age of wonder book review

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THE AGE OF WONDER

by Richard Holmes ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2009

Enjoyable excavation of a time when science and art fed off each other, to the benefit of both communities.

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.

Pub Date: July 14, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-375-42222-5

Page Count: 576

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2009

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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by Richard Holmes

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

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INTO THE WILD

by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...

The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990). 

Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-679-42850-X

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Villard

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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Book Review: The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

The Age of Wonder ( 2008, Vintage Books) focuses on some of the engaging figures in science as it emerges from its chrysalis into the modern discipline – the title reflects the blending of data and observation with musing on the sublime, the supernatural, and the holy that characterized the era. It roughly covers the years 1768 to 1820; the dates are my own, beginning with Cook’s voyage to Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia to the year of Joseph Banks’s death.

Holmes is a scholar of the Romantic era, and his long list of books focuses on poets: Shelley and Coleridge in particular; this book covers the same era but focuses on different figures.  Holmes first introduces us to the young Joseph Banks in Tahiti. After that epoch-making voyage, Banks became a powerful and influential patron of science. Using Banks as a through line, Holmes then introduces us to some interesting figures of the era, all correspondents or proteges of Joseph Banks.  The selection of topics seems to be more influenced by a good story rather than work that lasted, which I offer as an observation rather than a critique.  Good stories are worth telling.  However, this is not a book about the era's five or six most important figures in science.

We meet the endearing brother-and-sister team of William and Caroline Herschel, both astronomers. Then Humphrey Davy, a chemist and a Romantic in the sense of the movement, is discussed.  Davy’s life story helps illuminate both the intertwining of the Romantic and the scientific and social changes of the time.  Mungo Park stands in for a range of explorers of Africa, most of whom, including Park, died in Africa, sacrificing their lives for discovery, information, and glory. Holmes reviews the work of early balloonists who are somehow less memorable, possibly because there are several of them, or because ballooning didn’t take off. Finally, Holmes introduces Mary Shelley and her groundbreaking work of science fiction: Frankenstein or A Modern Prometheus . Including an author in this book full of scientists helps develop the idea that the era was asking big questions about life and the soul while identifying elements, naming comets, and designing safety lamps.

The book’s language is easy to read and comfortable without being overly simple.  Illustrations are plentiful and to the point, and Holmes includes a “cast of characters,” helpful in a book this full of interesting people, as well as references and an index. The Age of Wonder was named a NYT Book Review “Best Book of the Year” in 2009 and is widely available for sale and in public libraries.

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Book Review

The age of wonder: how the romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science by richard holmes.

by Carrie S · Aug 10, 2017 at 4:00 am · View all 10 comments

The Age of Wonder

by Richard Holmes

July 14, 2009 · Vintage

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Genre: Nonfiction

Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science is a nonfiction book that combines science, history, biography, and a dollop of poetry to cover an amazing era of scientific discovery and artistic innovation. It covers the Georgian Era in England and ends at the beginning of the Victorian. By framing the story in chapters about individual scientists, and tying their scientific efforts to the Romantic Movement in the arts, the book stays entertaining and exciting.

Age of Wonder starts with the first voyage of Joseph Banks, a naturalist who sailed to Tahiti and Australia with Captain James Cook in 1766. In this book, Banks comes across as an incredibly engaging and occasionally baffling character. He is also smoking hot. Happily, this book includes a lot of illustrations. Someone alert Aidan Turner about this, please. The book provides plenty of entertaining details about his friendships and his love life. It’s a BBC series waiting to happen!

Banks’ most important contribution to science was arguably his devotion to supporting the work of other scientists. He became the President of the Royal Society in 1778. His time with the Society ties the book together, as he took a great interest in the work of other scientists in the book, which include William and Caroline Herschel (astronomers), Mungo Park (explorer), and Humphry Davy, who experimented with nitrous oxide and invented a lamp that prevented mine explosions. He also supported the work of early balloonists, although I regret that my beloved Sophie Blanchard only has a brief mention.

The chapters follow these people and the effect they had on the arts and public consciousness. One chapter chronicles the debates about vitalism (the belief that living creatures contain or are governed by a non-physical element). These debates influenced Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein . Other chapters explore the Romantic conception of the scientist as a lone genius who has a “Eureka!” moment. Throughout the book, the author explores both the Romantic fascination with science and the fear that science might make nature less amazing.

Age of Wonder winds down with the death of Joseph Banks and the rise of a new generation of scientists including Charles Babbage, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, and John Herschel (William Herschel’s son). This generation formed a rival society, The British Science Association, in 1831. The members of the society first used the word “scientist” (a word invented by William Whewell and adopted after fierce debate) to mean a person who studies natural phenomenon. The Age of Wonder thus passed on to the Victorian Era.

I loved how this book kept scientific study personal and exciting. Each reader will probably find their own favorite character. I wasn’t terribly interested in Davy, which is odd since he led a busy life of poisoning himself, blowing things up, fishing, and having sex. Despite Davy’s many accomplishments, the book dragged in his chapters. On the other hand, Caroline Herschel is my new hero. Her story of frustration and accomplishment is made as enthralling as Mungo Park’s story of finding himself robbed, alone, and naked in the middle of a plain in Africa (he considered just keeling over and dying on the spot but was distracted by an interesting plant and rallied).

Age of Wonder highlights the careers of geniuses while also debunking the idea of the Eureka! moment and the lone genius. While these people were brilliant, they worked in close relationships and sometimes vicious rivalry with each other. They relied on groups like the Royal Society for funding, encouragement, inspiration, and criticism. Regency romance readers who love a science hero or heroine will enjoy this book, in which sex, curiosity, adventure, tedium, money, and marriage can make or break a career.

Weird trivia:

The Royal Society was founded in 1662 and did not admit women until 1945. They have never had a female president.

Caroline Herschel, like me, was less than five feet tall. Represent, Caroline.

More importantly, a paper written by Caroline Herschel was accepted by the Royal Society in 1818. It was the first time the Society accepted a paper by a woman.

Mungo Park was named after the Gaelic saint, St. Mungo. He disappeared during his second trip through Africa. His son went looking for him and disappeared as well.

Charles Dickens made fun of the British Science Association in “ The Mudfrog Society for the Advancement of Everything. ”

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The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

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I read FALLING UPWARD a while ago (I have some hot air balloon stuff in my last book and it was research) & really, really enjoyed it–both the subject matter and the writing, too, which was engaging and readable.

So AGE OF WONDER has been on my to-read list for a while & I think this has bumped it up to the top. It sounds really good.

I loved this book. Holmes is a fantastic writer of historical non-fiction. Like Erin, I also recommend Falling Upward.

Sounds fascinating! I really love the Objectivity YouTube channel, in which a historian at the Royal Society tells the story of some object in the Society’s vaults each episode. It has given me a hankering to read more about the history of science and scientists– I highly recommend it if you haven’t checked it out!

I also think this sounds fascinating and definitely will check it out! Thank you so much for the review! I love it when books like that are reviewed on this site!

Rachel, thanks for the Objectivity channel rec! It’s awesome!

Sadly, the first thing that leaps to my, and many another Australian mind, at the sound of “Joseph Banks” is the thuggish Banksia Men ( Snugglepot and Cuddlepie , May Gibbs). Bring on that BBC series!

hmmm this sounds great, but I really don’t like the way my Kindle renders illustrations. Will have to try and find the book itself. 🙂

This book sounds amazing! Have ordered paperback due to comment by chacha1 regarding Kindle rendering illustrations. I find Kindle works well for straight text only. Will be checking out YouTube. Thanks for that too!

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BookBrowse Reviews The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

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The Age of Wonder

How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

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• First Published:
• Jul 14, 2009, 576 pages
• Mar 2010, 576 pages

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A riveting history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions gave birth to the Romantic Age of Science

I believe science needs to be presented and explored in a new way. We need not only a new history of science, but a more enlarged and imaginative biographical writing about individual scientists... We need to understand how science is actually made; how scientists themselves think and feel and speculate. We need to explore what makes scientists creative, as well as poets or painters, or musicians...

"Nothing will ever quite equal that moment of total hilarity that filled my whole body at the moment of take-off. I felt we were flying away from Earth and all its troubles for ever. It was not mere delight. It was a sort of physical ecstasy. My companion Monsieur Robert murmured to me - I’m finished with the Earth..."

The young John Keats remembered an organised game at his school in Enfield, in which all the boys whirled round the playground in a huge choreographed dance, trying to imitate the entire solar system, including all the known moons (to which Herschel had by then added considerably). ...Keats did not recall the exact details, but one may imagine seven senior boy-planets running round the central sun, while themselves being circled by smaller sprinting moons... and the whole frequently disrupted by rebel comets and meteors flying across their orbits. Keats was later awarded Bonnycastle’s Introduction to Astronomy as a senior school prize in 1811. Reading of Herschel, he enshrined the discovery of Uranus five years later in his great sonnet of 1816, "On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer" ["...Yet did I never breathe its pure serene/Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:/Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/When a new planet swims into his ken..."].

Learning how and when great poets and great scientists met one another, read each other’s work, and absorbed each other’s speculations and discoveries makes reading The Age of Wonder an especially ecstatic adventure. From every angle, this is a wonderful book.

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The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science Paperback – March 12 2013

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Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes’s dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement.

The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook’s first Endeavour voyage, who stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 fully expecting to have located Paradise. Back in Britain, the same Romantic revolution that had inspired Banks was spurring other great thinkers on to their own voyages of artistic and scientific discovery – astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical – that together made up the ‘age of wonder’.

In this breathtaking group biography, Richard Holmes tells the stories of the period’s celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight to the miner’s lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.

• Print length 380 pages
• Language English
• Publisher HarperPress
• Publication date March 12 2013
• Dimensions 12.9 x 3.7 x 19.8 cm
• ISBN-10 0007149530
• ISBN-13 978-0007149537
• See all details

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‘Rich and sparkling, this is a wonderful book.’ Claire Tomalin, Guardian, Books of the Year

‘Exuberant…Holmes suffuses his book with the joy, hope and wonder of the revolutionary era. Reading it is like a holiday in a sunny landscape, full of fascinating bypaths that lead to unexpected vistas…it succeeds inspiringly.’ John Carey, Sunday Times

‘Thrilling: a portrait of bold adventure among the stars, across the oceans, deep into matter, poetry and the human psyche.’ Peter Forbes, Independent

‘A glorious blend of the scientific and the literary that deserves to carry off armfuls of awards and confirms Holmes's reputation as one on the stellar biographers of the age.’ Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

‘No question – the non-fiction book of the year is Richard Holmes's “The Age of Wonder”, not only beautifully written, but also kicking open a new perspective on the Romantic age.’ Andrew Marr, Observer, Books of the Year

‘Itself a wonder – a masterpiece of skilful and imaginative storytelling.’ Michael Holroyd, Guardian, Books of the Year

‘Dazzling and approachable. It's a brilliantly written account…original in its connections and very generous in its attention.’ Andrew Motion, Guardian, Books of the Year

‘Witty, intellectually dazzling and wholly gripping.’ Richard Mabey, Guardian, Books of the Year

‘So immediate and so beguiling is Holmes's prose that we are with him all the way.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Brimming with anecdote, Holmes's enthusiastic narrative amply conveys the period's spirited, often reckless pursuit of discovery with an astute balance of technical detail and the wider cultural picture.’ Financial Times

About the Author

Richard Holmes was born in London in 1945 and educated at Downside School and Churchill College, Cambridge.

In 1974 his Shelley: The Pursuit won the Somerset Maugham Award and was described by Stephen Spender as ‘surely the best biography of Shelley ever written’. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was awarded an OBE in 1992 and the Biographers' Club Lifetime Services to Biography Prize in 2014.

He lives in London and Norwich with the novelist Rose Tremain.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperPress (March 12 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 380 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0007149530
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007149537
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 kg
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 3.7 x 19.8 cm
• #2 in 18th Century English History
• #3 in 19th Century English History
• #30 in Dutch History

About the author

Richard holmes.

Richard Holmes was one of Britain's most distinguished and eminent military historians and broadcasters. For many years Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science, he also taught military history at Sandhurst. He was the author of many best-selling and widely acclaimed books including Redcoat, Tommy, Marlborough and Wellington, and famous for his BBC series such as War Walks, In the Footsteps of Churchill and Wellington. He served in the Territorial Army, retiring as a brigadier and Britain's most senior reservist, and was Colonel of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment from 1999 to 2007. Richard Holmes died suddenly in April 2011 from pneumonia. He had been suffering from non-Hodgkins' Lymphoma.

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Report this review, read this it’s awesome.

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• Great messages
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• Too much consumerism
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Amazing book ! :)

I love this book, still undoing the damage, definitely worth it., inclusivity, what to read next.

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Wonder, by R.J. Palacio | Book Review

Book Review of Wonder The Children’s Book Review

Written by R.J. Palacio

Ages 10+ | 320 Pages

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers | ISBN-13: 978037586902

What to Expect: Disabilities, Self-Esteem, and Kindness

Kindness is an outstanding trait we all possess, so long as we choose to access it. It is an essential aspect of being human.

In the captivating, award-winning New York Times bestselling novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio, the theme of exhibiting kindness is explored in an inspiring way. The story revolves around a 10-year-old boy named August Pullman living with rare facial deformities. Auggie, as he is affectionately called, yearns to be accepted for who he is and not judged based on his looks. Due to having had 27 surgeries, both big and small, and lots of illness, August (Auggie), up until now, has been home-schooled.

Through Palacio’s vivid writing, readers journey through Auggie’s first year in school and see through the eyes of fifth-grade classmates and his sister, guiding us through valuable insights into the process of accepting someone different from us. Wonder is a heartwarming tale of bravery, love, and kindness. It is a call to action for us to strive towards our best selves and to choose kindness in every situation. This powerful and inspiring book has been a global phenomenon, with Auggie’s story inspiring a growing movement of compassion and empathy toward others.

Reading Wonder will undoubtedly help you embrace its message and become a part of this growing movement.

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About the author.

R. J. Palacio was born and raised in New York City. She attended the High School of Art and Design and the Parsons School of Design, where she majored in illustration with the hopes of someday following in the footsteps of her favorite childhood author-illustrators, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Maurice Sendak , and the D’Aulaires . She was a graphic designer and art director for many years before writing Wonder .

We’re All Wonders , which is based conceptually on the themes of her novel, represents the fulfillment of her dream to write and illustrate her own picture book. R.J. is also the author of Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories and 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts . She lives in Brooklyn, where she is surrounded by magical water towers, with her husband, their two sons, and their two dogs, Bear and Beau.

Learn more about her at https://wonderthebook.com/about or on Twitter at @RJPalacio .

What to Read Next if You Love Wonder

• Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories, by R. J. Palacio
• 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts, R. J. Palacio
• Out of My Mind , by Sharon Draper

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Wonder . Discover more books like Wonder by reading our reviews and articles tagged with disabilities , self-esteem , kindness , and family .

What to Read Next:

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science Kindle Edition

• ISBN-13 978-0375422225
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Vintage
• Publication date July 1, 2009
• Language English
• File size 10415 KB
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review.

Oliver Sacks is the author of Musicophilia , Awakenings , The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat , and many other books, for which he has received numerous awards, including the Hawthornden Prize, a Polk Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and lives in New York City, where he is a practicing neurologist. Read his exclusive guest review of The Age of Wonder :

I am a Richard Holmes addict. He is an incomparable biographer, but in The Age of Wonder , he rises to new heights and becomes the biographer not of a single figure, but of an entire unique period, when artist and scientist could share common aims and ambitions and a common language--and together create a "romantic," humanist science. We are once again on the brink of such an age, when science and art will come together in new and powerful ways. For this we could have no better model than the lives of William and Caroline Herschel and Humphry Davy, whose dedication and scientific inventiveness were combined with a deep sense of wonder and poetry in the universe. Only Holmes, who is so deeply versed in the people and culture of eighteenth-century science, could tell their story with such verve and resonance for our own time.

(Photo © Elena Seibert)

From Publishers Weekly

From the new yorker, from bookmarks magazine, about the author.

Richard Holmes is the author of Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer ; Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer ; Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage ; Shelley: The Pursuit (for which he received the Somerset Maugham Award); Coleridge: Early Visions ; and Coleridge: Darker Reflections (a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist). He lives in England.

Gildart Jackson 's acting credits span the stage and screen. He is most often recognized for his roles as Gideon on Charmed and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital . He has also starred in numerous television shows, including CSI and Vegas , and recently played the lead in the highly acclaimed independent feature film You , directed by his wife, Melora Hardin.

From The Washington Post

Excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001NLL568
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (July 1, 2009)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 1, 2009
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 10415 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 601 pages
• #17 in Biographies of Scientists
• #44 in Science History & Philosophy
• #52 in History of Science & Medicine

About the author

Richard holmes.

Richard Holmes was one of Britain's most distinguished and eminent military historians and broadcasters. For many years Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science, he also taught military history at Sandhurst. He was the author of many best-selling and widely acclaimed books including Redcoat, Tommy, Marlborough and Wellington, and famous for his BBC series such as War Walks, In the Footsteps of Churchill and Wellington. He served in the Territorial Army, retiring as a brigadier and Britain's most senior reservist, and was Colonel of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment from 1999 to 2007. Richard Holmes died suddenly in April 2011 from pneumonia. He had been suffering from non-Hodgkins' Lymphoma.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 63% 17% 12% 6% 3% 63%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 63% 17% 12% 6% 3% 17%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 63% 17% 12% 6% 3% 12%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 63% 17% 12% 6% 3% 6%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 63% 17% 12% 6% 3% 3%

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Customers say

Customers find the book extremely informative and well-written. They also appreciate the lively narrative style that provides a wealth of detail and brings the characters to life. Readers describe the themes as profound, riveting, and timeless. Opinions differ on the storyline, with some finding it vivid and interesting, while others say there are too many details.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book extremely informative, wonderful, and an adventure through the history of science. They also say it would have great appeal to many non-scientists, contains a decent bibliography at the end, and presents a comprehensive, colorful, detailed history of scientific principles. Customers also mention that the emerging theory is testable and falsifiable and can be used to make predictions.

"...There are many terrific parts : Banks in Tahiti, anything having to do with the Herschels, and the vitalism controversy are some of my favorites...." Read more

"...came to exist and how the universe truly worked, is a fascinating exploration of the topic and its figures...." Read more

"...the sense while reading this book that it would have great appeal to many non-scientists ...." Read more

"...It is well documented with references and bibliography , and includes a "cast list" in the back so I can read a quick "bio" on all the many people..." Read more

Customers find the writing style of the book well written.

"...Holmes is a fantastic writer who takes complex subjects and breaks them into parts that are easily understood by anyone willing to take the time to..." Read more

"...-readings, it is refreshing to revisit the passage because it is so well written ; it feels the same as when you go right back to the top of the page..." Read more

"...The writing itself is a pleasure in Holmes' books and his skill in painting a scene comes from that dedication to the task he writes of in some of..." Read more

"... Very readable , at times poignant, and very thoughts provoking...." Read more

Customers find the narrative style lively, providing a wealth of detail. They also say the characters really spring to life and the book is an engrossing snapshot of the late 18th to early 19th century.

"...are fascinating in their own right, and Holmes’s lively style provides a wealth of detail about their personal as well as professional lives without..." Read more

"...This is a nice image and provides an interesting premise for the book...." Read more

"...Under Holmes's story-telling, they are so human and so extraordinary- this book will make you cry. It'll also make you laugh!" Read more

"...It is character-driven , focusing on the lives and works of some of the great men of the era- Joseph Banks, William and Caroline Herschel, Mungo Park..." Read more

Customers find the themes in the book profound, riveting, and enthralling. They also appreciate the passion and exuberance with which the stories are told.

"...The first batch are unmistakably brilliant, profound , and timeless...." Read more

"...it immensely because it has the flavor of a novel and is filled with human interest along with the science of their accomplishments...." Read more

"...It was an exciting and unsettling time and that makes for a great reading experience." Read more

"...Very readable, at times poignant , and very thoughts provoking...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the storyline. Some find the accounts vivid and compelling, providing a great view into their life style. They also say the book provides a poignant view into the lives of key historical figures. However, some customers feel the book contains way too many details and there is no interactive table of contents. They mention the prose about art is too dense.

"...But to end this review positively, as I mean it to be: the stories are great , the context is wonderful, and the points well made...." Read more

"...concentrating on the discoveries and achievements, the author belabors irrelevant details ...." Read more

"...Davy, John Herschel, Joseph Banks, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley are poignant ...." Read more

"This book is a thrilling account of the personalities that shaped 19th century science and paved the way for professional scientists...." Read more

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