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dannb's review against another edition
4.0
Love literature, science, creativity, creation vs evolution? A literary deep dive into the "birth of science as we look at it today" (mid-18th century to the early years of the 19th) - essentially British, with sprinkles of French and German thrown in.
NOT for the casual reader. The language and writing and most definitely literary and dense. Lots to take in and mull over.
NOT for the casual reader. The language and writing and most definitely literary and dense. Lots to take in and mull over.
kellyofcali's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.0
This book was truly full of interesting information on an exciting time in science, and the author is vey knowledgeable - however, that being said, it was a bit TOO full...it dragged on and on for ages and felt at times like reading a text book. I kept counting the pages until I could be finished, which is never the experience I want while reading, so while informative, I wasn't enjoying it. I do think the material is good, and might make for a good shorter essays or a podcast, but it needed to be edited for the general public.
Content Warnings
Minor: Chronic illness
kstep1805's review against another edition
2.0
I had borrowed this electronically and had to return it before I was done. I thought to finish it, I was halfway through but it no longer held my interest. The first essay was interesting on Banks and his maritime exploration and Herschel and his telescopes but much of the rest of it was dryly written and I couldn't get back into it.
deanagrummons's review against another edition
4.0
Well written. Very detailed account of a specific time in science. The stories flesh out the individuals involved extremely well.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review
4.0
‘Science is truly a relay race, with each discovery handed on to the next generation.’
Richard Holmes dates the period of Romantic science as extending (at least symbolically) between two celebrated voyages of exploration: Captain Cook’s expedition around the world aboard the Endeavour which began in 1768, and Charles Darwin’s voyage to the Galapagos Islands aboard the Beagle, which began in 1831.
While this is a group biography, covering a number of different scientists at work during this period, the lives and discoveries of three men are central. First is Joseph Banks (1743-1820) who, as a young botanist, was on board the Endeavour when she reached Tahiti in 1769. Banks features throughout much of the book: he was President of the Royal Society for over 40 years from 1778.
The other two central figures are William Herschel (1738-1822) and Humphry Davy (1778-1829). These men were stars of what Coleridge called the ‘second scientific revolution’ in his Philosophical Lectures of 1819. Richard Holmes considers that this second revolution was primarily inspired by a series of breakthroughs in astronomy and chemistry.
‘The notion of an infinite, mysterious Nature, waiting to be discovered or seduced into revealing all her secrets, was widely held.’
We follow a number of different journeys in this book: Banks, and the ‘ambiguous paradise’ of Tahiti. William Herschel’s ambition was to construct a reflector telescope, an instrument that ‘might plunge deep down into the sky and explore it like an unplumbed ocean of stars.’ Hershel’s work, together with that of his sister Caroline – herself an astronomer – is covered in detail here. Humphry Davy writes of his exploration of nitrous oxide: ‘By degrees as the pleasurable sensations increased, I lost all connection with external things; trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through my mind and were connected with words in such a manner as to produce perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly connected and newly modified ideas.’
But it is the detail of Humphry Davy’s invention of the miner’s safety lamp that focussed my attention. Even more than the fact that the best mould for making a metal lens for a telescope involved pounded horse-dung.
Read, too, about the first balloonists, who went soaring from the earth in the 1780s. They learned far more about the earth than they expected, in their search for knowledge of the skies. And, there is also a chapter about Mungo Park’s (1771-1806) expeditions in Africa. I had not previously heard of him.
T
he journeys are emotional, imaginative and intellectual as well as physical. There’s a thought-provoking chapter entitled ‘Dr Frankenstein and the Soul’, and consider the ‘Vitalism’ debate. We now know that galvanic and electrical energy cannot create life from inert matter, but what imaginary monsters have been created as a consequence?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book: discovered some new learning of my own as well as finding a new context for some previously acquired knowledge.
In 1833, William Whewell coined the word ‘scientist’. Perhaps coining this term, even though it wasn’t widely adopted until some years later, really defines the end of the period of Romantic science.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Richard Holmes dates the period of Romantic science as extending (at least symbolically) between two celebrated voyages of exploration: Captain Cook’s expedition around the world aboard the Endeavour which began in 1768, and Charles Darwin’s voyage to the Galapagos Islands aboard the Beagle, which began in 1831.
While this is a group biography, covering a number of different scientists at work during this period, the lives and discoveries of three men are central. First is Joseph Banks (1743-1820) who, as a young botanist, was on board the Endeavour when she reached Tahiti in 1769. Banks features throughout much of the book: he was President of the Royal Society for over 40 years from 1778.
The other two central figures are William Herschel (1738-1822) and Humphry Davy (1778-1829). These men were stars of what Coleridge called the ‘second scientific revolution’ in his Philosophical Lectures of 1819. Richard Holmes considers that this second revolution was primarily inspired by a series of breakthroughs in astronomy and chemistry.
‘The notion of an infinite, mysterious Nature, waiting to be discovered or seduced into revealing all her secrets, was widely held.’
We follow a number of different journeys in this book: Banks, and the ‘ambiguous paradise’ of Tahiti. William Herschel’s ambition was to construct a reflector telescope, an instrument that ‘might plunge deep down into the sky and explore it like an unplumbed ocean of stars.’ Hershel’s work, together with that of his sister Caroline – herself an astronomer – is covered in detail here. Humphry Davy writes of his exploration of nitrous oxide: ‘By degrees as the pleasurable sensations increased, I lost all connection with external things; trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through my mind and were connected with words in such a manner as to produce perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly connected and newly modified ideas.’
But it is the detail of Humphry Davy’s invention of the miner’s safety lamp that focussed my attention. Even more than the fact that the best mould for making a metal lens for a telescope involved pounded horse-dung.
Read, too, about the first balloonists, who went soaring from the earth in the 1780s. They learned far more about the earth than they expected, in their search for knowledge of the skies. And, there is also a chapter about Mungo Park’s (1771-1806) expeditions in Africa. I had not previously heard of him.
T
he journeys are emotional, imaginative and intellectual as well as physical. There’s a thought-provoking chapter entitled ‘Dr Frankenstein and the Soul’, and consider the ‘Vitalism’ debate. We now know that galvanic and electrical energy cannot create life from inert matter, but what imaginary monsters have been created as a consequence?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book: discovered some new learning of my own as well as finding a new context for some previously acquired knowledge.
In 1833, William Whewell coined the word ‘scientist’. Perhaps coining this term, even though it wasn’t widely adopted until some years later, really defines the end of the period of Romantic science.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
lamusadelils's review against another edition
3.0
Este es un gran libro, no solo porque esta fantasticamente bien escrito sino también porque entrelaza de manera maravillosa la parte informativa con la narrativa. Además de contar las biografías de un puñado de ilustrados de la época (siglos XVIII y XIX) y su contexto, se describen las consecuencias del estudio y los descubrimientos de cada quién.
Lo mejor del libro es que puede parecer poco interesante, pero es tan bueno que pronto te encuentras inmerso en él.
Lo mejor del libro es que puede parecer poco interesante, pero es tan bueno que pronto te encuentras inmerso en él.
libkatem's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn't get into it. Sad day, it sounded so promising.
grubstlodger's review against another edition
4.0
I was expecting ‘The Age of Wonder’ to be rather like some of the other popular enlightenment-science history biographies I have read recently. I was expecting more stories about the Lunar Society and whasisname’s creepy experiment to create perfect wife.
I was wrong - this book is set a little later, in the Royal Society Presidencies of Joseph banks and Humphrey Davy. They were two of our main characters, as were William Herschel and his sister Caroline and there were a few other people also. The aim of the book is to record a time when science was not seen as the thing that kils wonder but the exploration that wakes wonder up - so we get a bunch of romantic poets in there as well (typical Richard Holmes).
First of all, this is a brilliantly written book, with an almost novel-like momentum and a really good grab at characters. I felt I knew the young libertine/smooth elder statesman of science, Banks. I loved Davy with his poetic sensibility, his receptive soul and his wide-eyed enjoyment at testing the natural world, and I could also see why he pissed so many people off. I completely fell for Caroline Herschel, ignored for much of her life but dedicated to her brother and to her personal mission of sweeping the night sky and tidying away nebulae and comets. I felt such a rush when seeing that telescope in the science museum.
I laughed out loud on the chapter on ballooning, particularly when the two rival/allies flew the channel and landed with no clothes but a life jacket and a pair of chamois gloves, having shat over the side.
My one issue with the piece is that because it is a group biography, it follows the usual line of a biography but many times. A person is born, they have early success, they become comfortable and famous and as they get old they get grumpier before dying with a feeling of not achieving enough. To have this play out once is a little sad, to have it play out five or six times in the course of the book does make the human life a very wearisome thing.
That said, the book wasn’t a wearisome thing, it was great and I even followed a great deal of the science in it.
I was wrong - this book is set a little later, in the Royal Society Presidencies of Joseph banks and Humphrey Davy. They were two of our main characters, as were William Herschel and his sister Caroline and there were a few other people also. The aim of the book is to record a time when science was not seen as the thing that kils wonder but the exploration that wakes wonder up - so we get a bunch of romantic poets in there as well (typical Richard Holmes).
First of all, this is a brilliantly written book, with an almost novel-like momentum and a really good grab at characters. I felt I knew the young libertine/smooth elder statesman of science, Banks. I loved Davy with his poetic sensibility, his receptive soul and his wide-eyed enjoyment at testing the natural world, and I could also see why he pissed so many people off. I completely fell for Caroline Herschel, ignored for much of her life but dedicated to her brother and to her personal mission of sweeping the night sky and tidying away nebulae and comets. I felt such a rush when seeing that telescope in the science museum.
I laughed out loud on the chapter on ballooning, particularly when the two rival/allies flew the channel and landed with no clothes but a life jacket and a pair of chamois gloves, having shat over the side.
My one issue with the piece is that because it is a group biography, it follows the usual line of a biography but many times. A person is born, they have early success, they become comfortable and famous and as they get old they get grumpier before dying with a feeling of not achieving enough. To have this play out once is a little sad, to have it play out five or six times in the course of the book does make the human life a very wearisome thing.
That said, the book wasn’t a wearisome thing, it was great and I even followed a great deal of the science in it.
nurly_whirly's review against another edition
5.0
"I believe science needs to be presented and explored in a new way. We need not only a new history of science, but a more enlarged and imaginative biographical writing about individual scientists... we need to understand how science is actually made; how scientists themselves think and feel and speculate. We need to explore what make scientists creative, as well as poets or painters, or musicians..."
Yes, yes, and yes. This book is basically my dream.