Call number
FIC PER
Collection
Genres
Publication
Custom House (2017), 432 pages
Description
Set in Victorian London and an Essex village in the 1890's, and enlivened by the debates on scientific and medical discovery which defined the era, The Essex Serpent has at its heart the story of two extraordinary people who fall for each other, but not in the usual way. They are Cora Seaborne and Will Ransome. Cora is a well-to-do London widow who moves to the Essex parish of Aldwinter, and Will is the local vicar. They meet as their village is engulfed by rumours that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming human lives, has returned. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist is enthralled, convinced the beast may be a real undiscovered species. But Will sees his parishioners' agitation as a moral panic, a deviation from true faith. Although they can agree on absolutely nothing, as the seasons turn around them in this quiet corner of England, they find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart. Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, this novel is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different guises it can take.… (more)
Media reviews
Volatility infects the politics of the novel: the narrative, moving restlessly between the city and the marshes, concerns itself increasingly with “the problem of London”, the relationship between governance, business and poverty summed up in slum renting, slum life – the endless, insoluble
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matter of how privilege can be persuaded to act outside its own interests, or even see beyond its own limits. In the tenement dwellers of Bethnal Green, Charles Ambrose – otherwise, we are led to believe, a decent man – sees “not equals separated from him only by luck and circumstance, but creatures born ill-equipped to survive the evolutionary race”. From this distance it seems impossible to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perry extends her considerable generosity not just to her characters but to the whole late Victorian period, with its fears for the present and curious faith in the future; Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member janerawoof
High expectations for this one--I envisioned a Daphne du Maurier-like gothic but was sadly misled. It started out promisingly: a widow in late 19th century England, Cora, an amateur naturalist, travels to Essex where she hopes to find the [is it legendary or real?] Essex Serpent, living in the
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local river. This seemed like a kin to the Loch Ness Monster from any description. Cora hopes to discover a new species or, perhaps, a dinosaur that has lasted so long. She lives with a vicar and his wife. Then the story turned into the tales of several characters, the vicar and family; two doctors; Cora's servant Martha; Cora's autistic? son, and some villagers. I thought I'd get a frisson of horror, but the book became quite ordinary. There were flashes of excellent writing amid the melodrama, which rescued it from complete banality. Gorgeous cover, in the style of William Morris. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cariola
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
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.
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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.
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LibraryThing member LizzieD
I did enjoy The Essex Serpent especially when I was reading. It didn't haunt me when I put it down though, and if I had not owed ER a review, I might not have picked it up often enough to finish it anytime soon. It is an examination of several aspects of late Victorian society: rural superstition,
That said, the characters were instantly intriguing. Cora, freed from an abusive marriage by her husband's death, takes her son and companion to Essex in the pursuit of scientific enlightenment. There she meets friends of friends, Will and Stella Ransome, who become her friends too. They live in a remote village where a 17th century sea serpent is rumored to have reappeared. Cora is convinced that it is a living fossil; Will, the local vicar, is convinced that it is simply superstitious Trouble. Mix in Cora's Marxist companion Martha, who is loved by the very wealthy Spencer, friend of brilliant surgeon Luke, who is in love with Cora - not to mention the Ambroses (those friends of both Cora and the Ransomes) and the four children plus a neighbor's child plus a couple of old men, and you have a stew that is fun to consume but somehow leaves the reader unfilled in the end.
I did like it. I liked Perry's writing in general and admired some of her set pieces. I just wish somehow that it had been more.
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urban poverty, women's rights, science, medical practice, religion. I think perhaps Ms. Perry tried to do too much because a deeper purpose or meaning or analysis seemed promised on the next page or the next one and never quite appeared.That said, the characters were instantly intriguing. Cora, freed from an abusive marriage by her husband's death, takes her son and companion to Essex in the pursuit of scientific enlightenment. There she meets friends of friends, Will and Stella Ransome, who become her friends too. They live in a remote village where a 17th century sea serpent is rumored to have reappeared. Cora is convinced that it is a living fossil; Will, the local vicar, is convinced that it is simply superstitious Trouble. Mix in Cora's Marxist companion Martha, who is loved by the very wealthy Spencer, friend of brilliant surgeon Luke, who is in love with Cora - not to mention the Ambroses (those friends of both Cora and the Ransomes) and the four children plus a neighbor's child plus a couple of old men, and you have a stew that is fun to consume but somehow leaves the reader unfilled in the end.
I did like it. I liked Perry's writing in general and admired some of her set pieces. I just wish somehow that it had been more.
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LibraryThing member VanessaCW
What a fabulously quirky and unusual book! Set in the Victorian era when scientific discoveries were being made and debates abounded, amateur naturalist Cora Seaborne, also a widow, moves to Aldwinter in Essex to further her studies. It is in the midst of village gossip about an enormous serpent
The Essex Serpent is impressive, entrancing and atmospheric, full of fascinating, interesting and well drawn characters. I particularly love Cora, she has quite a sense of humour. It is very much a character driven tale. It is beautifully written and extremely evocative of the era. The descriptions are so vivid that I almost felt I was there! The story deals with a variety of themes from science to religion to politics and to love in all its guises.
An engaging, captivating and absorbing read, which I enjoyed tremendously. I can highly recommend it, especially to historical fiction fans. This is the first book I have read by Sarah Perry and it won't be the last.
Many thanks to Lovereading.co.uk for giving me the opportunity to read and review The Essex Serpent, which will be published on 2 June 2016.
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which has supposedly returned to haunt the eerie Blackwater marshes. Cora meets the local vicar, William Ransome, and together they form a strange bond whilst trying to prove or disprove the mythical beast theory. This is mostly their story.The Essex Serpent is impressive, entrancing and atmospheric, full of fascinating, interesting and well drawn characters. I particularly love Cora, she has quite a sense of humour. It is very much a character driven tale. It is beautifully written and extremely evocative of the era. The descriptions are so vivid that I almost felt I was there! The story deals with a variety of themes from science to religion to politics and to love in all its guises.
An engaging, captivating and absorbing read, which I enjoyed tremendously. I can highly recommend it, especially to historical fiction fans. This is the first book I have read by Sarah Perry and it won't be the last.
Many thanks to Lovereading.co.uk for giving me the opportunity to read and review The Essex Serpent, which will be published on 2 June 2016.
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LibraryThing member jackdeighton
To all intents and purposes this is a nineteenth century novel but it is one written with a modern sensibility. The text is divided into a prologue set on (an unspecified) New Year’s Eve followed by four parts split into unevenly distributed sections which are titled consecutively January to
In it the recently (happily) widowed Cora Seaborne with her son Frankie – who seems to have OCD or at the least autistic traits – and his childhood nurse Martha travel to Colchester to get away from London. The doctor who attended her husband’s death bed, Luke Garrett, has meanwhile formed an unreciprocated attraction to her. An earthquake eight years before the book starts has, according to rumour, let loose again the Essex Serpent which for a short time in 1669 roamed the waters of the Essex coast. Every local mishap or disappearance is now blamed on it. In the Blackwater estuary village of Aldwinter, there is a representation of the serpent carved onto a pew in All Saints Church. Through a mutual acquaintance an introduction is arranged between its vicar, William Ransome, and Cora, who has an interest in ancient creatures inspired by Mary Anning. Both Cora and Ransome erroneously imagine the other to be a stereotype of their respective statuses. They first meet by accident while rescuing a sheep from the muddy river bank but on further introduction strike up an intellectual, if verbally combative, friendship. Ransome is at odds with his congregation in being unwilling to address or assuage their belief in the creature. Ransome’s wife, Stella, is a consumptive, who is pleased by, even encourages, the friendship between her husband and Cora, and herself befriends Frankie.
The ingredients are here for a tale of forbidden love (or two eternal triangles even) set against a backdrop of supernatural horror but Perry does not play that game. She is more subtle – and too good a writer. Yet something about the enterprise nevertheless misses the mark.
The prologue mentions the banks of the River Blackwater in its first sentence. Having once lived by that river’s banks myself – but way upstream not near the estuary – I was therefore disposed to like the book, but as time went by I grew increasingly frustrated by it. It is not that it is not accomplished in its way or fails to provide memorable characters - even the relatively minor ones are rounded and all too human. There was just something about it that felt askew. About halfway through the thought crystallised.
Perry has yet to learn economy. Accumulation of detail normally lends verisimilitude, but she overdoes it. Descriptions frequently contain at least one observation too many. There is too much telling, too many extended ruminations by the various characters. And is Cora just a little too modern in her attitudes? In this regard the sub-theme of the problem of social housing and high rents also seemed to be straining for contemporary relevance. And - this last was actually a grace note, so not infelicitous as such - I did wonder if Martha had been named solely so as that another character might say to her, “‘Martha, my dear.’”
A pointer to Perry’s intentions for the novel may be found when she puts into the mouth of Will Ransome the thought, “‘far from being one truth alone there may be several truths,’” but we are never in any doubt that there is only one reality here. In that regard the putative fantasy element of the serpent promises more than it delivers.
While Perry has a facility with character and behaviour and The Essex Serpent has much to recommend it, it is more than a touch overwritten.
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September and then finally November, all interspersed with letters written between the characters. In it the recently (happily) widowed Cora Seaborne with her son Frankie – who seems to have OCD or at the least autistic traits – and his childhood nurse Martha travel to Colchester to get away from London. The doctor who attended her husband’s death bed, Luke Garrett, has meanwhile formed an unreciprocated attraction to her. An earthquake eight years before the book starts has, according to rumour, let loose again the Essex Serpent which for a short time in 1669 roamed the waters of the Essex coast. Every local mishap or disappearance is now blamed on it. In the Blackwater estuary village of Aldwinter, there is a representation of the serpent carved onto a pew in All Saints Church. Through a mutual acquaintance an introduction is arranged between its vicar, William Ransome, and Cora, who has an interest in ancient creatures inspired by Mary Anning. Both Cora and Ransome erroneously imagine the other to be a stereotype of their respective statuses. They first meet by accident while rescuing a sheep from the muddy river bank but on further introduction strike up an intellectual, if verbally combative, friendship. Ransome is at odds with his congregation in being unwilling to address or assuage their belief in the creature. Ransome’s wife, Stella, is a consumptive, who is pleased by, even encourages, the friendship between her husband and Cora, and herself befriends Frankie.
The ingredients are here for a tale of forbidden love (or two eternal triangles even) set against a backdrop of supernatural horror but Perry does not play that game. She is more subtle – and too good a writer. Yet something about the enterprise nevertheless misses the mark.
The prologue mentions the banks of the River Blackwater in its first sentence. Having once lived by that river’s banks myself – but way upstream not near the estuary – I was therefore disposed to like the book, but as time went by I grew increasingly frustrated by it. It is not that it is not accomplished in its way or fails to provide memorable characters - even the relatively minor ones are rounded and all too human. There was just something about it that felt askew. About halfway through the thought crystallised.
Perry has yet to learn economy. Accumulation of detail normally lends verisimilitude, but she overdoes it. Descriptions frequently contain at least one observation too many. There is too much telling, too many extended ruminations by the various characters. And is Cora just a little too modern in her attitudes? In this regard the sub-theme of the problem of social housing and high rents also seemed to be straining for contemporary relevance. And - this last was actually a grace note, so not infelicitous as such - I did wonder if Martha had been named solely so as that another character might say to her, “‘Martha, my dear.’”
A pointer to Perry’s intentions for the novel may be found when she puts into the mouth of Will Ransome the thought, “‘far from being one truth alone there may be several truths,’” but we are never in any doubt that there is only one reality here. In that regard the putative fantasy element of the serpent promises more than it delivers.
While Perry has a facility with character and behaviour and The Essex Serpent has much to recommend it, it is more than a touch overwritten.
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LibraryThing member sianpr
An absolutely wonderful book. Perry weaves a complex and multilayered tale centred on Cora Seabourne, the widow of an MP, and the people who inhabit her world. The narrative is spun around the local legend of the Essex Serpent. Essex is vividly conjured up as are the characters. Wonderful and
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heartening. Show Less
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
This is a Victorian novel in both setting and style. A meaty, substantial book filled with interesting secondary characters and a riveting central story, this book made me happy.
Cora is a widow with a young son, recovering from a bad marriage, she turns to science and the hunt for fossils. She has
While things happen and the writing is beautiful, the real stand-out in Perry's novel are the characters, who are each worthy of a novel of their own. Cora, herself, is less interesting and admirable than all of her admirers in the novel believe her to be, but with all the fascinating people she surrounds herself with, the gap is easily filled. I'm very much looking forward to Perry's next book.
Cora is a widow with a young son, recovering from a bad marriage, she turns to science and the hunt for fossils. She has
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friends and allies, from her socialist companion working to raise awareness of the conditions of the working poor in London, to the irascible, talented surgeon who attended her husband in his final days, to the wealthy and politically connected Ambroses, they all revolve around her. When she becomes fascinated with the reemergence of a local myth about a giant serpent, she is introduced to Will Ransome, a vicar, and his family, who live in the coastal village of Aldwinter, at the center of the rumors about the serpent.While things happen and the writing is beautiful, the real stand-out in Perry's novel are the characters, who are each worthy of a novel of their own. Cora, herself, is less interesting and admirable than all of her admirers in the novel believe her to be, but with all the fascinating people she surrounds herself with, the gap is easily filled. I'm very much looking forward to Perry's next book.
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LibraryThing member raschneid
This wasn't a perfect novel, but it more-or-less lived up to its gorgeous William Morris cover.
The Essex Serpent is a loving homage to nineteenth-century literature. It follows Cora Seaborne, a woman reclaiming her independence after the death of an abusive husband. Cora wants freedom, but people
I quite liked the writing, which does a remarkable job evoking its source material without becoming too enamored of itself. The prose is clean, accessible, and quite beautiful - and if some of the symbolism is a bit on the nose, well, Thomas Hardy started it. The setting is masterfully rendered; you can practically smell the Blackwater estuary. I especially enjoyed the moments of horror, which are not so much gothic as surreal, as if our cozy historical novel has suddenly become a trippy 70s art film.
The characters are a likable bunch, although I wanted more time with some of them (seriously, give me an entire novel about Martha) while I felt that others were over-explicated by the standards of literary fiction. Over-explication is both a feature and bug of this novel - the plot is loose-jointed and organic, but it's also surprisingly tidy, with fewer loose ends than I would have expected from a story that deals with the ineffability of the universe and the human heart.
What this novel isn't is a Victorian tragedy - no maidens symbolizing rural England are sacrificed on hilltops, and even drownings in the chilly Blackwater are few and far between. Occasionally I suspected Perry of liking her characters too much to wholly disturb their universes. But I liked them too, and there are worse faults in a novel.
The Essex Serpent is a loving homage to nineteenth-century literature. It follows Cora Seaborne, a woman reclaiming her independence after the death of an abusive husband. Cora wants freedom, but people
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keep falling in love with her (she's one of those characters). The characters wrestle with their own ambivalent hearts, and with the coming of a modernity which threatens to overthrow their clockwork Victorian universe. Oh, and maybe there's a giant sea monster? (But just to be clear, this is not genre fiction, and comparisons on the dust jacket to Susanna Clarke are wholly misleading.)I quite liked the writing, which does a remarkable job evoking its source material without becoming too enamored of itself. The prose is clean, accessible, and quite beautiful - and if some of the symbolism is a bit on the nose, well, Thomas Hardy started it. The setting is masterfully rendered; you can practically smell the Blackwater estuary. I especially enjoyed the moments of horror, which are not so much gothic as surreal, as if our cozy historical novel has suddenly become a trippy 70s art film.
The characters are a likable bunch, although I wanted more time with some of them (seriously, give me an entire novel about Martha) while I felt that others were over-explicated by the standards of literary fiction. Over-explication is both a feature and bug of this novel - the plot is loose-jointed and organic, but it's also surprisingly tidy, with fewer loose ends than I would have expected from a story that deals with the ineffability of the universe and the human heart.
What this novel isn't is a Victorian tragedy - no maidens symbolizing rural England are sacrificed on hilltops, and even drownings in the chilly Blackwater are few and far between. Occasionally I suspected Perry of liking her characters too much to wholly disturb their universes. But I liked them too, and there are worse faults in a novel.
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LibraryThing member keristars
I'm not sure how I feel about The Essex Serpent, is it a positive or negative feeling overall, but I certainly read straight to the end to find out what happened to the characters, and I found it interesting in the way it used traditional Gothic themes and structure.
The Gothic elements here are
The characters from the city are all doctors or scientists or otherwise "modern", basically the type to eschew superstition, including the central character Cora, who aspires to be a natural scientist and likes to collect rocks and fossils. Her companion Ruth is a socialist bent on fixing the city's housing problem for the impoverished, her son Francis is likely on the autistic spectrum and appears to distrust emotion and certainly doesn't display any himself, and her dear friend Luke is a brilliant surgeon who takes on cutting edge techniques and cases.
When Cora's husband dies, she takes her son and Ruth to Essex to spend time in nature and maybe discover some rare fossils. Here, especially in the small country, seaside village of Aldwinter, are the representatives of Superstition. Vicar Will is a direct contrast to Luke - equally brilliant in school, but choosing to dedicate himself to religion in a backwater town. His wife Stella is (superficially) a delicate, flighty person, wholly unlike Ruth, and their eldest child Joanna first appears when she is attempting to cast a magic spell to hurry spring with her best friend and brother. Essex is the site of ruins from an earthquake many years before, and in Aldwinter especially there are rumors of a monster, some kind of sea serpent, that is threatening the village.
So and thus, London and its people are modernity and science. Essex and the people there are the past and superstition. The two mingle, not just because of Cora. The science goes to Essex and muddles things up, the irrationality of the country finds its way to the city. The story finds a happy medium, of sorts, as it examines the flaws of the two perspectives, and the rightness of each as well. Each character moves towards that middle by the end.
I enjoyed the process of the story and the evocative imagery. It is fairly vividly late Victorian, which was enjoyable to read (though I wondered about the lack of servants anywhere!). I appreciated that even as steeped as it is in the 19th century thought and what was known of the world, nods are given to modern sensibilities - one character is quietly queer, mass hysteria is shown from a recent perspective, but also many of the medical or science things we now know are bunk are treated that way.
The themes ended up feeling uneven and superficial. I couldn't really figure out what the author was trying to say, and ultimately felt that finding a middle balance was a weak way to do it, especially with the book being so Gothic. I wanted more conviction and more strongly Good/Bad character dichotomies. (Which I admit I did like the way everyone is cast in grey...that's just not what I want from this kind of book.) Every main character has their plot tied up to show them finding a new middle ground and how they're growing as people, but none of that felt much like an ending. It's almost like the book just fizzled out, or ran out of things to say, or something. The resolution of Cora's love story plot, too, was frustratingly middle-of-the-road, when I wanted it to have a stronger statement. Though, again, I do appreciate the shades-of-grey/real-people-are-like-this elements of it.
I think I also am bristling against the treatment of Science vs. Superstition (or Religion or Emotion or whatever) that ultimately organizes the plot threads. It's almost a feeling of Modernity being framed as less good than the wholesome religion and country living - even though the whole book is about how people need the logic and steadiness to counter runaway base emotions and thoughtlessness. (But also, life isn't living without emotion. It was kind of annoying that the apparently autistic child's happy ending is when he shows affection for his mother.)
So, to sum up, I like the idea of this book, and enjoyed reading it, but I did not like the thematic conclusions it makes and wish that it had taken a more vocal stance about them, without being so middle-of-the-road. I wish it were more like those Sensational novels of the 19th century, with a clear Good/Bad character division, and not so much of a downplaying of modernity and science in order to create that balance.
The Gothic elements here are
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primarily in the Victorian, rural/estuary Essex setting, and in the conflict and play between Science and Superstition.The characters from the city are all doctors or scientists or otherwise "modern", basically the type to eschew superstition, including the central character Cora, who aspires to be a natural scientist and likes to collect rocks and fossils. Her companion Ruth is a socialist bent on fixing the city's housing problem for the impoverished, her son Francis is likely on the autistic spectrum and appears to distrust emotion and certainly doesn't display any himself, and her dear friend Luke is a brilliant surgeon who takes on cutting edge techniques and cases.
When Cora's husband dies, she takes her son and Ruth to Essex to spend time in nature and maybe discover some rare fossils. Here, especially in the small country, seaside village of Aldwinter, are the representatives of Superstition. Vicar Will is a direct contrast to Luke - equally brilliant in school, but choosing to dedicate himself to religion in a backwater town. His wife Stella is (superficially) a delicate, flighty person, wholly unlike Ruth, and their eldest child Joanna first appears when she is attempting to cast a magic spell to hurry spring with her best friend and brother. Essex is the site of ruins from an earthquake many years before, and in Aldwinter especially there are rumors of a monster, some kind of sea serpent, that is threatening the village.
So and thus, London and its people are modernity and science. Essex and the people there are the past and superstition. The two mingle, not just because of Cora. The science goes to Essex and muddles things up, the irrationality of the country finds its way to the city. The story finds a happy medium, of sorts, as it examines the flaws of the two perspectives, and the rightness of each as well. Each character moves towards that middle by the end.
I enjoyed the process of the story and the evocative imagery. It is fairly vividly late Victorian, which was enjoyable to read (though I wondered about the lack of servants anywhere!). I appreciated that even as steeped as it is in the 19th century thought and what was known of the world, nods are given to modern sensibilities - one character is quietly queer, mass hysteria is shown from a recent perspective, but also many of the medical or science things we now know are bunk are treated that way.
The themes ended up feeling uneven and superficial. I couldn't really figure out what the author was trying to say, and ultimately felt that finding a middle balance was a weak way to do it, especially with the book being so Gothic. I wanted more conviction and more strongly Good/Bad character dichotomies. (Which I admit I did like the way everyone is cast in grey...that's just not what I want from this kind of book.) Every main character has their plot tied up to show them finding a new middle ground and how they're growing as people, but none of that felt much like an ending. It's almost like the book just fizzled out, or ran out of things to say, or something. The resolution of Cora's love story plot, too, was frustratingly middle-of-the-road, when I wanted it to have a stronger statement. Though, again, I do appreciate the shades-of-grey/real-people-are-like-this elements of it.
I think I also am bristling against the treatment of Science vs. Superstition (or Religion or Emotion or whatever) that ultimately organizes the plot threads. It's almost a feeling of Modernity being framed as less good than the wholesome religion and country living - even though the whole book is about how people need the logic and steadiness to counter runaway base emotions and thoughtlessness. (But also, life isn't living without emotion. It was kind of annoying that the apparently autistic child's happy ending is when he shows affection for his mother.)
So, to sum up, I like the idea of this book, and enjoyed reading it, but I did not like the thematic conclusions it makes and wish that it had taken a more vocal stance about them, without being so middle-of-the-road. I wish it were more like those Sensational novels of the 19th century, with a clear Good/Bad character division, and not so much of a downplaying of modernity and science in order to create that balance.
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LibraryThing member varielle
Meh. I’ve heard rave reviews about how great The Essex Serpent was. It was a so-so historical fiction account centered around a rumor of a mysterious beast off the Essex coast. The Londoners get involved with the country people and culture clash ensues. The abused widow with her autistic son, the
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doctor buddies, the parson with his dying wife and their brood, the socialist friend and the murderous co-worker—none of them are all that compelling. The best thing about this book is the beautifully designed cover. Show Less
LibraryThing member written
This book really sounded like a book I would enjoy reading. Unfortunately it wasn't. I managed to get through to the end while telling myself "it will get better". I didn't like any of the people in this book. I really didn't care what happened to them. I just wanted the story to end. Sorry.
LibraryThing member DubaiReader
Gothic Victorian novel.
According to GoodReads, this book has been nominated for eight awards to date, but I'm afraid I found it rather slow and it failed to hold my interest. On several occasions I had to rewind the audiobook as I had lost my train of thought, which left me wondering if this might
The central character is Cora Seaborne, who is narrated with a most peculiar accent. As the story begins, she is widowed by her overbearing older husband, but left well provided for. She had done her duty as a wife but felt relieved to be free of him. Able to do as she pleased, she dropped all female pretenses and moved to Aldwinter, Essex, where a serpent was rumoured to have been seen in the dark marsh waters. Cora is fascinated by nature, and by fossils in particular; she hopes the serpent will turn out to be a living fossil.
In Aldwinter she is drawn to the local vicar, Will Ransome, with whom she spars about many topics, including the relevance of religion.
Set in the 1890's, this novel also includes references to social housing and surgical breakthroughs, but these elements felt a bit superfluous and incomplete.
Many secondary characters play a part and of these I was most drawn to the poor doctor who attended Cora's husband and who fell hook-line-and-sinker for Cora, and to Francis, Cora's (probably autistic) son, who spent hours counting the feathers in a pillow, both forwards and backwards.
I have to say, the cover art is divine, five stars to the artist who designed it.
According to GoodReads, this book has been nominated for eight awards to date, but I'm afraid I found it rather slow and it failed to hold my interest. On several occasions I had to rewind the audiobook as I had lost my train of thought, which left me wondering if this might
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be a book that is better read than listened to.The central character is Cora Seaborne, who is narrated with a most peculiar accent. As the story begins, she is widowed by her overbearing older husband, but left well provided for. She had done her duty as a wife but felt relieved to be free of him. Able to do as she pleased, she dropped all female pretenses and moved to Aldwinter, Essex, where a serpent was rumoured to have been seen in the dark marsh waters. Cora is fascinated by nature, and by fossils in particular; she hopes the serpent will turn out to be a living fossil.
In Aldwinter she is drawn to the local vicar, Will Ransome, with whom she spars about many topics, including the relevance of religion.
Set in the 1890's, this novel also includes references to social housing and surgical breakthroughs, but these elements felt a bit superfluous and incomplete.
Many secondary characters play a part and of these I was most drawn to the poor doctor who attended Cora's husband and who fell hook-line-and-sinker for Cora, and to Francis, Cora's (probably autistic) son, who spent hours counting the feathers in a pillow, both forwards and backwards.
I have to say, the cover art is divine, five stars to the artist who designed it.
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LibraryThing member teresakayep
I’ve been very much looking forward to the U.S. release of this novel by Sarah Perry. It has a Victorian lady naturalist, a minister, and a mysterious sea monster. What could be better? And the reviews from the U.K. have been overwhelmingly positive. Alas, I was disappointed.
I do give Sarah
The first problem I found is that it takes a ridiculously long time to get started. Well over 100 pages. There are lots of characters beyond Cora Seaborne, the recently widowed fossil collector, and William Ransome, the country vicar with a big family and devoted wife, Stella. There’s a pair of doctors, Luke Garrett and George Spencer. And then there’s Charles and Katherine Ambrose, a good-hearted couple who bring the characters together. And then there are various children, most notably Cora’s son Francis, who appears to be autistic, and the Ransomes’ clever daughter, Joanna. And Cora has a companion, Martha, who appears to be in love with her. After Cora’s abusive husband dies, the first hundred pages of the book are mostly the various characters making introductions and eventually meeting. In every case, the characters form ideas of who they will meet, and they are invariably surprised. It gets tedious.
What the book does not show is Cora actually doing much investigating. Instead, it focuses on atmosphere, most notably the hothouse environment of a small community where everything seems uncertain and no one knows what to do about it. Perhaps if I’d known it was more about atmosphere than story, I would have been more patient with the slow (agonizingly slow) burn. As it is, I felt like most of the interesting material was barely touched on when a plot that appears to go nowhere gets all the attention.
The book does get better as it goes on. Passions can’t be denied, and there are consequences to face. By the last third, I was keen to see how it would turn out. But that didn’t quite make up for hundreds of pages of waiting for something to happen.
I do give Sarah
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Perry credit for being original. The Essex Serpent is like none of the other neo-Victorian books I've read. It’s an original. That may speak well of Perry’s talent as a writer, but it didn’t do much for me as a reader.The first problem I found is that it takes a ridiculously long time to get started. Well over 100 pages. There are lots of characters beyond Cora Seaborne, the recently widowed fossil collector, and William Ransome, the country vicar with a big family and devoted wife, Stella. There’s a pair of doctors, Luke Garrett and George Spencer. And then there’s Charles and Katherine Ambrose, a good-hearted couple who bring the characters together. And then there are various children, most notably Cora’s son Francis, who appears to be autistic, and the Ransomes’ clever daughter, Joanna. And Cora has a companion, Martha, who appears to be in love with her. After Cora’s abusive husband dies, the first hundred pages of the book are mostly the various characters making introductions and eventually meeting. In every case, the characters form ideas of who they will meet, and they are invariably surprised. It gets tedious.
What the book does not show is Cora actually doing much investigating. Instead, it focuses on atmosphere, most notably the hothouse environment of a small community where everything seems uncertain and no one knows what to do about it. Perhaps if I’d known it was more about atmosphere than story, I would have been more patient with the slow (agonizingly slow) burn. As it is, I felt like most of the interesting material was barely touched on when a plot that appears to go nowhere gets all the attention.
The book does get better as it goes on. Passions can’t be denied, and there are consequences to face. By the last third, I was keen to see how it would turn out. But that didn’t quite make up for hundreds of pages of waiting for something to happen.
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LibraryThing member cacky
Too many topics. Too many characters with a story to tell. The result is a muddled novel. Sad to say that the best thing about this book is it's amazing jacket design.
LibraryThing member MaureenCean
Perhaps as high as 3.5 Thank you to Library Thing for the ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review. I was drawn instantly to it for the beauty of the cover art. I wish I could have it every day in a planner or a rug or pillow. So pleasing to the eye. There were a few things that prevented
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me from adding the fourth star. It was truly slow moving, almost to the very end. I also found the characters a little too stereotypical, particularly in Cora's case. Why must the portrayal of feminism include casting aside what makes us feminine and behaving like a man? It just seemed that every character was so easy to label. And the last thing is something I have mentioned before. Apparently I'm getting prudey as I proceed through middle age. The sex scene, amounting to a mere half paragraph, was disquieting. See pg. 354 if you just can't wait...To wrap things up on a more positive note, some of the narrative pieces, especially at the start of chapters, talking of nature, the seasons, the state of the village and its inhabitants, reminded me of a favored author, Neil Gaiman. I could even hear him in my head as I read it, since he often does his own audio productions. It was quite nice. And while there is much that could be discussed on the themes of science vs religion and romantic vs platonic love, I think perhaps my favorite is the idea of William as religion and Cora as science, at once both together and apart. Show Less
LibraryThing member threadnsong
What a great book! A friend recommended it and I am glad I took a chance on it. Set in late 1800's Essex County and London, the action takes place with the rumor of the infamous Essex Serpent who has taken up residence in the Blackwater, a tidal estuary near Colchester. Newly widowed Cora Seaborne
Part of what made this book so strong was its interweaving of themes: the idle rich and the dawn of modern surgery, spousal abuse and consumption, hypnosis and the heart's longing for what it cannot, or should not, have. Sections are divided by month, Nature is explored in all Her gaiety and glory, and even the Colchester earthquake plays a part.
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longs to explore this town with its possible findings of paleontology and she meets with the Vicar of Aldwinter, the nearby town. He and his wife, Stella, live with their three children, and over the next few months their lives become strongly intertwined.Part of what made this book so strong was its interweaving of themes: the idle rich and the dawn of modern surgery, spousal abuse and consumption, hypnosis and the heart's longing for what it cannot, or should not, have. Sections are divided by month, Nature is explored in all Her gaiety and glory, and even the Colchester earthquake plays a part.
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LibraryThing member thenumeraltwo
Expected a folk horror and got a Victorian love story with mention of kintsugi and some rum interpretation of autism.
LibraryThing member -Eva-
When Cora Seaborne’s husband dies, he celebrates her newfound freedom by surrendering to her Victorian scientific curiosity by hunting for the mythical Essex Serpent together with a local vicar, who, despite being married, grows closer to Cora than either of them had anticipated. This is written (1) that the main characters "fall in love;" is it ever possible to have characters be simpatico without falling in love - the story would have been better for it, I promise. (2) The most interesting story line, the one of the Serpent, has a lot of build-up and strange events connected to it, but ultimately goes nowhere; I'm especially irked that the school-incident, which I found wonderfully creepy, is never explained. It is an engaging read overall, but I wish more of the scattered threads would have been tied together at the end.
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beautifully, if somewhat too flowery for my taste, and has a very interesting premise. Unfortunately, the story veers into territory that is within my peeves area, so I couldn't fully enjoy it. My two biggest problems are Show Less
LibraryThing member Tess_Elizabeth
I received an ARC of The Essex Serpent in exchange for an unbiased review.
3.5 stars
THE ESSEX SERPENT is the story, loosely, of newly widowed Cora Seaborne, an unconventional Victorian woman who is fascinated by natural history and the budding sciences of the late 19th century. After the death of
I really wanted to love this book and was so excited to get my hands on a copy, but after reading it, felt a little let down. THE ESSEX SERPENT is less a supernatural story about Cora and her adventures to find the Essex serpent, and more an atmospheric snapshot of a time and place. It's beautifully written, but the characters feel underdeveloped, and the multiple side-plots extraneous to the central narrative. It seemed like a book that wanted to be a little of everything, without really knowing what it was. It's frustrating because you felt like with every turn of the page it had the potential to be something really special, but it just never got there.
3.5 stars
THE ESSEX SERPENT is the story, loosely, of newly widowed Cora Seaborne, an unconventional Victorian woman who is fascinated by natural history and the budding sciences of the late 19th century. After the death of
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her abusive husband, this passion takes her to the marshy county of Essex where rumors of a monstrous serpent are circulating along the estuary towns. Here she meets the married reverend William Ransome, and they begin a relationship every bit as unconventional as Cora herself. I really wanted to love this book and was so excited to get my hands on a copy, but after reading it, felt a little let down. THE ESSEX SERPENT is less a supernatural story about Cora and her adventures to find the Essex serpent, and more an atmospheric snapshot of a time and place. It's beautifully written, but the characters feel underdeveloped, and the multiple side-plots extraneous to the central narrative. It seemed like a book that wanted to be a little of everything, without really knowing what it was. It's frustrating because you felt like with every turn of the page it had the potential to be something really special, but it just never got there.
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LibraryThing member PDCRead
Recently widowed from an unpleasant husband, Cora Seaborne has moved from London to the Essex parish of Aldwinter with her son and friend Martha. It is a time of exciting scientific change and discovery as people realise that fossils pose as many questions as they answer. Women have started to play
The fear is brought to life with the discovery of a drowned man, naked with his head rotated almost 180 degrees and a look of terror in his eyes. One man who sees the parish crumbling in their faith is the vicar, Will Ransome, they start to resort to pagan superstitions and pure cold fear of what may lurk in the waters. Cora arriving in his parish adds to his challenges as she declares that science offers as many explanations as religion does to their present threat. Their relationship sparks fierce debate and unspoken attraction, but Cora has another that is besotted by her, Luke Garrett, a surgeon of some note, who affection is not returned. Will they be able to understand what lurks in the Blackwater, and will they resolve the relationship to something more amiable?
Perry has set the story in a time where society is undergoing huge social changes and scientific understanding is growing and challenging the status quo of the state. There is a lot to like about this, the story is richly imagined, full of detail and with a gothic sub note all the way through, the strained relationship between Cora and William adds greatly to the story too. However, I did feel that there were too many characters in the story as it flipped back and forward between London and Essex. The plot had a little too much going on as well, but the various sub plots did add the necessary depth. Glad I have read it and would suit those that like Victorian dramas.
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a limited role in the discovery of these almost supernatural creatures finding the bones scattered below cliffs as they erode. Her arrival in the wilds of Essex happens around the time that a folktale has come back to life and the village and people of the Blackwater estuary are living in fear of the Essex serpent once again. The fear is brought to life with the discovery of a drowned man, naked with his head rotated almost 180 degrees and a look of terror in his eyes. One man who sees the parish crumbling in their faith is the vicar, Will Ransome, they start to resort to pagan superstitions and pure cold fear of what may lurk in the waters. Cora arriving in his parish adds to his challenges as she declares that science offers as many explanations as religion does to their present threat. Their relationship sparks fierce debate and unspoken attraction, but Cora has another that is besotted by her, Luke Garrett, a surgeon of some note, who affection is not returned. Will they be able to understand what lurks in the Blackwater, and will they resolve the relationship to something more amiable?
Perry has set the story in a time where society is undergoing huge social changes and scientific understanding is growing and challenging the status quo of the state. There is a lot to like about this, the story is richly imagined, full of detail and with a gothic sub note all the way through, the strained relationship between Cora and William adds greatly to the story too. However, I did feel that there were too many characters in the story as it flipped back and forward between London and Essex. The plot had a little too much going on as well, but the various sub plots did add the necessary depth. Glad I have read it and would suit those that like Victorian dramas.
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LibraryThing member DebbieMcCauley
1893 London: Cora Seaborne’s abusive husband has just died and she is left with her autistic son Francis and socialist companion Martha. The family dog seems the only one to mourn her husband, and soon dies. Unorthodox Cora has an interest in palaeontology. Hearing of the hysteria surrounding the
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return of the 'Essex Serpent', not seen since 1669, but now apparently returned to terrorise Aldwinter village from the Blackwater estuary, she determines to find out whether the serpent is actually a ‘living fossil’. She meets Aldwinter's rector, William Ransome, whose fearful flock feel under judgement. His wife Stella lives in a blue-tinged state of euphoria brought on by tuberculosis. Superstition and faith compete with science and fact as Cora and William are drawn to each other, forming a deep friendship, although opposed on almost every topic. I picked this book up for its cover, a fabulous William Morris inspired Victorian floral which is repeated in the attractive yellow endpapers. The story was fairly good, Cora has found freedom in her husband’s death and turned her back on Victorian society. The story includes social history and the class system, touching on crime and housing squalor in London as well as the 1884 Colchester Earthquake. Not compelling, but needed completion to solve the mystery of the ‘Essex Serpent’! Show Less
LibraryThing member johnwbeha
I enjoyed this book a lot. It covers a vast range of themes, from old folklore, through developments in surgery and the birth of social housing. But essentially it is a love story involving a modern woman [at the end of the nineteenth century and a country parson. It moves from London, to
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Colchester and on to a village on the Blackwater estuary in Essex. As well as the moving central relationship, there is a plethora of other characters, all of whom are well drawn by the author. A really good read and I look forward to our book group discussion. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookmuse56
A graceful ingeniously written historical fiction set in the 1890s Victorian England that delightfully simmers with suspense, and defying the known sensibilities of the times. The mystery of the reappearance of an elusive beast, a cerebrally-minded young widow, and a compassionate vicar are the
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drivers that lead the reader into the conversations of science & progress vs superstition & belief. While the beginning was a little slow for me, the intertwined complexities of the relationships made this an addictive read for me. The beautiful cover foreshadows the awesome descriptive language of the landscape, along with the stellar storytelling drawing the reader into the world in which these characters live makes for an entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member mckait
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry is a beautifully written story. So many quirky, yet lovable characters, and such an array of feelings. One moment I almost felt as if I had picked up a volume of poetry, so beautifully written, and the next, darkness looms. This book takes us on a journey through a
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year in the lives of an assortment of people, whose strengths and weaknesses make them so very real. The unexpected happens often, hearts are broken and lives are mended. And the ending is nothing short of a work of art. The ending can make or break a book, and there is nothing broken in this story of Cora and Martha, Will, Francis, and all of the others whose lives touch, with Cora as the connector of them all. I loved it. Show Less
LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
Wasn't sure about this one. For the first half of the book, I was thinking, 'Why do I keep buying populist novels, because they never live up to the hype?' The plot meanders along, vaguely tied in with the legend of the title and a widow who travels with her proto-autistic son and 'companion' to
But then, and I had a feeling this would happen, I clicked with a character ('Isn't it odd how strangers come over the threshold and you never know what they might become') - Luke Garrett, the talented but taciturn surgeon (who of course has a crush on Cora, gag). I imagined him to sort of look like David Bamber as Mr Collins in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, which isn't exactly heart throb material, but he also has that underdog vibe that I love, like Childermass in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I was nearly in tears when *improbable event* struck him down, and then Cora very nearly literally twisted the knife.
I think characterisation saves this novel from abject boredom. Apart from Cora and the slappable vicar, the personalities are all believable and mostly sympathetic, with my favourites being Luke, his hapless mate Spencer, and Stella, the vicar's wife. And even Cora is a strong, if forced, heroine who stays true to her beliefs - no sickening happy ever after at least.
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investigate, and the characters are either cliched - Cora, said widow, an 'independent lady' of the 1890s whom everybody loves - or annoying (I could not stand the bloody vicar!) But then, and I had a feeling this would happen, I clicked with a character ('Isn't it odd how strangers come over the threshold and you never know what they might become') - Luke Garrett, the talented but taciturn surgeon (who of course has a crush on Cora, gag). I imagined him to sort of look like David Bamber as Mr Collins in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, which isn't exactly heart throb material, but he also has that underdog vibe that I love, like Childermass in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I was nearly in tears when *improbable event* struck him down, and then Cora very nearly literally twisted the knife.
I think characterisation saves this novel from abject boredom. Apart from Cora and the slappable vicar, the personalities are all believable and mostly sympathetic, with my favourites being Luke, his hapless mate Spencer, and Stella, the vicar's wife. And even Cora is a strong, if forced, heroine who stays true to her beliefs - no sickening happy ever after at least.
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Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2017)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2018)
Costa Book Awards (Shortlist — Novel — 2016)
British Book Award (Winner — 2017)
Independent Booksellers' Book Prize (Shortlist — Adult — 2017)
The British Book Industry Awards (Fiction — 2017)
Wellcome Trust Book Prize (Longlist — 2017)
Encore Award (Shortlist — 2017)
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction (Longlist — 2017)
Dylan Thomas Prize (Shortlist — 2017)
Books Are My Bag Readers Award (Shortlist — 2016)
Waterstones Book of the Year (Shortlist — 2016)
Europese Literatuurprijs (Longlist — 2018)
NPR: Books We Love (2017)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction & Poetry — 2017)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Fiction — 2017)
Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice (Literary)
The Observer Book of the Year (Fiction — 2016)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2017)
Pages
416
ISBN
0062666371 / 9780062666376