The Essex Serpent

See my full review at The Emerald City Book Review. The premise sounded irresistible to me, yet even though The Essex Serpent had all the ingredients for a book I ought to love, I had a hard time warming to it somehow. Perhaps this was partly because the constant switching of perspective also made it hard for me to settle into the story. Certain threads and relationships were not developed as much as I would have liked, as the zigzagging plot kept dropping one to pick up another. I remained oddly distant from the characters, and sometimes had the sensation of being told rather than shown about their characteristics; they felt intellectually constructed out of era-appropriate ingredients (paleontology, anatomy, consumption, sexual repression, etc.) rather than spontaneously living.

Unsettling is definitely what The Essex Serpent is all about, though, so perhaps this is an appropriate effect. And at the end, suddenly, the characters came together in a way that surprised me, bringing them to life more vividly. If the book had gone on from there for another hundred pages or so, I might have felt more connected to it.

This book was a pleasant surprise. I was thinking it was going to be pretty pulpy. But it wasn't. It's a gothic or mystery type novel. It has mystery and unraveling. It is a work that has elements of feminism and socialism which is a nice break from most Victorian-era novels. Which are mostly about modesty and puritanism.

Update: reread it in English. It was even better.
Some things I liked:
p. 24: “ Come tomorrow, if you like, to the grave. I said I'd go alone, but perhaps that's the point; perhaps we are always alone, no matter the company we keep.”
p.127: “Sometimes I think I sold my soul, so that I could live as I must. Oh, I don't mean without morals or conscience - I only mean with freedom to think the thoughts that come, to send them to go, not to let them run along tracks someone else set, leading only this way or that..' .... ‘I've sold my soul, though I'm afraid it didn't fetch too high a price. I had faith, the sort I think you might be born with, but I've seen what it does and I traded it in. It's a sort of blindness, or a choice to be mad - to turn your back on everything new and wonderful - not to see that there's no fewer miracles in the microscope than in the gospels!”
p. 216: “‘No such business', he said cheerfully. ‘I'm quite religious you know: no patience for the supernatural'”.
p. 343: “We've loved each other so long I've never been a man and not loved her. I can no more imagine life without her than without my own limbs. Who will I be if she is gone? If she is not looking at me - will I still be here? Will I look in the mirror one morning and find my reflection gone?

Some words I liked or did not now:
genuflect - kneeling in a religious manner (for a shrine or something)
auspicious - favorable circumstances
declivity - incline or gradient in height
beck - brook or stream
tincture - a trace or vestige
distrait - preoccupied
homunculus - a miniature human
caul - a portion of the enclosing sac of a fetus
shingle - beach gravel

This one kind of fizzled out for me. I was really into it until just past halfway, then I had to force myself to keep reading. I love the characters, the setting, the differing philosophies between those who love the naturals sciences and those who love faith. There is so much to like in this story - Francis is so weird yet charming, Stella in her blue bower, Cora and Will meeting over freeing a sheep from the bog. But past a certain point it just seemed like repetitions of things already talked about, with no strong finish.

Beautifully written novel of ideas set in the late Victorian era. London and Essex are convincingly evoked and the characters - well they are so perfectly what they are supposed to be that it is hard not to claim cliche, though they are they still drag you into the world. This book adhered to the necessary tropes of its genre so well, I laughed with joy. Just a lovely book in which not a lot happens in terms in physical action, but much life happens indeed. Recommended for folks who do not need wham bam boom books set in the 19th century.

A good old fashioned novel with a lot of story to get lost in. Cora Seaborne is freed from a terrible marriage by the death of her husband. The doctor who treated Michael Seaborne has fallen in love with her, but she is focused on experiencing and enjoying her freedom. She goes to Essex to look for fossils and comes into a community of people who believe there is a sea monster terrorizing their village. Here she meets William Ransome, the local priest, his wife Stella, and their children. Although Cora does not think much of religion, she becomes close friends with Will and his family, with surprising results.

There are so many oppositions in this novel: religion vs. science, superstition vs. reason, tradition vs. modernity, social classes rubbing up against each other in uncomfortable ways, innovations in medicine that go against people's sense of God's place in their lives or against their sense of human value. Almost everyone in the story is baffled, but out of all this friction comes a sense of growth.

Well written, but I was never really gripped by it. But, then I often don't get along with historical novels written now.

I picked up The Essex Serpent in an effort to start reading more literary works. That effort paid off, and the habit persisted even if the original book did not. I began this novel in early January and am finally calling it quits in July at 70%.

There is nothing to fault with the novel itself. The characters, setting and relationships are all interesting and I genuinely enjoyed reading the book every time I picked it up. The brush of the unknown, magical elements within the story really improved the concept. I'm giving the book a solid four stars due to how much I enjoyed the book when I originally started it. However, after having left it for so long the plot was hard to remember and my interest in the book have faded, so it remains an unfinished four stars. I have every belief that a reread will be a successful four or five stars.

A complicated story, much like our life is. I wouldn't call its effect cathartic, but in a way it really is therapeutic. Already started watching the show, curious how they will carry it out.
Even though there's no drama in the end, it left me just a bit sad, but I can't see what about. Maybe it's something subconscious.

5 star read! I adored this book!!!! It has everything you could ever want. It has romance, it has love triangles and even love rectangles ! It has folk tales and fantasy elements and much much more! It has captivating characters and each character is given the depth and consideration they deserve within the wider plot . It has twists and turns and shocking and heartwarming moments. Sarah Perry is such a talented writer. She is a strong contender for the future. She had beautiful prose, fantastic character development and superb plot development. I will read anything and everything she will write in the future and I urge you to do the same! If you do anything this summer....read this book!!!

1.5

3.5 stars Overall I did enjoy this however I didn't live up to the hype unfortunately. I saw this on a lot of people's favourites of 2016 so really thought I was going to be wowed by it but it was just okay for me. The pacing was a little odd, some of the scenes were just a bit flat and some parts I ended up skimming as it wasn't grabbing me. It was generally just a bit lacking, but as I said it was a fairly enjoyable read, just not a favourite.

The slightly-Gothic Victorian tale of a headstrong young widow who delights in nature and discovery and her new-found freedom from a cruel marriage. Cora, and her entourage of lovable and eccentric companions, come to Essex for the air and her amateur passion for palaeontology, and end up enthralled by the local's belief in the return of a feared mythical creature. While there, she finds a deep and untypical friendship/love with a local vicar, Will.

The novel has a little bit of everything, part Gothic beast story, part love story, part historical portrait of Victorian times, part feminism, part socialism, but none of these parts ever take the upper hand, so I mainly see it as a portrait of a wide range of vividly painted characters that range from slightly wacky to stubbornly love-struck to loyal revolutionary, that are all tied to each by love of one sort or another. The more I think about the characters and their bonds, the more I admire the novel. The writing is atmospheric and clever, sometimes very funny, and always quite beautiful.

On the surface, this book is a beautifully deep and detailed historical novel, with all the right period details. It???s also a bit of a mystery/horror novel, with all those tiny nods to the (historical) legend of the Essex Serpent and the touches of folk horror in how the people of Aldwinter talk about it and deal with it.
But at its core, it???s all about the characters, who are all quite complex and layered in their portrayals. None of them fits into any sort of stereotype one might find of them in Victorian novels: Cora isn???t necessarily the typical widow (merry or otherwise), William isn???t the typical parson, Martha isn???t the typical lady???s companion, etc. Each character has an idea of what the other characters are like before meeting them, then another idea of what they???re like after meeting them. That idea changes throughout the course of the novel as the plot plays out - a plot that is largely driven by the way the characters interact with each other. There???s a kind of ripple effect: one character takes some kind of action (or doesn???t), and the effects of their action or inaction affects the other characters, to a greater or lesser degree. This is what makes the characters - and the novel - enjoyable to read.
This dynamic is clearest with Cora and William. Initially they have some negative ideas about what the other is like, but when they finally meet each other in person those ideas change, and become more positive. But as the novel goes on, it becomes clear that though they get along and agree on a lot of things, there???s also plenty of things they DON???T agree on - but that just makes them more interesting to each other, more enjoyable to be around. This creates an interesting push-and-pull between them, that ripples out onto the other characters. Those characters, in turn, react to that dynamic, and their reactions spark similar reactions in other characters, including Cora and William.
Of course, none of these dynamics would be interesting if the characters themselves weren???t interesting on their own. As I mentioned earlier, none of the characters are stereotypes, but some are, I think, a bit more interesting than others - largely because of how they shine a light on aspects of British Victorian history that might not always be made obvious in other media based on the time period. The most obvious example here is Martha: her socialist politics provide a refreshing contrast to the politics of the other characters, but her sapphic-coded relationship with Cora, and her more complicated, politically-slanted relationship with Spencer, also add angles and layers to her that are not always visible in media and literature about the Victorian period.
But where does this leave the Essex Serpent itself, and its story? While it???s still a presence in the novel, and is the reason why all the characters come together in the first place, it???s really more of a symbol than any kind of actual threat. In that sense it can be viewed in many different ways, but the one I lean more towards is that it is a symbol of making assumptions, and disillusionment: two things all the characters undergo, for better and for worse.
So overall, while some readers might come to this novel expecting something in the horror or gothic vein (like I did, initially), they???ll quickly come to learn that this really is a story about the characters in it, and how they interact with and react to each other, than about any supposed monster lurking in the river. While this might be disappointing to some readers who were looking for a scarier read, others might find themselves unexpectedly delighted by the novel???s character-heavy focus and the author???s wonderful prose. 

Gorgeous prose, compelling characters with interesting and complex relationships, and a bit of a mystery thrown in made this an absolute winner for me. Likely to be on my list of favorites for 2018.