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Average Customer Review
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Outstanding, 3 April 2009
I was given this as a Christmas present. Richard Holmes crafts a fascinating story that brings fully to life the period covered (late 18th and early 19th centuries). I was hooked from the first page as the exploits, discoveries and tribulations of Joseph Banks, William and Caroline Herschel, Mungo Park, Humphry Davy and a cast of other leading 'scientists' were woven together in a wonderful tapestry (no pun intended). Richard Holmes' prose is fluent and captivating. This is one book that really lives up to the blurb on the cover. Read it!
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
A magnificent read, 29 Mar 2009
There are plenty books written on modern science, exploration (geographical and scientific), fledgling scientific breakthroughs, romantic poetry, human psychology and biographies of major scientific protagonists (with all their vanities and petty jealousies, as well as their soft, fuzzy side) - but all this in ONE book? It's a masterpiece, beautifully written, wittily observed and carefully footnoted. Every page a delight.
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73 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
Comments by Michael Calum Jacques, author of '1st Century Radical'., 4 Dec 2008
This reviewer found this work to be an altogether fascinating book, scanning and encompassing a myriad of topics and even ideas "heterogeneously yoked by violence together", cemented through the sheer quality and vivacity of the author's writing merits.
Holmes has been described as 'a literary traveller'. To risk being oversimplistic, and depending on one's own standpoint, this work deals with the the embracing of scientific principles by the Romantics or, for some, nearer to Johnson's definition, the collision of the two value systems and a resultant synthesis of sorts.
Like the Romantic poets themselves, the author also presents scientific research as comprising of a world of opportunities, as a type of challenging, new expedition. Holmes draws attention to William Wordsworth's depiction of Isaac Newton as a lonesome explorer and, indeed, Holmes goes actually on to label two huge expeditions as sorts of watermarks. viz. Captain James Cook's first encircling of the world, between 1768 and 1771, and Charles Darwin's celebrated voyage and research conducted on the Beagle, between 1831 and 1836.
These selections concentrate Holmes attention on what is chronicled elsewhere as having been an intensely noteworthy span of some 60 years when science became practised by 'professionals, not merely by rich, at ease 'amateurs' who happened to have the luxury of time at their disposal. Detailed examples from the book could fill the space and time available for this review and many more. The book is quite compendious in its stated field of interest but indulges in the study of particular subjects (human and topical ones) to ensure its depth.
Of course, the impact of science in the Victorian age (and beyond) has many more facets to it that one volume could ever hope to encompass. The impact of science upon faith, for example, especially upon Christian Faith, is a subject still yearning for greater definition and delineation.
The 550+, information and anecdote clad, pages to be found within 'The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science' by Richard Holmes, come strongly commended by this reviewer. It does 'all that it says on the cover' and far, far more besides. Richard Holmes has never written better and, if you've enjoyed his previous works, you'll find this an absorbing read.
Michael Calum Jacques (author of 1st Century Radical)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A book of wonders, 5 Oct 2009
This is how human history and the exciting spirit of scientific discovery should be conveyed to us all, as something important and vital, inspiring to us now. Richard Holmes has an uncanny ability to make the past as vivid as though it were happening outside your window. Whether writing about eighteenth century society's dreams of flight or discovery of the secrets of the solar system, the challenge of survival deep underground, or exploration of the farthest corners of the earth, he recreates this Age of Wonder with immediacy, elegance, passion and grace. It's a fascinating general narrative history about exceptional men and women; entertaining, yet beautifully written and informed by the highest standards of scholarship and interpretation.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A great read, 13 Jul 2009
I share the enthusiasm of the other reviewers. My only disappointment was that I expected a little more scientific detail. For example, what skills / techniques / insights did Herschel bring to the design and manufacture of his mirrors? And just how did Davy identify methane? This quibble aside, it was superbly written and has left me curious to learn more. Can anyone recommend a similarly well-written book which covers more of the science?
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31 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
A truly compelling history of science in the Enlightenment, 17 Dec 2008
I'm not a scientist. I have only a passing interest in the history of science. However, I'm c250 pages in and I am gripped. Holmes has the narrative skill of a great novelist, conjuring worlds and characters out of what could have so easily have been dry facts. Starting with Joseph Banks' experiences in Tahiti (he travelled as part of Cook's expedition), Holmes takes the reader into the mindset of the European encountering new, unknown worlds. In particular - in this case - their complex responses to the Tahitians' more open attitudes towards sex and sexuality. And that is one of the greatest strengths of the book. Whether it's dealing with Herschel and the discovery or Uranus or Davy and his lamp, The Age of Wonder is as much about the late 18th/early 19th century mind as it is about the science and scientists. Indeed, the book sees science through the eyes of the romantic movement (and a Britain in love with romanticism), so Coleridge, Keats and the Shelleys become major players in the narrative. Despite the focus on Herschel and Davy and their particular discoveries, the reader is compellingly immersed in a far wider exploration of ideas and culture in this period. The widespread excitement that scientific discovery generated is palpable and you can't help feeling that we have lost something very important in a world where science and the arts are so often perceived as near polar opposites. Wholeheartedly recommended to anyone in search of a rattling good read this Christmas, especially those who don't think that science is their pigeon.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Readable and informative., 25 Feb 2009
I put this on my Christmas list as my current Open University course covers the period. It is a superb read and has certainly shed more light for me on a very important period of history.
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18 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
A fascinating read, 16 Dec 2008
Given this book as a birthday present I started to read it as I had half an hour to kill and was immediately gripped. This is a wonderfully written and thoroughly interesting collection of stories, anecdotes and brief biographies woven together with skill and care. I have learned a lot whilst reading this book and enjoyed myself in the process, I heartily recommend it.
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
The Age Of Wonder, 2 Feb 2009
The best book I know for anyone who wishes to take a broad look at the great moment in European history when science and the intellect took over from religious superstition.
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9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Easy to read, informative and highly entertaining, 22 Jan 2009
This book provides a wonderful introduction to the way people were thinking in the period covered. It shows how the "romantic" poets and the scientists were parts of the integrated intellectual life of the day, not merely taking an interest in their own subjects but engaging in each others' areas of expertise. The quest for learning for its own sake and an associated sense of wonder shine out as the characteristics of the period.
The selection of the areas on which the author chooses to focus struck me at first as odd, but it does work coherently. I was slightly disappointed by the relative absence of John Dalton, but I guess it was difficult to be Romantic in any sense when based in Manchester.
Finally, this book is an excellent introduction not to the detailed science, but rather to the ways of thinking of those whose stories are touched upon.
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