The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
Richard Holmes
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
3.95
· 20 ratings · 554 pages · Published: 31 Mar 2008
Other voyages of discovery – astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical – swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's original evocation of what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder. Two scientific lives dominate the book: that of William Herschel, whose tireless dedication to the stars, assisted (and perhaps rivalled) by his sister Caroline, forever changed the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the meaning of the universe itself. Meanwhile, Humphry Davy, a grammar-school boy from Cornwall, shocked the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments, then went on to invent the miners' lamp, and to establish British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe – but at the cost, perhaps, of his own heart.
Brilliantly conceived as a 'relay race of scientific stories', The Age of Wonder proposes a radical vision of science before Darwin, exploring the earliest ideas of deep time and space, and the startling impact of discovery on great writers such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats, Between moments of high exhilaration – ballooning, exploring and soul-searching – this extraordinary evocation of the Romantic Age shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how discoveries (and errors) are made, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide. The result is breathtaking in its originality, its story-telling energy, and its intellectual significance.
Note: alternative cover edition. ISBN: 9780007149520
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