A Kirkus Review Best Book of 2017 and a Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction. Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year, selected as the Waterstones Book of the Year, and a Costa Book Award Finalist“A novel of almost insolent ambition–lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate…it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, … and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home.” –New York Times
“An irresistible new novel…the most delightful heroine since Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice…By the end, The Essex Serpent identifies a mystery far greater than some creature ‘from the illuminated margins of a manuscript’: friendship.” –Washington Post
“Richly enjoyable… Ms. Perry writes beautifully and sometimes agreeably sharply… The Essex Serpent is a wonderfully satisfying novel. Ford Madox Ford thought the glory of the novel was its ability to make the reader think and feel at the same time. This one does just that.” –Wall Street Journal
An exquisitely talented young British author makes her American debut with this rapturously acclaimed historical novel, set in late nineteenth-century England, about an intellectually minded young widow, a pious vicar, and a rumored mythical serpent that explores questions about science and religion, skepticism, and faith, independence and love.
When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at nineteen, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend.
While admiring the sites, Cora learns of an intriguing rumor that has arisen further up the estuary, of a fearsome creature said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. After nearly 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to have returned, taking the life of a young man on New Year’s Eve. A keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, Cora is immediately enthralled, and certain that what the local people think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to local vicar William Ransome. Will, too, is suspicious of the rumors. But unlike Cora, this man of faith is convinced the rumors are caused by moral panic, a flight from true belief.
These seeming opposites who agree on nothing soon find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart—an intense relationship that will change both of their lives in ways entirely unexpected.
Hailed by Sarah Waters as “a work of great intelligence and charm, by a hugely talented author,” The Essex Serpent is “irresistible . . . you can feel the influences of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Hilary Mantel channeled by Perry in some sort of Victorian séance. This is the best new novel I’ve read in years” (Daily Telegraph).
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I loved this book. It should be a slow read. The prose is worth taking your time over. It’s lyrical and haunting. Perry is the master of the stunning narrative.
Wanted to like it more than a did – one of our book club selections. Liked some but not all the characters. And the big “reveal” was pretty disappointing
Interesting story line; interesting characters. At times I wasn’t sure which character was being referred to. The author assumed much in the storytelling. However, it keep me turning pages till I finished it. I like the 1800’s time period. I also did a little research on the “serpent”.
I tried but just could not get into this book.
If you want to write about many quirky characters, what better place to set them than Victorian Emgland? Add a mysterious monster and you have the makings of a great read. I hope you enjoy it as I did!
Great read! Loved it!
This really is an exceptionally written story. The language is so vivid and poetic. I loved the characters, they seemed very real to me. The only bit I didn’t like, bizarrely, was the bits about the Essex Serpent. I know this book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it was mine. Try it!
It was different! I made it to the end.
Very readable, displaying the struggles of mental health for both women and men.
Didn’t like the writing style. Didn’t finish.
The story was a little drawn out, but it held your interest enough to get to the ending.
The writing is beyond beautiful. The story – or I should say stories – comprise an array of such varied and captivating characters, in such vividly described settings that I felt transported in time and place and witness to a community of fascinating and complicated yet understandable friends. All their lives are tossed about by events throughout a single year, settling into a new found order, poised to go on, beyond the last page.
I’m an English Lit Major and this book took me back to college days and the wonderful world of excellent prose telling a very different kind of love story, replete with interesting characters, and a subtext of human emotions unspoken, but visible to the reader if not the characters themselves. Loved this page-turner and look forward to whatever else she has written. She gets an A+ from me. Jan Antonsson