Recommendations from our site
“It’s a splendid book…It’s a group biography of writers and scientists in the late 18th and early 19th century—Herschel and Humphrey Davy on the science side, and the Romantic poets, mostly in England, and their engagement with the sublime and with science. Among Holmes’s qualities are his warmth, his extraordinary depth of knowledge and the fluency in his writing. It’s just a really enjoyable read.” Read more...
The best books on Science and Wonder
Caspar Henderson, Journalist
“The wonder that Richard Holmes is thinking about in this book was an emergent appreciation of the awesomeness of nature.” Read more...
The best books on The Origins of Curiosity
Philip Ball, Science Writer
“Richard Holmes is a very eminent biographer. He has written biographies of several of the Romantic poets including Shelley and Coleridge. And I was intrigued when I saw this book by him sitting in our bookshop, because I didn’t know that he was particularly interested in science. His book is all about how, even in the age of Romanticism, science was an important part of culture. And it was, as the title suggests, both beautiful and offering much but also terrifying.” Read more...
The best books on Science and Climate Change
John Shepherd, Environmentalist
