The Age of Wonder

By Evie Copland

Described as “Britain’s greatest historian,” Richard Holmes is a man of facts and now of science.  His latest book “The Age of Wonder” turns its attention to beauty and terror in the age of romanticism.  “I wanted to challenge the idea that the romantics were opposed to science,” he said.  He questions the idea of whether science is something to be feared or not.  The romantic period was a great time filled with political changes; it was also a great period of scientific discovery.

Richard presented the book to the Royal Society of Literature recently.  He knew that the idea of science challenging literature would not be widely appreciated.  So instead, he went armed with plenty of statistics about the book:  “They really got excited when I said the book had 40 pages of notes!” he laughs.

His main “character” in the book is Sir Joseph Banks, who is used to begin every chapter.  Holmes said: “He is the Sherlock of my relay race.”  The story of Banks’ previously unknown travels and the questioning of Victorian ethics is widely explored in the book.  Banks’ journals were previously unavailable, but they are now available to look at on the internet after the University of Sydney published them.  Holmes explained about his favourite one, the story of Tahitians surfing, not for any potential gain, but for the “delight.”

He explains that the role of women became very important, that the heroine of his story was one Caroline Herschel.  Her brother William, was a fine astronomer and returned home to Germany to find his sister was being used as the family maid.  He brought her back to England for a better life.  Holmes said: “William and Caroline Herschel effectively became the William and Dorothy Wordsworth of astronomy.”  After William discovered Uranus, John Keats was moved to write a sonnet about it some three years later in 1816: “I felt like some watcher as a planet came into his ken.”

“The Age of Wonder” ends with the story of Mrs Sage, the first balloonist and her trials as the balloon finally gets airborne and the revelations that come after the flight, showing effectively, that even in Victorian Britain, the story of the celebrity was appreciated even then.  Yet in all of this, there still remains an element of scandal, the story of a young Sir Humphry Davy.

Davy’s story begins with the discovery of nitrous oxide and its uses as anaesthetic, but the loss of crucial paperwork means that it wasn’t used for this purpose for another 40 years.  Davy falls in love with the wife of his boss!  It leads to a very complex relationship and previously unseen material is used in “The Age of Wonder.”  This information led Richard to write a radio play about that part of Davy’s life called “Anaesthesia,” which airs on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 10th March at 2.15pm.