for some musical status. These nuggets do make the book rise but then are dragged down by this dirge-like text. This book needed a much sharper editor to pare it down to crisper text. The thing is 466 pages long and has a 58-page index! That's all well and good if you doing an academic paper but this is put out by Harper Press for the general public. Cut the chafe and get to the wheat of the matter and this book would be a solid 5 stars.
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