Ruth Francis, Nature’s Head of Press, is reviewing all the entries shortlisted for the Royal Society’s science book prize. She’ll be reading one per week and we are posting her thoughts on The Great Beyond every Friday between now and the prize ceremony on 15 September.
Ruth’s Reviews: The Age of Wonder – How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes.
Back in 1831 the science writer David Brewster emphasised the importance of biography in our understanding of the scientific process. The powerful mind he chose to illustrate major progress was Newton’s and his publication is cited by Richard Holmes as, “the first ever major scientific biography in Britain”.
So it is not surprising that Holmes’s 500-page tome follows this mantra, giving its reader more than a glimpse at the men (for it was predominantly men) behind the major scientific developments during the Romantic era. The age of wonder is less a popular science book and more a history of the science of the Romantic period, by a master of biographies of that age.
At the book’s core are the lives of astronomer William Herschel and chemist Humphrey Davy, their childhoods and forming of great minds. The science of the time is illuminated by biography as we learn of the process, challenges, and adventures faced by these two and a supporting cast of other characters.
As if this weren’t enough of an endeavour, Holmes intertwines scientific ideas and research with contemporary literature and philosophy that was inspired by these people, introducing another layer of context.
Humphrey Davy grew up in wildest Cornwall and was as at home amongst nature as he was surrounded by vials in the laboratories of the Royal Institution, where he was busily defining the field of chemistry. Davy also maintained a close friendship with poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge during his early working life, exchanging ideas on topics ranging from nature and genius to science and literature.
The two even collaborated on a passage connecting the discoveries of the men of science with the imaginative work of the poet concluding: ‘The remotest discoveries of the Chemist, the Botanist, or Mineralogist, will be as proper objects of the Poet’s art as any upon which he can be employed.’
If was not just Coleridge who was inspired by the gentlemen scientists of the day.
Especially poignant is the chapter on explorer Mungo Park and his intrepid adventuring in the heart of Africa. These adventures not only epitomise the great Romantic spirit of the age, but influenced literature both at the time and in future, perhaps most notably by inspiring Joseph Conrad whose own adventures became Heart of Darkness, which in turn inspired the film Apocalypse Now.
There is so much to this book and I’m glad I saved it until last and had a chance to savour it.
Previously on Ruth’s Reviews
Ruth’s Reviews: the Drunkard’s Walk
Ruth’s Reviews: Your Inner Fish
Ruth’s Reviews: Decoding the Heavens