Book Review: ‘The Age of Wonder:’ by Richard Holmes

The Age of Wonder describes scientific developments and attitudes between the end of the Enlightenment and the early nineteenth century: a period coinciding with the Romantic era.

Richard Holmes neatly defines his start and end points with two great voyages of discovery: Captain Cook’s first voyage to the southern oceans on HMS Endeavour with the future president of the Royal Society, Joseph Banks, on board, and Robert FitzRoy’s second voyage to South America on HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board. The book, therefore, covers an era when science was beginning to become a proper profession, rather than a hobby for the well-to-do, and when the different scientific disciplines were beginning to differentiate themselves.

Holmes’s main aim is to explore how, during his chosen period, scientific developments influenced and were influenced by Romantic sensibilities. While Romanticism was to some extent a reaction against the mechanistic and reductionist scientific views of the Enlightenment, Holmes shows how Romanticism wasn’t entirely ‘anti-science’: Romantics and scientists were united by a sense of wonder of the natural world.

Sensibly, Holmes doesn’t try to give a complete history of science for the period. Instead, he concentrates on a few key individuals, all based in Britain: Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, and William and Caroline Herschel. But he does also make frequent references to other contemporary scientists and Romantic figures.

As well as giving plenty of coverage to William Herschel’s sister Caroline—an early yet overlooked woman of science—Holmes also gives a fascinating account of the balloon mania which swept across Europe following the first manned flights. But Holmes’s key revelation as far as this poetry philistine is concerned is just how much the Romantic poets, especially Coleridge, were fascinated by contemporary science, and how certain scientists, especially Humphry Davy, had poetic aspirations. The ‘Two Cultures’ were very much one in Eighteenth Century Britain.

The Age of Wonders is a fascinating read. Highly recommended.