Richard Holmes, a prize-winning biographer highly recognized for his studies of major figures of British and French Romanticism, has come up with his first major work of non-fiction in over a decade. His latest book entitled The Age of Wonder explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of 18th century.

Published in October of 2008 by HarperPress, the title is available in both paperback and hardcover formats.

Written in his trade perception of human nature and drama, Richard Holmes reveals the several joys and difficulties that make themselves known in the quest for knowledge and intellectual significance. He illustrates how great ideas and experiments are a result of passion and unswerving drive. He affirms that experiments occasionally contain errors. He unapologetically makes links between religious faith and scientific truth. Inspired by a revolutionary time in Britain’s history, Holmes has distinguished the ‘Age of Wonder’ as the ‘Revolution of Romantic Science’.

One critic commented that The Age of Wonder serves as proof that Richard Holmes has risen to new heights, having tapped into a unique period where artists and scientists shared a common language.

Holmes radical ideas mingled in scientific certainty provides more than just unmatched originality and awesome energy. The Age of Wonder presents an entirely new model for scientific exploration and poetic expression in an entirely unique period.

Another critic said that The Age of Wonder allowed readers to relive the thrill of new discoveries and visionary ingenuity that thinkers of the time of Holmes’ characters, astronomer William Herschel and chemist Humphry Davy, were sure to have lived through.

Received with the praise and recognition that such brilliance deserves, The Age of Wonder recreates a specific era with a genius and ability that only few histories of science can equal.