The Essex Serpent - Hardcover

Sarah Perry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 178125544X ISBN 13: 9781781255445

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2016

Synopsis

London 1893. When Cora Seaborne's husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Accompanied by her son Francis - a curious, obsessive boy - she leaves town for Essex, where she hopes fresh air and open space will provide the refuge they need.
When they take lodgings in Colchester, rumours reach them from further up the estuary that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming human lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, convinced that what the local people think is a magical beast may be a previously undiscovered species. As she sets out on its trail, she is introduced to William Ransome, Aldwinter's vicar.
Like Cora, Will is deeply suspicious of the rumours, but he thinks they are founded on moral panic, a flight from real faith. As he tries to calm his parishioners, he and Cora strike up an intense relationship, and although they agree on absolutely nothing, they find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart, eventually changing each other's lives in ways entirely unexpected.
Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, this novel is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different guises it can take.

About this title

Review:

The Essex Serpent is a novel to relish: a work of great intelligence and charm, by a hugely talented author (Sarah Waters)

Had Charles Dickens and Bram Stoker come together to write the great Victorian novel, I wonder if it would have surpassed The Essex Serpent? No way of knowing, but with only her second outing, Sarah Perry establishes herself as one of the finest fiction writers working in Britain today (John Burnside)

A big, warm, generous novel that wears its considerable wisdom lightly, The Essex Serpent is an absolute pleasure from start to finish - I truly didn't want it to end (Melissa Harrison)

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry [is] a joyous and beguiling book that wrapped itself around me rather like its eponymous monster. (Cathy Rentzenbrink)

A blissful novel of unapologetic appetites, where desire and faith mingle on the marshes, but friendship is the miracle. Sarah Perry has the rare gift of committing the uncommittable to prose - that is to say: here is a writer who understands life. (Jessie Burton)

A book to make you want to be a better person (Justine Jordan, The Guardian)

I loved this book. At once numinous, intimate and wise, The Essex Serpent is a marvellous novel about the workings of life, love and belief, about science and religion, secrets, mysteries, and the complicated and unexpected shifts of the human heart - and it contains some of the most beautiful evocations of place and landscape I've ever read. It is so good its pages seem lit from within. As soon as I'd finished it I started reading it again. (Helen MacDonald) ---

A sinuous historical novel by the genius that is Sarah Perry (Lucy Mangan Stylist 2016-05-04) --Lucy Mangan, Stylist

An historical novel with real depth ... Perry writes fantastically, and this deserves attention for the rest of the year. (Steven Cooper The Bookseller 2016-04-29) --Steven Cooper, The Bookseller

From the Author:

Hardback was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and one of most talked about books of 2016|Fans include Sarah Waters, Jessie Burton, Susan Hill, Helen Mcdonald and John Burnside|Major paperback campaign planned including advertising|Beat J.K. Rowling to Waterstones book of the year award.

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 178125544X
• ISBN 13: 9781781255445
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432