Age of Wonder / Holmes - great side reading for any Pynchon fan

[grladams at teleport.com]

Hello old friends, I'm enjoying being unsubscribed, couldn't deal with
having 100 tweet-sized emails from the same couple three people each day...
but I still miss you!
I resubscribed just now to tell you the book I'm reading--you probably
would like it too. Until we meet again! bye!

Library Journal (05/15/2009):
While Romanticism in Great Britain is known mostly as an artistic,
literary, and intellectual movement, rapid and revolutionary scientific
discoveries were an underlying catalyst to the era's vaunted sense of
"wonder." It was also a period when remarkable individuals working alone
could make major contributions to knowledge. Historian and biographer
Holmes ("Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage") conveys the history of Romantic-era
science through vivid biographies of a few such individuals. Notable among
them are Joseph Banks, a botanist whose experiences in Tahiti were
life-changing; William Herschel, the eccentric astronomer who (aided
invaluably by his devoted sister, Caroline) discovered the planet Uranus;
and Humphrey Davy, an intrepid chemist who conducted gas inhalation
experiments on himself. These and others are depicted against the cultural
tapestry of an age of idealism, which was both fueled and threatened by the
advances of science. The subject makes this book most relevant for readers
of general science and history of science, but its engaging narratives of
the period could appeal to a broader readership. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ"
3/1/09.]Gregg Sapp, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, WA Copyright 2009
Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly (06/01/2009):
The Romantic imagination was inspired, not alienated, by scientific
advances, argues this captivating history. Holmes, author of a much-admired
biography of Coleridge, focuses on prominent British scientists of the late
18th and early 19th centuries, including the astronomer William Herschel
and his accomplished assistant and sister, Caroline; Humphrey Davy, a
leading chemist and amateur poet; and Joseph Banks, whose journal of a
youthful voyage to Tahiti was a study in sexual libertinism. Holmes's
biographical approach makes his obsessive protagonists (Davy's
self-experimenting with laughing gas is an epic in itself) the prototypes
of the Romantic genius absorbed in a Promethean quest for knowledge. Their
discoveries, he argues, helped establish a new paradigm of Romantic science
that saw the universe as vast, dynamic and full of marvels and celebrated
mankind's power to not just describe but transform Nature. Holmes's
treatment is sketchy on the actual science and heavy on the cultural
impact, with wide-ranging discussions of the 1780s ballooning craze, Mary
Shelley's "Frankenstein" and scientific metaphors in Romantic poetry. It's
an engrossing portrait of scientists as passionate adventurers, boldly
laying claim to the intellectual leadership of society. Illus. "(July 14)"
Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Review - Adult (06/01/2009):
Energetic analysis of the"Romantic Age of Science."

Romanticism, the deeply emotional artistic movement of the second half of
the 18th century, was partly a reaction against the pragmatism of
Enlightenment scientists. However, British historian Holmes (Sidetracks:
Explorations of a Romantic Biographer, 2000, etc.) writes, the divide
between scientific endeavors and artistic pursuits was not always so
clearly delineated. The author focuses primarily on the lives of two men
who straddled both worlds, who embraced"Romantic science" and pursued it
with the passion of poets or painters. Astronomer William Herschel, who
discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, started his career as a musician.
That led to an interest in mathematics and then astronomy, which he pursued
with the same emotional fervor as any classical music piece. He even
compared his skill at seeing astronomical phenomena with the skill required
to play Handel's fugues. Holmes also looks at the British chemist
Humphry Davy, who, among other accomplishments, discovered that chlorine
and iodine were elements. Early on, Davy wrote poetry, and later became
friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. One of his poems celebrated"science,
whose delicious water flows / From Nature's bosom." Davy's
enthusiasm led to risky, self-destructive behavior—he often inhaled strange
chemical gases as experiments, a practice that nearly killed him. While
partaking of nitrous oxide with acquaintances, he extolled the glories of
science:"I dream of Science restoring to Nature what Luxury, what
Civilization have stolen from her—pure hearts, the forms of angels, bosoms
beautiful, and panting with Joy& Hope." Davy may have had a brilliant
scientist's brain, but he had the heart and soul of a poet. How these
two contradictory ideas not only coexisted, but flourished together during
the Romantic era, makes for engrossing reading.

Enjoyable excavation of a time when science and art fed off each other, to
the benefit of both communities.(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN
BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Booklist (07/01/2009):
As a researcher of British science during the Romantic period of English
literature, Holmes suitably emphasizes the individual facing nature, so
characteristic of the Romantic sensibility. Alighting on astronomer William
Herschel (17381822) and chemist Humphrey Davy (17781829), both of whom were
artistic (music and poetry, respectively), Holmes connects them via
botanist Joseph Banks. In a precursor to a modern pattern, Banks moved from
his youthful success as a naturalist on James Cooks voyages into
administrationpresident of the Royal Societyand promoted bothHerschel and
Davy.They came to Banks notice seemingly from nowhere, and their
determination to discover is well told in Holmes biographical narratives.
Elevated to societal notice, Herschel and especially Davy excited popular
interest in ultimate questions their scientific findings seemed to open up,
questions whose ripples into the literature of Byron and Mary and Percy
Shelley Holmes elaborates. Readers interested in any of these figures, or
in the lives of astronomer Caroline Herschelandexplorer Mungo Park, have in
Holmes a fine guide to the arts and sciences, Romantic style.(Reprinted
with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Choice (03/01/2010):
Authored by well-known writer/biographer Holmes, this interesting
description of the "second scientific revolution" or "Romantic science" is
an excellent history of both the onset of the Romantic period and the
account of scientific discoveries. The first scientific revolution, late in
the 17th century, can be considered to have been "private," practiced and
known primarily by insiders. As the era's writers and artists (Romantics)
became aware of these scientific discoveries, this second revolution became
public, with writings often authored by women and shared with children. The
primary actors in this scientific drama are astronomers/siblings William
and Caroline Herschel and polymath Humphrey Davy. The period described is
delineated by the voyages of Joseph Banks, who sailed around the world with
Captain Cook in the 1760s, and of Charles Darwin on the Beagle in the
1830s. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley sowed the seeds of future unrest
between science and literature, the arts, and religion, relationships that
were initially quite favorable to all. A "Cast List" at the end of the book
briefly describes additional influential individuals during this period. Of
interest to readers in a number of disciplines as well as general readers
for pleasure. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All libraries. -- R. E.
Buntrock, formerly, University of Maine (Reprinted with permission of
Choice, copyright 2010, American Library Association)



Publisher Marketing:
A riveting 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 on his first "Endeavour
"voyage in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery--astronomical,
chemical, poetical, philosophical--swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's
original evocation of what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder. 
Brilliantly conceived as a relay of scientific stories, "The Age of Wonder"
investigates the earliest ideas of deep time and space, and the explorers
of "dynamic science," of an infinite, mysterious Nature waiting to be
discovered. Three lives dominate the book: William Herschel and his sister
Caroline, whose dedication to the study of the stars forever changed the
public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way, and the meaning of
the universe; and Humphry Davy, who, with only a grammar school education
stunned the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments
that led to the invention of the miners' lamp and established British
chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. This age of
exploration extended to great writers and poets as well as scientists, all
creators relishing in moments of high exhilaration, boundary-pushing and
discovery. 
Holmes's extraordinary evocation of this age of wonder shows how great
ideas and experiments--both successes and failures--were born of singular
and often lonely dedication, and how religious faith and scientific truth
collide. He has written a book breathtaking in its originality, its
storytelling energy, and its intellectual significance.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
myhosting.com - Premium Microsoft® Windows® and Linux web and application
hosting - http://link.myhosting.com/myhosting