9780062676634
Play Sample

The Essex Serpent audiobook

  • By: Sarah Perry
  • Narrator: Juanita McMahon
  • Category: Fiction, Gothic
  • Length: 14 hours 44 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: June 06, 2017
  • Language: English
  • (35536 ratings)
(35536 ratings)
33% Cheaper than Audible
Get for $0.00
  • $9.99 per book vs $14.95 at Audible
    Good for any title to download and keep
  • Listen at up to 4.5x speed
    Good for any title to download and keep
  • Fall asleep to your favorite books
    Set a sleep timer while you listen
  • Unlimited listening to our Classics.
    Listen to thousands of classics for no extra cost. Ever
Loading ...
Regular Price: 5.99 USD

The Essex Serpent Audiobook Summary

NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIES

A 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 Times

London, 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.

Other Top Audiobooks

The Essex Serpent Audiobook Narrator

Juanita McMahon is the narrator of The Essex Serpent audiobook that was written by Sarah Perry

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

About the Author(s) of The Essex Serpent

Sarah Perry is the author of The Essex Serpent

The Essex Serpent Full Details

Narrator Juanita McMahon
Length 14 hours 44 minutes
Author Sarah Perry
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date June 06, 2017
ISBN 9780062676634

Subjects

The publisher of the The Essex Serpent is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Fiction, Gothic

Additional info

The publisher of the The Essex Serpent is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062676634.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Will

May 22, 2022

‘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 where I want them to go, not to let them run along tracks someone else set, leading only this way or that…’ Frowning, she ran her thumb along the serpent’s spine and said, ‘I’ve never said this before, not to anyone, though I’ve meant to: but yes I’ve sold my soul, though I’m afraid it didn’t fetch too high a price. I had a 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!’ ‘You think—you really think—that it is one or the other: your faith or your reason?’ The Essex Serpent is a magnificent work that uses the form of the Gothic novel to explore real-world and very human concerns. It may be set in the late 19th century, but it resonates with issues just as compelling as those of the 21st. Superstition and faith versus science and fact. The nature and limits of friendship, the moral limits of medicine. Sarah Perry has said, “What most interests me about the past is not its otherness but its sameness.” One manifestation is a concern with the housing horrors of the poor in 19th century London, being squeezed by landlords, and their residences being replaced by more posh lodgings. I wanted to portray a late nineteenth century which was in many respects ‘modern’, rather than a sort of Victoriana theme-park of pea-soupers and smelling-salts. By the 1890s you could travel by Tube and walk along an Embankment lit by electric lights, you could have a tooth pulled under anaesthesia, join a union, read the Times, buy frozen lamb shipped over from New Zealand, and so on. I suppose the obverse of saying 'they were rather like us' is to say 'and we are rather like them', and I do fear that we are regressing to a decidedly Victorian state when it comes to housing, and a tendency to think of those who live in poverty as in some way deserving it due to a lack of virtue rather than mere ill fortune. Cora Seaborne, lately and happily relieved of her unloving, but controlling husband, by virtue of a fatal illness, is no one’s idea of a damsel in distress. Quite the opposite. She has a passion for learning and exploration. 1893, in the final decade of Victoria’s reign, was an exciting time. The World Columbian Exhibition opened in Chicago. Wall Street suffered another stock crash. Women voted for the first time in a national election in New Zealand. Cora is eager to be a part of this new age of scientific growth. Shedding her London home, (At Euston Square and Paddington the Underground stations received their passengers, who poured in like so much raw material going down to be milled and processed and turned out of molds.) and indulging her growing interest in paleobiology, Cora, along with her on-the-spectrum son, Francis, and his nanny, Cora’s friend Martha, heads to Colchester, in Essex. (“They’re finding fossils on the coast…Cora will be happy as a schoolboy there, up to her knees in mud.”).Strange News out of Essex - a woodwork from the 1669 pamphlet It is while on a random explore in the rain, and considering her oneness with nature, It struck her that everything under that white sky was made of the same substance—not quite animal, but not merely earth; where branches had sheared from their trunks they left bright wounds, and she would not have been surprised to see severed stumps of oak and elm pulse as she passed. Laughing, she imagined herself a part of it, and leaning against a trunk in earshot of a chattering thrush held up her arm, and wondered if she might see vivid green lichen stippling the skin between her fingers. that she first meets Pastor Will Ransome. It definitely counts as meet cute when they, neither knowing who the other is, team up to retrieve an animal that had gotten stuck in the considerable mud.The pastor and the naturalist will form a beautiful bond as they engage in a dialectic of faith, reason and respectful consideration, and sometimes hostile confrontation. The core of faith in tension with science is central. Rumors of a serpent have been making rounds, a return of a creature last reported in the 17th century. Many of the locals indulge in superstition as fear spreads. Will is determined to put an end to such notions, but the naturalist, Cora, is hoping it might be a remnant of what had been thought a lost species, a plesiosaur perhaps, bringing to her scientific approach a considerable store of faith in the possible. Perry plays these tensions like Itzhak Perlman on a Stradivarius. Sarah Perry - from The GuardianThe tension between faith and science is far from the only buzzing string here. The connection Cora and Will make leads to battles of both the expected and surprising sorts, and while the core of their words is beyond reproach, their growing affection for each other, excitement at intellectual challenge, but also excitement at the very presence of the other, makes for more than a bit of discomfort. While Cora is happily widowed, Pastor Will remains smitten with his beautiful, both in body and spirit, wife, Stella, a star who would sparkle in any firmament. Of course, lustrous though she may be, Stella is not exactly in the best of health. Can Cora and Will’s friendship sustain, or will it transform into something else? William Ransome and Cora Seaborne, stripped of code and convention, even of speech, stood with her strong hand in his; children of the earth and lost in wonder. As for that beastie, the notion for the story was a happy accident. It was Sarah Perry’s husband who told her, on a car journey through Essex, having spotted a sign to the village of Henham, about the legend of a serpent. Perry felt her scalp tighten, the better to grasp the idea and keep it safe inside her head – a feeling she has become used to when she thinks of something she knows will make a great book. “Immediately, I thought if that beast came back in the Victorian era, post-Darwin, when there was a trend for natural history and people were fossil-collecting, people would have a very different response from those in the 17th century, who had seen this beast.”- from The Guardian interview The structure of the core conflict came to Perry in a flash… between myth and superstition and faith and reason and science and all of those clashing over this one potential beast. But how best to orchestrate it? Tom Hiddleston as Pastor Will Ransome, from the Apple TV+ series - image from IMDBThe Gothic form offered a welcome approach. There are familiar elements, sometimes reimagined. The typical spooky castle finds an outlet in a more natural setting, a spot where civilization tapers off and the natural (or supernatural?) picks up, a marshland, abutting the Blackwater River, near an estuary, the fittingly named World’s End. Darkness abounds there, as do barely visible things and events that offer rich fodder for active imaginations. In the darkness he grows afraid. There’s something there, he feels it, biding its time—implacable, monstrous, born in water, always with an eye cocked in his direction… An atmosphere of mystery pervades. Just what the hell is going on? An ancient and obscure prophecy portends unpleasantness ahead. Well, folks thereabouts are persuaded that the promise of the serpent’s return was being fulfilled. Omens, portents, visions. So many. Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events. Yep, and some pretty outstanding natural ones as well. High, even overwrought emotion. Fuh shoo-uh. Science-minded, free-at-last widow meets studly, passionate, intellectually curious cleric. And plenty of raised voices beside. But the high emotional level also extends to being dazzled by beauty. Women in distress. Well, not the usual sort. Stella is particularly unwell, but seems less stressed than enthralled by it. Cora is a modern woman, so no poor-weak-thing act being performed. There is plenty of the vocabulary of the gothic. For example, chapter one begins One o’clock on a dreary day… Clair Danes as Cora in the Apple TV+ series - image from Voice NationThere is also the romantic element in the gothic approach. The Will-Cora connection has already been mentioned. There are a few other connections of this sort that are addressed. But the overwhelming connection throughout the book is of friendship, even if the lines between where friendship leaves off and another kind of relationship picks up can be a bit murky, and even if love is the beating heart of all sorts of friendships. What I absolutely didn’t want to do was to write a book about two people who madly fancy each other and at the end of the book they fall in love and they get married. That’s so tiresome and life is so much more rich and complex and complicated than that. I wanted to write about a relationship that is intimate and tender and exciting and even erotic but not a conventional ‘boy-meets-girl and they’re soulmates and they live happy ever after’ story.Perry aimed to write about as many different kinds of friendship love as I could find. Ones which blur the boundaries between romantic love and friendship, seeing sexual desire as something cathartic and benevolent, even when it’s not connected to any kind of romantic attachment. I still maintain that Cora and Will are basically friends but that their friendship is capacious and different and subject to change - as human relationships are.” - from the Waterstones interview There are external elements throughout the book that buttress both nature and the sublime. Perry has the eye of a naturalist. She makes considerable and stunning use of this talent to breathe life into her landscapes. When the rain set in, she delved deeper between the trees, turning her face to the featureless sky. It was a uniform grey, without shifting of clouds or sudden blue breaks, and no sign at all of the sun: it was an unwritten sheet of paper, and against it the bare branches were black. It ought to have been dreary, but Cora saw only beauty—birches unfurled their strips of bark like lengths of white cloths, and under her feet wet leaves were slick. Everywhere bright moss had taken hold, in dense wads of green fur swaddling the trees at their foot, and fine pelts on broken branches that lay across the path. There are plenty more bits of this here. Stella adds a particularly ethereal appreciation for the color blue, both in its natural state and as manufactured. Blue, in fact, tints the novel for a considerable swath in a way that is both beautiful and alarming. Cora’s son, Francis, has an interest in the natural world as well, and offers some insights, although he lacks the experience to be able to interpret what he observes. There is a rich supply of secondary characters, some of whom receive starring role treatment. They serve to illuminate issues of the day. One is a doctor on the cutting edge of his profession, another a memorable local, who will mar your dreams with visions of unspeakable fence decorations and resident earwigs. Martha’s social activism highlights the housing issues in London, but also a sexual freedom that addresses the constraints of Victorian mores. Perry is not a satirist, but she does offer a particularly delicious line from one of her supporting cast, someone who dismisses notions of a returned monster: I’m quite religious, you know: no patience for the supernatural.As for gripes, blissfully few. The vanishing of one young lass lacked a persuasive rationale, I thought. There was one scene late in the book that I found a bit off-putting, but it would be too spoilerish to note it here. Neither of these imperiled for me the overall joy I experienced reading this book. For me the notion of the bliss of the beautiful that permeates TES can be summed up in a line from Cora. ’It was just the light,’ she said, ‘up to its old tricks. But how was my heart to know?’ A wondrous read, satisfying to both heart and mind, The Essex Serpent is a spectacular achievement, a masterpiece by a gifted writer at the peak of her power.Review first posted – 3/24/17Publication-----May 27, 2016 – the original hardcover, in the UK-----June 6, 2017 – by Custom House, in the USA-----April 24, 2018 - trade paperNovember 15, 2017 - The Essex Serpent is named one of the top fifty notable works of fiction of the year by The Washington PostNovember 22, 2017 - The Essex Serpent is named one of its 100 Notable Books of the year by The New York Times=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal and Twitter pages. You should know that as of the date of this post, her personal site was still under construction.Interviews-----The Guardian - The Essex Serpent author Sarah Perry: ‘Kids at school found me strange. I didn’t mind’ - interview by Emine Saner-----FiveBooks.com - Sarah Perry recommends the best Gothic Fiction - Interview by Beatrice Wilford - December 1, 2016-----Waterstones -The Book Perry Was Meant to Write - by Sally Campbell - December 10, 2016 -----The Guardian - Well, not really an interview, but a lovely piece by Perry on the making of the TV series - ‘When Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston were cast I was in shock’: Sarah Perry on The Essex Serpent - a delightThe Essex Serpent------British Library - On the trail of the Essex Serpent - Perry describes her encounter with the original 1669 pamphlet that inspired the novelThe Gothic Novel-----A fabulous lesson – This is where I got the list of Gothic novel characteristics I used for that part of the review - Elements of the Gothic Novel-----A wonderful video from Study.com - Gothic Novels: Characteristics & Examples - it is limited, though. One must be a subscriber to see it all. Still, worth a look.FWIW-----In classical mythology, Cora--or Kore-- was another name of Persephone, goddess of fertility and the underworld. – from nameberry.com

Candi

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 the commons, terrorizing the villagers. As quickly as it had appeared, it once again disappeared and was no longer to be seen… until now. The inhabitants of Aldwinter and the surrounding villages are once again caught up in a hysteria that seizes them by day and haunts them by night. If you think this brief description marks this as a gripping horror novel perfect for the month of October, I’d have to say… it depends. The terror lies in the anticipation, much as it does for the main characters as well as the masses of the townspeople. "The point is not what I see, but what I feel; I cannot see the ether yet I feel it enter and depart, and depend upon it. I feel that something is coming; sooner or later, my words be marked." I was not frightened by The Essex Serpent, but I was thoroughly absorbed by it. This is a story more about the thought-provoking ideas, the masterful characterizations, and the striking settings. The ideas may not be new, but they are woven so intelligently throughout the plot that I couldn’t help but reflect on them from a different angle perhaps. Faith and superstition versus science and reason – these themes could never be exhausted entirely, and the interest lies in refreshingly original ways of presenting them to an audience. I felt that Sarah Perry did just that. She offers a well-balanced view of both sides of the equation and it is up to us, as discerning readers, to come to a conclusion, if any. Cora Seaborne, recently widowed from a troubled marriage, is a naturalist. She worships the famed fossil hunter and paleontologist, Mary Anning of Lyme Regis. Now free of the bonds of wedlock, Cora strikes out with son Francis, likely autistic, and companion Martha, a socialist, to Essex in order to dig in the dirt and perhaps unravel this mystery of the serpent. Cora is a heroine that I could wholly admire. "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 where I want them to go, not to let them run along tracks someone else set, leading only this way or that..." When she comes up against the likes of Will Ransome, an improbable friendship as well as an intellectually rewarding rivalry ensues. Will is the resident vicar of Aldwinter, who of late has had to deal with the challenges of a parish that has opened itself up to the perils of superstition. "There was a feeling – mostly unspoken, at least in his presence – that they were all under judgment, doubtless well deserved, from which only he could deliver them; but what comfort could he offer which would not also affirm their sudden fear?" There seems to be a spark between these two, but Will is happily married to Stella, described as a fairylike little woman of ethereal qualities with a grim diagnosis of tuberculosis. Cora is too recently liberated from the authority of a man and besides has the devotion of another man, Dr. Luke Garrett. There could not be anything more between these two other than friendship, right? So they deny to themselves and one another any sort of attraction. "We both speak of illuminating the world, but we have different sources of light, you and I."What shined most in this novel, in my opinion, were the vivid characters and the stimulating dialogue. There are a number of players to keep track of here, but each is so well-fleshed out that it never became at all confusing. A list of names is not provided nor is it needed. The conversations between Cora and Will are riveting and so smart. I don’t have time to mention everyone here, but it would be an extreme oversight on my part if I did not acknowledge Dr. Luke Garrett as well as his wealthy friend, George Spencer. Dr. Garrett is a bit of a revolutionary, so to speak, in the medical world. He is forward-thinking, but nearing the end of the Victorian era, the public were still resistant to many of the new practices. For that matter, the medical community itself was not entirely accepting of his innovative ideas. I regarded Luke Garrett quite highly and he very well may have been my favorite character. The relationship between Luke and George is another facet of friendship that the author very sympathetically illustrates for us. In fact, one could say that besides the thesis of faith versus science, friendship and love are further themes illuminated quite brilliantly within this novel. I recommend The Essex Serpent to fans of historical fiction or anyone interested in the debate between faith and science. Sarah Perry’s writing is rather addictive, and I am quite keen to check out Melmoth, due for release shortly. For further reading on the topic, I also recommend Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures, which I found to be a truly excellent piece of historical fiction. "I’ve always said there are no mysteries, only things we don’t yet know; but lately I’ve thought not even knowledge takes all strangeness from the world."

Baba

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 high functioning autistic son. It's in Essex that Cora finds herself, her acquaintances and the entire village she settles in. caught up in rumours and stories of a monstrous Essex serpent!This pretty well written literary work already felt like a great read to me, even before I realised that the overriding theme could be about the nature of real love and what we would do in the name of it; as in, so much love is one-sided and/or can't be reciprocated, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing! Within this Victorian setting, Perry beautifully portrays this with heart and passion, (view spoiler)[essentially putting forth that if you truly love someone you don't actually have to have them! (hide spoiler)] I should also mention that there is quite divine detail of Victorian (Essex) village life; and there's a magnificent multidimensional and multi-faceted cast, that came a live in these pages for me. One of those books I feel that we should all read. 8 out of 12. Also... TV adaptation coming soon:2022 read["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

Katie

March 24, 2017

You might say The Essex Serpent is about the strivings and fears of the child within. When we’re children we have no problem whatsoever believing that a huge winged beast might live in the dark waters behind the marshlands if that’s what we’re told and what legend believes. And as children we’re always struggling to forge a bond with some companion we single out as being a kind of annunciation angel. Everyone in this novel possesses a restless heart. Everyone has a deep sea monster lurking beneath the surface of their thoughts. The underlying premise of the novel is a conflict at the heart of the Victorian age – science vs superstition, free thinking vs prudishness. An Essex village is in uproar after some mysterious deaths of both animals and a man on the shores of the Blackwaters. Clearly the sea serpent, last seen in 1669, has returned. The village begins to wonder what it has done wrong to bring back the serpent. The two central characters and the novel’s thematic opponents, Will the parish rector and the recently widowed, scientifically motivated Cora meet in the mud at the water’s edge. Virtually no character in this novel has their amorous feeling returned. Whether they are adults or children. Everyone is returned continually to imagination by obstacles. And too much imagination promotes hysteria, especially in the very young. Perry does a fabulous job not only of dramatizing the sea serpent as metaphor of sexual desire but also of sustaining the possibility of the monster actually appearing throughout the novel. We tend to view the Victorians in much the same way we view our own parents – they’re more prudish than we are, more set in their ways, less adventurous. Sarah Perry debunks this idea. Her Victorians are no less imaginative, sexually bold, open to new ideas than we are; the implication being that we are no less prone to superstition, nighttime terrors and blind prejudice than they were. So though this is set in Victorian England it has an exuberant playful contemporary quality to it. At the end of the day it doesn’t perhaps have any deep philosophical messages about life. But the quality and imaginative vitality of writing has that gift of making you see the familiar in an altered and illuminating light. I loved the vitality and mischief and haunting, loveable, modernised Dickensian characters and would definitely recommend it to all and sundry.

mark

September 28, 2017

A snake of doubt winds its way through their lives, forked tongue flicking, a subtle sneaking menace. It slithers through the villagers' minds, bringing their faith low, raising their superstitions high. It slips through chinks in the vicar's armor, built so carefully over a lifetime. It slides into our heroine's life and into that of her friend, the doctor, whispering into their minds when they are at their weakest. Its brother serpent, a snake of indifference, has already claimed its victims: the poor of London, trapped in their tenements, jailed by a class system and government that shrugs and looks away.But they are merely snakes, both of them! Two of God's creatures - or Nature's, depending on your personal predilection towards or away from faith. No need to fear them. They slither and slip and slide through all of our lives at some point... such things are natural. Sarah Perry knows these snakes, their sly whispers, the damage they may do when allowed to nest in the hearts of men and women; she also recognizes that they are merely little beasts. What frightens in the dark of night becomes less fearful in the day, or in the company of our fellows. The Essex Serpent is no monster, it is merely an idea - or a symbol. Make of this serpent what you will: but do not let it rule you.❃❁❃This wonderful book! It had much that enchanted. ❁ A splendidly detailed era; I lived there. ❃❁ A love of nature and, even more, of curiosity. ❃❁ A newly independent woman, finally free and embracing the world; she is only one of a whole gallery of idiosyncratic characters who still remain completely real. My favorite: a child who is, in the modern parlance, "on the spectrum"... also perfectly realized and never condescended to, fully understood and respected by the author. ❃❁ An exploration of faith that never became preachy or dismissive. A study of science that never turned reductive or dry. A romance, of sorts, neither mawkish nor predictable. ❃❁ Glorious prose that made me smile from beginning to end, just reading those carefully composed sentences, the poetry of Perry's words, the sense that she loved writing them and making sure they said just the right thing, in just the right way. Haunting images rendered with crystalline clarity. ❃❁ Fascinating themes and ideas woven throughout the narrative, until what seemed like flourishes became a clear pattern, uniting all of the seemingly disparate parts together, transforming them into something beautiful. ❃❁ An author at ease with her subjects and the story she is telling; despite the perfection of the prose, the happy feeling that the novel flowed out of her in a natural way. The book was never a chore to read and it felt like it was the opposite of a chore to write. A relaxing yet invigorating experience. ❃❁ An ideal ending: played with surprising but minor notes; lacking wish fulfillment, yet still perfectly satisfying. ❃That's the word for me when thinking back on The Essex Serpent: satisfying.(view spoiler)[My favorite part: a man at his lowest, self-flagellating - the snake of doubt having made a home in his heart - begins to enact his suicide plan. What stops him? Imagining his best friend finding him, and what his death would mean to that friend. And then getting annoyed - but not giving in to despair after all. His irritated love for his friend, his concern about making that friend suffer over a loss... anyway, I cried. (hide spoiler)]The book is sublime. "I have you all now ... I have you all here now, sweethearts: be with me now before I go."

Peter

February 09, 2017

"STRANGE NEWS, they'd say, of a monstrous serpent with eyes like a sheep, come out of the Essex waters and up to the birch woods and commons..."I know I'm going to love a book when I find myself growing very fond of the characters early on. A mere fifty pages into this engrossing story, I was absolutely charmed by the most captivating of casts and wanted to know everything about them. And on the final page, I felt utterly bereft as I bid them farewell.Cora Seaborne is the beating heart of this novel. Recently widowed from a loveless marriage, she revels in her newfound freedom. The owner of a sharp and inquisitive mind, she becomes intrigued by reports of the eponymous serpent, a mysterious beast which has allegedly terrorised the Essex countryside. Accompanied by her unusual son Francis and stern but loyal companion Martha, she moves to the village of Aldwinter to investigate the existence of the monster. There she meets Reverend William Ransome, the rational, well-educated vicar who is exasperated by the effects of the mythical creature on his frightened congregation. Cora is also visited by the impish Luke Garrett, a brilliant surgeon who is openly in love with her, and George Spencer, his good-natured, wealthy colleague who has an eye on Martha.The mystery of the serpent's existence is one of the most compelling aspects of this gripping tale but the many love triangles which abound are even more enthralling. Chief among these is the will-they-won't-they relationship between Will and Cora. Married to the luminous Stella and father to three wonderful children, surely the Reverend wouldn't throw it all away for a woman he has only just met? And yet what began as a battle of wits has developed into something more - he can't deny his feelings for her. Cora in turn, relishes their time together and this indisputable attraction torments them both.What impressed me most about this stunning book is the depth of characterisation. Perry imagines the lives of the entire cast so extensively that the fully-formed characters leap from the page. Cora Seaborne is an unforgettable heroine - independent, witty and fiercely intelligent, I developed quite the crush on her myself. Not only does Perry write exquisitely about nature and life in the Victorian era, she packs more insight about human behaviour and relationships into this sumptuous story than every other book I've read this year combined. I can't recommend this magnificent novel enough and I hope it wins every literary prize on offer.

Roger

January 09, 2018

Something Severed, and Something Joined Then it carried me in spate to the Essex shore, to all the marsh and shingle, and I tasted on my lips the salt air which is also like the flesh of oysters, and I felt my heart cleaving, as I felt it there in the dark wood on the green stair and as I feel it now: something severed, and something joined. This is from a letter written near the end of this miracle of a novel by its heroine, a young widow named Cora Seaborne. It is an extension of her earlier remark about the diametrically opposite meanings of the word cleave: to cleave to something, to be cleft from something. She has a specific context: her feelings for a man whose views are often utterly opposed to her own, who is unavailable to her, yet whom she cannot live without. But it might well be a phrase that Sarah Perry had pinned to her wall while writing. Starting off like a period romance (the year is 1893), her novel continually surprises the reader with its emotional twists and turns, and its avoidance of formulaic outcomes; the bonds are not formed easily. It is a remarkably Protean book, containing a wide range of characters and ideas. The separation of people, places, and beliefs is a kind of leitmotif; the miracle is that Perry nonetheless manages to unite them all into a balanced and deeply satisfying whole. He drew in a breath and all the seasons were in it: spring greenness in the grass, and somewhere a dog-rose blooming; the secretive scene of fungus clinging to the oak, and underneath it all something sharper waiting in a promise of winter. One unifying factor is the book's structure, told month-by-month over the course of almost a full year. And anchored to the same place: the southeast coast of Essex, where the Blackwater River flows through woodlands and then out over desolate salt flats to the sea. Each month begins with a passage of nature writing deeply rooted in the great British pastoral tradition, but clearly written by someone who has lived in this landscape from childhood on; children's discoveries in fact play a significant part in the novel. Each of these chapters then continues with a bird's-eye view of what each of the main characters is doing, in their various parts of Essex or in distant London. The author has a second way to punctuate the detailed narrative of the intervening chapters: through the inclusion of letters. In other hands, this device might be a bore, but Perry has both a perfect feel for late-19th-century epistolary style and a knack for using it to convey character. Here, for instance, is how the local vicar's wife ends her invitation to Cora for an overnight stay: PS—As you see, I could not resist sending you a primrose, though I was too impatient to press it well, and it has stained the page. I never could learn to bide my time! S. By such natural means—the oneness of nature and the warmth of human connection between her many characters—Sarah Perry draws the many disparate elements in her story together.And the lines of cleavage? Between science and superstition, religion and rationalism, socialism and the status quo. Cora has two principal male friends, very different. One is Luke Garrett, a socially awkward but pioneering surgeon. The other is Will Ransome, Vicar of Aldwinter, the Essex estuary town to which Cora retires after the death of her abusive politician husband. She herself is more scientist than theologian, going out at all hours to hunt for fossils in the alluvial mud. Her son Francis, who would nowadays be considered on the spectrum, takes this collecting mania still further. Her companion Martha, Francis's former nurse, develops as a social activist, enlisting Cora's political connections to address the scandal of housing for the poor in London. Reverend Ransome, whose job involves the social welfare of his parishioners, though he is not closed to modern thought, takes a Bible-based approach. He is one of the most sympathetic (because complex and believable) portraits of a clergyman I have seen for some time, and his lovely but ailing wife Stella is more beautiful still.Which brings me to the title. Perry encountered the Essex Serpent in a 17th-century pamphlet entitled Strange News out of Essex. It was thought to be some huge eel-like beast with wings, beak, and claws, that would surface out of the muddy Blackwater, blight the crops, and carry off unwary animals and children. In Perry's reincarnation, it still has the power to terrify even at the end of the 19th century. Cora, as a true Darwinist, hopes to prove that it is some vanished species. Will Ransome is sure that it must have some rational explanation, but he cannot deny the growing fear that grips his flock. His wife Stella sees it as a personal angel messenger, while Cora's son Francis merely observes the growing unease around him and keeps his own counsel. The Essex Serpent is a fictional notion only, but it serves as the nexus of a web of human reactions and interactions that are very real.And very moving. This is my best book of the year so far.======My Top Ten list this year is selected from a smaller than usual pool. I really only started reading again in May, and even then deliberately kept new books to under 50% of my total. In compiling the list, I also did not exactly follow my original star ratings, but rather the takeaway value after time has passed. In particular, there are two books, Lincoln in the Bardo and Go, Went, Gone) to which I gave only 4 stars, but which I recognize as important books, with more staying power than many that I enjoyed more at the time, but have since forgotten.For some reason, three of the ten books (Forest Dark, A Horse Walks into a Bar, and Three Floors Up) are by Jewish authors, set in Israel. To those, I would add a fourth: Judas by Amos Oz, read at the same time and of similar quality, but actually published at the end of 2016.The ten titles below are in descending order (i.e. with The Essex Serpent being my favorite). The links are to my reviews: 1. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry 2. Autumn by Ali Smith 3. Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss 4. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne 5. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor 6. A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman 7. Exit West by Moshin Hamid 8. Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo 9. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders10. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny ErpenbeckAnd half that number again that didn't quite make it, in alphabetical order by authors:11. Souvenirs dormants by Patrick Modiano12. All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan13. Improvement by Joan Silber14. Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout15. Rose & Poe by Jack Todd

Sam

August 02, 2017

The Essex Serpent is a beautifully written work of historical fiction, absolutely immersing you in 1890s Victorian England, and has a fantastic cast of characters whose attitudes, ideas, and actions are the best parts of the novel. Though I found the plot itself could have been a bit tighter and my attention would occasionally wane during some of the subplot portions, and it may not have engaged me as much emotionally as it did in spades intellectually, this is overall an absorbing, interesting read and is memorable for its striking protagonists, its authentic, haunting atmosphere and its gorgeous prose. I did alternate between savoring the writing and pushing forward to see what was slowly unfolding, which is a mark of a book that has captured me. It's probably 4.5 stars but rounded down to 4 stars as I really liked it and would recommend it but wasn't completely carried away with enthusiasm or affection for it as a whole. '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 mean only with the freedom to think the thoughts that come, to send them where I want them to go, not to let them run along tracks someone else set, leading only this way or that...' Frowning, she ran her thumb along the serpent's spine and said, 'I've never said this before, not to anyone, though I've meant to: but yes, 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 of everything new and wonderful - to see that there's no fewer miracles in the microscope than in the gospels!' Cora Seaborne is our protagonist, the above some her dialogue. At the opening of the novel, Cora is just entering widowhood, for her a very freeing, welcome change rather than be the thrall of an abusive husband, "mounted on a plinth" as she refers to her state. Cora has a sparkling wit, abundance of intellectual curiosity, an easy familiarity with her friends, and a depth of feeling and emotion surging forth, the dam of her husband's cruelty and isolation broken. While she has a dear companion, Martha, in whom she counts on for care of her odd, emotionally detached son Francis, and good friends like Dr Luke Garrett, "the Imp" a surgeon bold in ideas and actions and secretly in love with Cora, she is not connected to anyone by spirit and mind and body in a way that one recognizes a true friend, love, equal. And how else to account for the longing I have for you? Cora, I was content. I had come to the end of everything new - I had no more surprises in store, and I never sought any. I was serving my purpose. And there you were - and from your hair which is never tidy to your man's clothes, I've never liked the look of you (do you mind?). But I seem to have learned you by heart, seemed at once to know you, had immediate liberty to say everything to you I could never have said elsewhere - and all this is to me the 'substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen'! Ought I to be ashamed, or troubled? I am not. I refuse to be.How do you like that, you rank atheist, you apostate? You have driven me to God. Enter Will Ransome, the Rector of Aldwinter Parish, a keen intellect and a deep faith in an Enlightenment influenced version of God. With his regular flock of Essex folk and his family - beautiful, vivacious but frail wife Stella, driven and intelligent daughter Joanna and two young sons - Will has a full load and world already. But Cora's arrival in Aldwinter, coupled with the resurgence of the mysterious Essex Serpent, a near mythical beast rumored to be responsible for some strange deaths and calamitous events and moods in the area, explodes Will's small world. His conversations with Cora and their interactions with others in Essex and London mirror larger forces contrasting and colliding in the late Victorian era: science and religion, faith and doubt, even the old schemes of aristocracy and lower classes being confronted with a demand for upward mobility and decency from the lower classes. We see the main characters forced to reckon with these shifts in collective understanding and being able to hold seemingly opposed ideas at once, all the while trying to enjoy, understand, then repress the increasing depths of their affection for each other.I won't spoil more about the plot itself, since it is all very well wound together. Perry does a nice job tying her various subplots together, though I didn't care for all of them with equal weight - more time with Stella and her deteriorating condition would have been welcome, as well as more time with Garrett and Spencer and their adventures on the fringes of new medicine, while perhaps less time with Martha's socialist views and plight of the worker and unusual romantic relationship. But overall the characters spark off one another and move the whole inexorably forward, and Perry's sense of place and especially time are extremely detailed and beautifully rendered. For those who like a character focused, questioning novel, this work of historical fiction is likely for you: a bit slow moving plot wise, but the intellect and emotions of our characters keep things humming along and eager to learn what's next, while the atmospheric prose entertains and paints the scene with turns of phrase to savor. I didn't fall in love with this book emotionally, but I was stimulated by and appreciated so many of its elements and ultimately the sum of its parts.

Jaline

November 17, 2018

The prologue to this book had the strong rhythms of poetry and music. It was a great opening, although I did find myself caught up in the beats and rhymes and almost-rhymes so I had to go back and read it again for its sense. It was hard to un-hear and un-feel the poetry and galloping rhythm, though.I have read a few books where repetition has enhanced the book in subtle and sometimes courageous ways. However, two that distracted me in this novel felt more like mistakes – although I could be wrong. One was the repetition of the descriptor, “noble suffering”. Two different men expressed it (one sardonically) in two different places. I could pose a case where “noble suffering” more aptly described one of the female main characters in this novel, and perhaps a couple of the other male characters, too.The other repetition I noticed occurred three times with three different characters – all three reflected how they took for granted someone in their life due to them “always being there”. We all take things for granted at some time or another. It is part of the human condition. We take people for granted sometimes, too, and that’s usually when life throws us a curve-ball and we wake up to gratitude once again.For me, the theme in this novel that stood out strongest is how fears can feed on themselves and then begin to expand exponentially. In this story we see an entire village nearly immobilized by fear and its contagion even affected those whose reason and/or beliefs discarded that fear.Perhaps it is because in our own time we can see fear’s toxic effect on entire cities – even countries – and we have witnessed how it has spread like a plague. Fear has a strong element of projection behind it. In many cases it is the inner monsters people are too weak-willed to acknowledge and conquer that get projected into the outer world, blown up into huge proportions, and are used as weapons handed out to like-minded people and used to batter unsuspecting innocents.In this book, during the late 1800’s, the fear is largely turned inward. So we have a village turned in upon itself until one woman arrives on a mission of discovery and with her she brings an intelligent innocence that is both honed and peeled away then reassembled into new and interesting forms.This is a well-written and interesting perspective of a time that is plentifully represented in historical novels. It was a fascinating time of striving and change in so many areas of life and this novel offers a fresh view of many aspects of it. I found the characters interesting and, for the most part, quite different in personalities and how they perceived this world that was becoming.I recommend this to everyone who enjoys historical fiction where past and present collide, combust, and create the beginnings of a more progressive (for the most part) world.

Geo

May 18, 2018

Translation widget on the blog!!!O poveste interesantă despre libertatea unei femei scăpate din jugul unui soț abuziv. Despre zborul acesteia spre lumea larga. Un roman despre autocunoaștere, despre viața de zi cu zi și despre oameni și locuri ce influențează destine!Recenzia mea completă o găsiți aici:https://www.delicateseliterare.ro/sar...

Helene Jeppesen

August 14, 2016

4.5/5 stars. What a beautiful novel! On the outside as well as on the inside. For some strange reason, I though that this was going to be a really dense book to get through. I imagined that it would be written in an intricate language and that the magical realism would be hard to follow. However, I'm now happy to say that that was not at all the case. In fact, the language was beautiful, and the dialogue was easy to follow. I'm not entirely sure you would apply the term 'magical realism' to this novel, but whatever was happening turned out to be very intriguing because it was so mysterious. What I loved the most about "The Essex Serpent", however, was the descriptions of the nature of Essex. I could feel the mud under my feet and hear the lake and the wind in the background while reading; that's a thing that Sarah Perry does really well. I also really liked how the main part of this book is written from a third person narrator, however it is interspersed with personal letters that give you an honest account of the individuals' thoughts and feelings. And those thoughts and feelings become quite uncanny and mysterious as the novel moves on, which gives the story and eerie feeling. It was almost like it was written in the Victorian era even though it is a modern release. Read it! Also even though you're not sure it's going to be something for you. Maybe you'll be surprised :)

Frequently asked questions

Listening to audiobooks not only easy, it is also very convenient. You can listen to audiobooks on almost every device. From your laptop to your smart phone or even a smart speaker like Apple HomePod or even Alexa. Here’s how you can get started listening to audiobooks.

  • 1. Download your favorite audiobook app such as Speechify.
  • 2. Sign up for an account.
  • 3. Browse the library for the best audiobooks and select the first one for free
  • 4. Download the audiobook file to your device
  • 5. Open the Speechify audiobook app and select the audiobook you want to listen to.
  • 6. Adjust the playback speed and other settings to your preference.
  • 7. Press play and enjoy!

While you can listen to the bestsellers on almost any device, and preferences may vary, generally smart phones are offer the most convenience factor. You could be working out, grocery shopping, or even watching your dog in the dog park on a Saturday morning.
However, most audiobook apps work across multiple devices so you can pick up that riveting new Stephen King book you started at the dog park, back on your laptop when you get back home.

Speechify is one of the best apps for audiobooks. The pricing structure is the most competitive in the market and the app is easy to use. It features the best sellers and award winning authors. Listen to your favorite books or discover new ones and listen to real voice actors read to you. Getting started is easy, the first book is free.

Research showcasing the brain health benefits of reading on a regular basis is wide-ranging and undeniable. However, research comparing the benefits of reading vs listening is much more sparse. According to professor of psychology and author Dr. Kristen Willeumier, though, there is good reason to believe that the reading experience provided by audiobooks offers many of the same brain benefits as reading a physical book.

Audiobooks are recordings of books that are read aloud by a professional voice actor. The recordings are typically available for purchase and download in digital formats such as MP3, WMA, or AAC. They can also be streamed from online services like Speechify, Audible, AppleBooks, or Spotify.
You simply download the app onto your smart phone, create your account, and in Speechify, you can choose your first book, from our vast library of best-sellers and classics, to read for free.

Audiobooks, like real books can add up over time. Here’s where you can listen to audiobooks for free. Speechify let’s you read your first best seller for free. Apart from that, we have a vast selection of free audiobooks that you can enjoy. Get the same rich experience no matter if the book was free or not.

It depends. Yes, there are free audiobooks and paid audiobooks. Speechify offers a blend of both!

It varies. The easiest way depends on a few things. The app and service you use, which device, and platform. Speechify is the easiest way to listen to audiobooks. Downloading the app is quick. It is not a large app and does not eat up space on your iPhone or Android device.
Listening to audiobooks on your smart phone, with Speechify, is the easiest way to listen to audiobooks.

footer-waves