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, 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 accled 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 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 cling 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 sites 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).