THE AGE OF WONDER
Book ID/图书代码： 03635008B20927
English Summary/英文概要： Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes’s dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement.
The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook’s first Endeavour voyage, who stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 fully expecting to have located Paradise. Back in Britain, the same Romantic revolution that had inspired Banks was spurring other great thinkers on to their own voyages of artistic and scientific discovery – astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical – that together made up the ‘age of wonder’.
In this breathtaking group biography, Richard Holmes tells the stories of the period’s celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight to the miner’s lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 本書由皇家文學學會榮譽作家Richard Holmes，訴說中世紀影響人類文明的科學演變。從公元476年西羅馬帝國滅亡,到十五世紀中葉文藝復興開始,這一千年的歐洲歷史，習慣上稱為『中世紀』。尤其是五世紀至十世紀更是歐洲歷史上的黑暗時期。當時西歐人連希臘科學家的學說都不清楚了，大地是球形的說法也被列為異端，而聖經神話卻重新成了宇宙體系的依據。
泰勒斯(Thales of Miletus)(前640~前560年)是第一個希臘著名自然哲學家，到美索不達米亞學到了天文學。他推測地球是一個球體，認為構成宇宙的基本物質是水，據說，他曾經預言了公元前585年所發生的一次日食。把泰勒斯的宇宙觀延伸並發揚光大的是他的門生阿那克西曼德(公元前611~前547年)。他認為天空是圍繞著北極星旋轉的，因此天空可見的穹窿是一個完整的球體的一半，扁平圓盤狀的大地就處在這個球體的中心，在大地的周圍環繞著空氣天、恆星天、月亮天、行星天和太陽天。阿那克西曼德是有史以來第一個認為宇宙不是平面形或者半球形，而是球形的。
數學家畢達哥拉斯(Pythagoras)(公元前560~前490年)，他認為數本身、數與數之間的關系構成宇宙的基礎。他主張地圓說，並且是人類科技史上第一個主張『太陽、月亮、行星遵循著和恆星不同的路徑運行』的人。
偉大的學者德謨克利特(公元前460~前370前)提出了原子學說，認為萬物都是由原子組成的，原子是不可分割的最小微粒，太陽、月亮、地球以及一切天體，都是由於原子渦動而產生的。這是朴素的天體演化的思想。他還推測出太陽遠比地球龐大，月亮本身並不發光，靠反射的太陽纔顯得明亮，銀河是眾多恆星集合而成的。
希臘天文學家托勒玫(Ptolemy)出版他的著作《天文學大成》，提出完整的『地心說』。在整個中世紀這本書被人們奉為天文學知識的經典著作。他指出：日、月、五大行星都在繞地球的偏心圓軌道上運轉，並且各有其軌道層次。(CL)
Awards/获奖情况：New York Times Book Review’s top 10 books of 2009
毛姆獎 惠特布瑞德書卷獎 布萊克獎三獎得主
皇家學會榮譽作家
英美媒體一致推薦人人必讀的好書
2009年紐約時報十大好書 Reviews
"Holmes’s enthralling book itself exemplifies those qualities fostered by a scientific culture: "the sense of individual wonder, the power of hope, and the vivid but questing belief in a future for the globe."--The Washington Post
"In this big two-hearted river of a book, the twin energies of scientific curiosity and poetic invention pulsate on every page."---The New York Times Book Review
"The Age of Wonder is the long-awaited fermentation of the author’s knowledge of the Romantic poets and his lifelong fascination with science." ---The Economist
"Holmes, the biographer of Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley, has a firm grip on science in "The Age of Wonder" and a fluency in drawing the connections to literature and religion."---Chemical and Engineering News
About the Author/作者介绍： Richard Holmes皇家文學學會（Royal Society of Literature）的會員，並於一九九二年成為大英帝國官員（OBE）。一九七四年，因《Shelley: the Pursuit》一書而獲得毛姆獎；一九八九年以《Coleridge：Early Visions柯立芝：早期的洞見成為惠特布瑞德書卷獎的年度得獎者；一九九三年，以《Dr Johnson & Mr Savage》一書贏得布萊克獎。目前，他與小說家羅絲‧楚曼（Rose Tremain）同住在倫敦或諾里治（Norwich）。
Richard Holmes is Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, has honorary doctorates from UEA, Kingston University and the University of East London, and was awarded an OBE in 1992. His first book, ’Shelley: The Pursuit’, won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1974. ’Coleridge: Early Visions’ won the 1989 Whitbread Book of the Year, and ’Dr Johnson & Mr Savage’ won the James Tait Black Prize. ’Coleridge: Darker Reflections’ won the Duff Cooper Prize and the Heinemann Award. He has published two studies of European biography, ’Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer’ in 1985, and ’Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer’ in 2000. ’The Age of Wonder’ won the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2009 in the UK, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction 2010 in the USA.
Format:全彩四色
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：
原文第一章内容：有
手稿：暂无
大纲：暂无