![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Her husband was a monster.īut not as big a monster as the one that’s haunting Essex. He’s clearly on the autism spectrum, even if it’s never directly said, and his watchful presence is a source of both anguish and comfort to those around him.Ĭora blossoms in widowhood. She ditches her whalebone corset for an oversize coat to go fossil-hunting in the Blackwater marshes of Essex with her son. It’s his widow, Cora Seaborne, we care about. ![]() The book opens with a death, but we do not mourn the deceased (an abusive man, though at least a rich one). Recapitulations of plot are often dull as oats, but this novel, which took top prize at this year’s British Book Awards, spills over with so much intrigue that a plot summary can’t be helped, nor should potential readers be spared the pleasure. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home. It’s wonderfully dense and serenely self-assured. Set in the Victorian era, it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. Sarah Perry’s “The Essex Serpent” is a novel of almost insolent ambition - lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate. THE ESSEX SERPENT By Sarah Perry 422 pages. ![]()
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