The Age of Wonder

The idea of reading history is to hopefully learn from one's curiosity on the subject at hand, and I was lucky to learn about the Romantic Generation in the Age of wonder.

Author Richard Holmes has dominated the telling of this story with the lives of outstanding astronomer William Herschell, Humphry Davy of the miner's lamp fame and to a lesser degree Sir Joseph Banks, famous for his journey to Tahiti in 1769 and a long life as president of the Royal Society. A few others come into the story told, such as African explorer Mungo Park, Herschel's incredibly talented younger sister Caroline and Mary Shelley.

Interweaving each of the individuals mentioned above into an Age of Wonder narrative is on paper a grand idea and could be perfect for anyone that enjoys popular history. The first chapter, on Banks, was magnificent and should have set the tone. Unfortunately, at about the halfway point I thought the author became bogged down by spending far too much time on the literacy pretensions of some protagonists and as time went on I began to wonder the point of the short Mungo Park chapter and with that the one on Mary Shelly.

Be that as it may this is a good read and will have been enjoyed by many, it just may not be my style of delivery. The footnote, end notes, the bibliography and the plates are excellent. Holmes is a very good writer at his best and as I said above I learnt a lot. In fact, I am curious for more. One can't want much more than that, can they?

Recommended to anyone that likes popular history.