Every now and again I get the itch to read some nonfiction. Occasionally it works out that the book just bores me, even if its about a seemingly interesting subject, and other times the subject is handled so charismatically as to compel me to race to the end leaving me hungry for more interesting nonfiction. The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science, fortunately, was the latter of the two. 'Age of Wonder' immediately grabbed me with the opening tale of young Joseph Banks sailing aboard the 'Endeavor' with the legendary Capt. Cook, and their landing on the pristine island of Tahiti. It made me wish I could have been there, and not for the purely 'wholesome' reason of untouched paradise. (read the book and you'll figure it out) From there we follow Banks and a whole slew of other brilliant men and women that Banks encourages and funds from the presidency of the 'Royal Society of Science' as they launch the first air balloons, explore the heavens discovering new planets, comets, and nebulae, and make the first real endeavors into serious chemistry. These same great minds also encounter and socialize with the great poets and writers of the day, inspiring the likes of Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandfather) to write his epic poem 'The Botanic Gardens', Coleridge, Lord Byron, as well as both Percy Bysshe Shelley's poetry and his wife Mary's creation mad scientist Victor Frankenstein.
Also, the intermixing of an array of amazing scientific discoveries and the poetry they inspired gives the book an interesting and arresting balance of scientific and artistic analysis.
I found this book to be an astounding success, as it was about a new spark of scientific discovery and the need and hunger for knowledge, because that is what it has left me with, a hunger for more knowledge of scientific discoveries, and most of all a hunger for more books like it.
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