Books: The Age of Wonder

Published Date: 11 October 2008 IN 1778 JOSEPH BANKS WAS elected President of the Royal Society at the early age of 35. The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes HarperPress, 380pp, £25 Review by MARC LAMBERT He had made his name as a botanist and explorer on James Cook's famous voyage to the South Seas ten years earlier, returning with But if London was titillated by Banks's account of a society that lived in a state of natural grace, and which seemed to enjoy considerable sexual freedom, the scientists of the day took a more sober view. As the great French naturalist Georges Cuvier stated, Banks's methods had prefigured those of modern science: "not simply by seeing, but by actively observing, he showed his true scientific character". The arts of seeing and observing, whether by scientist or poet, run like a leitmotif through... [read full story]