The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes NYT Best Books of the Year

Description: Very good condition - crease on corner of back cover (see photo). 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. "Holmes's enthralling book itself exemplifies those qualities fostered by a scientific culture: "the sense of individual wonder, the power of hope, and the vivid but questing belief in a future for the globe." –The Washington Post "In this big two-hearted river of a book, the twin energies of scientific curiosity and poetic invention pulsate on every page."—The New York Times Book Review"The Age of Wonder is the long-awaited fermentation of the author's knowledge of the Romantic poets and his lifelong fascination with science."—The Economist"Holmes, the biographer of Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley, has a firm grip on science in "The Age of Wonder" and a fluency in drawing the connections to literature and religion." --Chemical and Engineering News"Gives us . . . a new model for scientific exploration and poetic expression in the Romantic period. Informative and invigorating, generous and beguiling, it is, indeed, wonderful."—The Guardian"The most flat-out fascinating book so far this year…. Holmes' account of experimental science at the end of 1700s is beyond riveting."–Lev Grossman, Time Magazine"Holmes is certainly the man to undertake this intellectual salvage operation…Ambitious…Eloquent." –Wall Street Journal

Price: 9.99 USD

Location: Bridgton, Maine

End Time: 2024-12-19T17:39:15.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD

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Item Specifics

All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted

Book Title: The Age of Wonder

Original Language: English

Item Length: 9.1 in

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publication Year: 2010

Format: Trade Paperback

Language: English

Illustrator: Yes

Item Height: 1 in

Author: Richard Holmes

Genre: Philosophy, Science, Biography & Autobiography, History

Topic: History & Surveys / General, General, Environmentalists & Naturalists, Europe / Great Britain / General, History, Europe / Great Britain / Georgian Era (1714-1837), Science & Technology

Item Weight: 29 oz

Item Width: 6.1 in

Number of Pages: 608 Pages