The Essex Serpent

Give me the book!

This is an excellent book crammed with characters, history, myth, relationships and nineteenth century concerns from scientific discoveries to poverty and marriage. The sense of place in Essex in which the terrifying serpent does or doesn't live is beautifully created as are the contrasts between London city and the Marshes; the relationship between the widow Cora Seaborne (blissfully released by the death of her unpleasant husband) and William Ransome Vicar of Aldwinter is subtly developed; and the background of Cora's passion for bones and fossils and discovery always interesting.

But for me this didn't work as an audiobook and that's not the fault of the author or entirely of the narrator. The difficulty I found was that the story is so dense with ideas, incident, character, description, thoughts, historical themes and so on that listening to it is too fast, even confusing. I needed to flick back and re-read a page; dialogue can be read quickly, but the passages dense with ideas need to be read slowly and thought about. Sarah Perry constantly challenges the reader as well as the characters and that requires thinking and reading at my own pace. The narration is accomplished as it is a very complex work with many 'voices', but I found some of the rural Essex characters mere caricatures of what sounded like stereotypical exaggerated West Country, which just clogged up the story already brimful of other demands on the listener.

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55 of 62 people found this review helpful

An Authentic Voice

Beautifully written, with fully fledged characters, a wholly believable plot and the perfect narrator, makes this book stand head and shoulders above the crowd. Sarah Perry has a gift, a special gift that means she really can paint pictures, induce smells, bring forth the tactile nature of her novels like few others can. I just loved it.

33 of 37 people found this review helpful

A beautifully written book - but ...

Any additional comments?

After having read the reviews of this book I decided it must definitely be something for me. Unfortunately, it quite failed to catch my interest. It was beautifully written and very well narrated so I did enjoy the parts of it where I really listened. But it was extremely difficult to keep my attention on the book. Over and over again I found that I was thinking of other things while listening. Perhaps because the characters left me indifferent. Perhaps because there were so many issues that were mentioned but never discussed more deeply: science versus superstition (and religion), poor housing in London, unloved (?) children, the role of women etc. etc.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful

Didn't do it for me.

Like some other reviewers, I am mystified by the hype around this book. I struggled to keep my concentration on this as an audiobook, not necessarily because of the narration, which is OK-ish, but because of lack of a comprehensive storyline. Very occasionally my attention was quickly drawn back e.g. the knife attack. Perhaps this is one to read and/or one for the Book Club, but either I've missed a great deal, or this book is just not what all the publicity tried to sell it as.

21 of 24 people found this review helpful

Awful!

What would have made The Essex Serpent better?

The narrator's voices were just awful and I couldn't concentrate on the story because of it. Long and laborious.

Has The Essex Serpent put you off other books in this genre?

Yes

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Accents and speed of reading were awful

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

A fascinating and ambitious book

This is a marvellous book where every character fascinates and holds an equal place in the story. The men and women here are driven by intellectual ambition, love and strong moral ethics, be they religion, socialism, or the desire to drive things forward by occasionally ruthless means. This evokes the time when people were striving to change the old order and build a better future (rather than dismantling it), and their mistakes and blunders make a compelling tale.
Rural Essex is a wonderful backdrop and the author conveys it as a unique and distinctive estuary landscape with its own distinct culture rather than being an extension of London's urban sprawl.
The narrator does a magnificent job with some difficult material. This is a book that is very difficult to categorise and describe but tremendously easy to savour and enjoy.

14 of 17 people found this review helpful

just a romance

disappointed to find its just a romance, not a 'mystery'. Well written and the story's ok, but the reader is bad - doesn't know what half the words mean and gives the wrong intonation to sentences, destroying the effort put into the arrangement of word's by the author.

25 of 31 people found this review helpful

An enigmatic,Victorian mystery, full of atmosphere

Any additional comments?

This book had a lot to live up to after months of hype and excellent critical reviews and for me it definitely was a treat. It reminded me somewhat of a Gothic novel, full of surprising twists,suspense and implied horror. The female characters were intriguing individuals. Some of them were women ahead of their time, striving to make a mark in a male-dominated society and, for various reasons, trying to avoid being shackled to men and the commitments of motherhood. And yet they are pursued by men, despite their unconventional interests in science, fossil-hunting, social reform, politics, education and female sexuality. Other female characters are more conventional, caught up in the roles of motherhood and domestic management. The male characters are caught up in a web of careers, class, religion, progress in medicine and unrequited love. Added to this are a twists of repressed sexuality, autism and the suppression of attraction between a vicar and a widow who share interests and a common love/admiration for the vicar's Tubercular wife.The Essex landscape and customs are beautifully described as is the terror that spreads throughout a country community when a mythic beast known as The Essex Serpent is thought to have returned to the vicinity, heralded by an unexplained death.The story moves slowly from time to time but the quality of the story, the details of the plot and the very capable narration make up for this. Well worth trying if you enjoy complex historical novels.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Dreadful narration

This might be a good story in print, it's hard to tell as the poor narration is far too off putting.

I'm not sure the narrator has ever heard another human speak. Ridiculous accents and attempts to distinguish between characters.

From what I have heard, sounds like a below par nature based novel dressed up as something far more mysterious and magical - which never delivers.

14 of 18 people found this review helpful

Makes me miss Colchester & Mersea...

Excellent story which, if you know the area, gives the evocative feel you get when you live or stay there.

Great "suppressed" atmosphere of unrequited love with some shadowy release... A bit of early day feminism, & socialism with an unhealthy spell of consumption and winged snakes thrown in to keep you going. Not forgetting the goat and lots of shades of blue

Used to run the Colchester Hospital Book Club. Definitely one I'd have recommended we read... possibly discussing in the Victory in Mersea over a pint!!!

5 of 6 people found this review helpful