Emerson's Sublime Science (Romanticism in Perspectives: Texts, Cultures, Histories)

After delivering his final sermon at a Boston church in 1832, Ralph Waldo Emerson evolved into the Transcendental poet whose ideas that electrified the American intellectual scene of the day were sparked by what he termed "sublime science." Wilson (English, Wake Forest U.) analyzes how Emerson's first book, Nature (1836), reflects an aesthetics and cosmology galvanized by Faraday's work in electromagnetism and Davy's electrochemistry in fusion with the currents of Romantic poetry and hermetic alchemy. The author also touches upon Emerson's other works. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)