The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of ScienceThe 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 discovery—astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical—swiftly 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 near-suicidal 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 awe-inspiring and the frightening possibilities of science—an era whose consequences are with us still. BONUS MATERIAL: This ebook edition includes an excerpt from Richard Holmes's Falling Upwards. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - rivkat - LibraryThingBiographies of some important figures of British-adjacent science at the end of the eighteenth century, including their perspectives on the relationship of science to the humanities. If you really ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - LisCarey - LibraryThingThis is a fascinating account of the growth of science in Romantic Age of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Holmes looks at the period through the lives of ground-breaking scientists, and ... Read full review
Contents
| 1 | |
Herschel on the Moon | 60 |
Balloonists in Heaven | 125 |
Herschel Among the Stars | 163 |
Mungo Park in Africa | 211 |
Davy on the | 235 |
Dr Frankenstein and the Soul | 305 |
Davy and the Lamp | 337 |
Sorcerer and Apprentice | 381 |
Epilogue | 467 |
Bibliography | 485 |
| 497 | |
Acknowledgements | 526 |
Other editions - View all
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and ... Richard Holmes No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
Archive Mss Box astronomer Babbage balloon Banks's beautiful became Beddoes began Bristol British brother Caroline Caroline Herschel Caroline's Charles Charles Babbage chemical chemist chemistry Coleridge comet Cook Darwin Davies Giddy Davy's discovery earth edition electricity English Erasmus Darwin expedition experiments explore eyes Faraday forty-foot Frankenstein French HD Archive Mss huge human Humphry Davy Ibid idea James Jane Jeffries John Herschel Journal Keats laboratory Lady later Lavoisier lectures letter light London Lunardi Mary Mary Shelley Mary Somerville Maskelyne Memoirs Michael Faraday Montgolfier moon Mungo Park nature nebulae never Nevil Maskelyne Newton night nitrous oxide November observation Paris Park's Penzance perhaps philosophical planet poem poet poetry published Royal Institution Royal Society safety lamp scientific seemed Shelley Sir Humphry Sir Joseph Banks Solander stars Tahiti Tahitian telescope Thomas Thomas Beddoes thought Treneer universe voyage WH Chronicle WH Papers William Herschel Wordsworth wrote young
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science |
| Author | Richard Holmes |
| Publisher | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009 |
| ISBN | 0307378322, 9780307378323 |
| Length | 576 pages |
| Subjects | › › Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology Philosophy / History & Surveys / General Science / History |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |