
The Age of Wonder
How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
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Narrated by:
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Gildart Jackson
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By:
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Richard Holmes
National Book Critics Circle Award, Nonfiction, 2010
The 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.
©2008 Richard Holmes (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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Fascinating history and biography rolled into one.
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wonderful book - completely worth it
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This is the story of the men... and women who made science something that people did as a pursuit for the good of humanity.
A well told and often gossipy tone, the story of the time of science is well told. A good read for the history and science buff in us.
An in depth look at the romantic science period
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History's interesting stories that are rarely told
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Surprisingly Fascinating!
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The audiobook narrator does an excellent job.
Great history of early scientific explorations
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Great book - fascinating from beginning to end
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This is a fine scholarship, written well, and told by an excellent reader. I just wish this audio book format was more accessible.
Fine book, poorly labeled chapters
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wonder-full
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On the other hand, this book covers a fascinating period in science, one that is rarely written about, since it is less sexy than either the time of Newton or the birth of modern physics. In the stories in this book, you can see how science transitions from a period of pure discovery to an attempt to follow a scientific method. And this is told through engaging stories of life in Tahiti, the early experiments with electricity by genuine mad scientists, and the early days of flight (the President of the Royal Society's first thought when he heard about balloons was to tie them to carriages in order to make the load lighter for horses!) Additionally, for someone like me who doesn't usually like biographies, I found the coverage of the lives of the scientists compelling and the storytelling to be top notch.
A couple of things weigh the experience down. First, the book is a bit long, but there is a lot to keep you listening, though the detail does pile up. Also, the reader is mostly average, except when he tries to do American accents, which is outside his range.
Overall, though, if you like the history of science and want something different, or you are interested in the late 18th/early 19th century, this is a really great listen. For others, it may be a less compelling subject, but it is well written and full of new information.
Voyages of discovery and ages of wonder
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