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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An evocative, fascinating tale of romance, mysticism, and religion vs science in nineteenth-century Britain. Beautifully written with magnetic characters.
Loved the writing. Happily got on the story-train and entered the immersive world Sarah Perry creates. It’s a world of character and questions about what faith is, even how very similar religious faith vs scientific faith actually is, even if the believers themselves prefer to think of themselves on different sides of the fence. I loved it.
An angle on the late Victorian era that you don’t see a lot. Kind of a mix of Remarkable Creatures, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Monsters of Templeton. There are LGBTQ+ characters, neurodivergent characters, disabled characters – all written richly and kindly, with beautiful arcs all their own. Content warning for an abusive relationship (mostly off-page), suicidal ideation on-page, and graphic but proportionate descriptions of injuries and surgeries.
Although this book is about a mysterious serpent, it’s really more focused on a curious and strong feminist character and the relationships she has with men. While I enjoyed her acts of independence and inquisitiveness, after a while I sort of got frustrated with how she treated these men, almost toying with them. The writing is very descriptive and a joy to read and savor.
I call this book Victorian noir. Good writing, excellent depiction of characters set against a backdrop of dark Victorian reality.
I was not that impressed with this book. It was just OK.
I found the story to be a bit boring.
Incredible novel set in Victorian England.
Slow development. Became bored reading..
Boring. Could of cared less about the characters. Slugged through it
‘The Essex Serpent’ was an entertaining read that is perfect for any historical fiction lovers. The book takes on topics such as; the argument between religion and science, perspective of women and classes and superstitions.
It was well-written with lots of complex layers, and it kept
My intrigue throughout. The cover was beautiful and it made for a great read.
ok
Firstly, I was close to giving this five stars, but the reason I chose not to was because it did not grab me from the outset. It was definitely a bit of a slow burn, and took several chapters before I felt comfortable with Perry’s voice and writing style. Of course, this is as much a reflection on me as a reader as her as a writer.
That said, this really is a remarkable piece of writing and one that I will not easily forget. The present tense chapters, written at the beginning of some sections of the book, reminded me very much of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. Perry’s use of imagery and her vocabulary choices and pace were often poetic which I loved.
Victorian gothic is my favourite genre, both in reading and viewing material, and I would definitely recommend this novel to other fans of the genre.
I loved this book. Great plot, themes, characters, development, all of it. Carried me through smoothly, and satisfied from beginning to end, which may sound an awfully soft description for a book with edgy circumstances and relationships, but for me, this book was the ship that carried it’s passengers safely over rough and dangerous waters.
What a fascinating book, so unexpected. In every way that you think you know and understand what to expect in this wonderful novel, the author will push you beyond expectations into an examination of human relationships. judgments, and expectations. A thought provoking masterfully written work.
What a wonderful novel! When I began it, I was afraid it was going to turn out to be some kind of fantasy or magical realism–neither of which I enjoy. But this is a novel as driven by character and ideas as by plot, and the writing is absolutely beautiful. Sarah Perry also has a gift for creating an atmosphere that totally draws the reader into a specific time and place–in this case, London and the small Essex town of Aldwinter in the 1890s.
Cora Seaborne, newly widowed, seems to have ambivalent feelings about her deceased husband, a wealthy, powerful, but cruel man. In some ways, he shaped her into a new person and a new life; but he also stifled any sense of self that she might have developed. Now on her own, she decides to follow her whims, the primary one being to study paleontology on an amateur level. With her companion Martha, an early feminist with reformist tendencies, and her odd 12-year old son Frankie (who today would likely be considered mildly autistic), Cora packs off to Lyme Regis, where Mary Anning had set off a craze for fossil hunting. But when rumors surface that a strange sea creature, last seen in 1669, may have reappeared in the waters near the small town of Aldwinter, Cora can’t resist the opportunity to find something truly remarkable. Her friends Charles and Katherine Ambrose, wealthy aristocrats, provide an introduction to the local parson, Will Ransome, a married father of three with a similar interest in fossils. Will and Cora embark on an unexpected and passionate friendship that threatens to become much more. Their debates on the conflicts between science and faith shape the heart of the novel.
But this is not the only theme running through ‘The Essex Serpent.’ There are questions about the nature of love in its many forms: friendship, passion, loyalty, empathy, responsibility, parenthood, and more. These are fleshed out through a series of wonderfully drawn secondary characters: Will’s wife Stella, an ethereal creature whose illness pulls her into a strange faith of her own making that centers on all things blue; Luke Garrett, a brilliant surgeon in love with Cora; his devoted friend George Spencer, a wealthy young physician who spends his fortune on charitable projects to impress Cora’s companion Martha; Frankie, who seems incapable of loving anyone; and the quirky townsfolk of Aldwinter. Questions of class are never far from the surface; Charles Ambrose, for example, believes in a kind of simplified social Darwinism that keeps individuals in the places they are meant to be.
All these elements, characters, and ideas twist and turn and intertwine like the body of the elusive serpent while the plot carries the reader along for the ride. There’s nary a dull moment here, and a good number of keen insights and startlingly beautiful passages. ‘The Essex Serpent’ is an all-around winner, the best reading experience I’ve had so far this year.
I wanted to like this book so much, but the characters just didn’t resonate with me. As a mother of a son who has autism, I was hoping for a more loving relationship between Cora and Francis but it didn’t exist or develop in the story.
I was given this book by a friend who had really enjoyed it, but I’m afraid I can’t say the same. Historically it does create a feel for the period of the latter part of the 19th century, with a focus on daily life, medicine, social issues, the changing seasons, towns, transport, religion and the church in a small community, and Sarah Perry paints a good picture of the countryside. But I just couldn’t get on with the overly descriptive very flowery writing style, that was an annoying distraction and stopped the story moving forward. It felt like padding for a weak storyline or something that should have been a really good short story.
It does improve from around page 150, but oh the effort to get there. Clearly, a book that you love or like me just can’t warm too. Somehow, it never really gets going, of course things happen, and although there is a modernity to the main character Cora, I couldn’t really warm to most of the central characters, and the book has no pace, I had no eagerness to know what happens next as the story gently ambles along with far too many distracting descriptive details. For me this book needs some serious editing.
Couldn’t get through it….tried and tried….found it very slow….took too long to get going and I love historical fiction. Big disappointment.
Although the theme was somewhat evocative of a gothic novel, I didn’t find this one particularly believable. Having said that, it will likely hold your attention until the end and if you like psychological dramas this one may be for you.