The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry
The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry
15 Rating(s)
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

The Essex Serpent
A Novel

Author: Sarah Perry

Narrator: Juanita McMahon

Unabridged: 14 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/06/2017


Synopsis

NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIESA Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction * Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year *A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of The Year * Waterstones Book of the Year * 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, 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 TimesLondon, 1893. 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 an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. Once there, they hear rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year’s Eve, the community’s dread transforms to terror. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons: a man of faith, he is convinced the alarming reports are caused by moral panic, a flight from the correct and righteous path. As Cora and William attempt to discover the truth about the Essex Serpent’s existence, these seeming opposites find themselves inexorably drawn together in an intense relationship that will change both of them in ways entirely unexpected. And as they search for answers, Cora’s London past follows her to the coast, with striking consequences. Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, The Essex Serpent masterfully explores questions of science and religion, skepticism and faith, but it is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different—and surprising—guises it can take.

About Sarah Perry

Sarah Perry is the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent, Melmoth, and After Me Comes the Flood. She lives in England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Hannah on March 19, 2024

I have a new BookTube channel! Come find me at Hello, Bookworm📚🐛 Click here to watch a video review of this book on my (old) channel, From Beginning to Bookend. After the death of her husband, the intelligent young widow, Cora Seaborne, abandons her society life in London and departs for coastal Essex......more

Goodreads review by Candi on October 06, 2018

"The pendulum swings from one year to the next, and there’s darkness on the face of the deep." The year is 1893 and something evil is lurking in the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England. Nearly two hundred years prior, a hideous, winged serpent was said to rise from the waters and walk the woods and......more

Goodreads review by Baba on March 20, 2022

In 1893 London, Cora Seaborne is freed of her abusive husband on his death and forthrightly decides to un-hinder herself from compliance to gender norms and other people in general; seeing herself as an amateur botanist/archaeologist she descends on Essex with her companion Martha and her likely hig......more