Review
A guide to the sublime new physical and intellectual universe inhabited by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Byron; a survey of the scientific discoveries that underpin contemporary perceptions and investigations of the natural world; and a history of the ideas that still inform our sense of what it means to be a poet or a scientist,
The Age of Wonder is stirring reading for anyone interested in the lives of extraordinary, world-altering people. Holmes builds his lucid and beautiful history around Joseph Banks, Tahitian adventurer and patron of scientific exploration and experimentation through his leadership of the Royal Society; William Herschel, visionary constructor of telescopes and discoverer of the planet Uranus; his sister, Caroline, astronomer in her own right and discoverer of many comets; Mungo Park, African explorer; and Humphry Davy, chemist,...
Beyond the Book
Richard Holmes
Biographer, poet, editor and historian Richard Holmes was born in London and attended Cambridge. He’s the author of:
- One for Sorrow, Two for Joy (poems)
- Shelley: The Pursuit
- Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage
- Coleridge: Early Visions
- Coleridge: Darker Reflections
- Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer
- Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer
- Insights: The Romantic Poets and their Circle
Of biography Holmes says:
"Of course I think...
