Book Review: The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry (2016)

I’d heard mention of this highly recommended book a number of times and finally decided to pick up a copy. A different kind of novel to anything I’ve read in a while, with an old-timer feel to it, which was in no way problematic and no doubt also entirely intentional. The author cites Thomas Hardy as an influence, which is easy to detect in her style of writing and also some of her characters to a degree. This is Wessex slightly displaced – to Essex, to be precise.

The plot is about everything, and in the end nothing. Set towards the close of the nineteenth century, the storyline considers the virtues of religious faith in the face of scientific enlightenment, the best and the worst of marriage, as well as touching on milestones in medical surgery and London housing reforms. Hanging over it all is the legend of the Essex Serpent, which is unnerving the population of a small coastal village, scaring them out of their wits, driving them slightly mad. Cora Seaborne is the heroine, freed by widowhood from an affluent but abusive marriage in London, she heads into the Essex countryside to pursue her interest in the natural world and palaeontology, ending up in Aldwinter, unable to resist the call of its mythical beast. The story revolves around the fates and fortunes of the characters within Cora’s circle and the good people of Aldwinter who come to know her, most notably two potential suitors – Luke, the maverick doctor who tended to her dying husband, and William, the good but conflicted reverend of Aldwinter, married to an ailing wife, and plagued by the impossibility of the aloof serpent.

The book is not particularly a page turner, and I made spectacularly slow progress through the first half of it. However, I never had any doubt I’d make it to the end. The pace did pick up, prompted mainly by the looming library deadline. The novel is an enjoyable read, the characters are particularly strong and believable, and the plot is well disguised (surely the beast doesn’t really exist… or does it?). The novel is divided roughly into months of a single year and the storyline is moved along effectively by intermittent letters between the various characters. The style of writing has its appeal too, the third-person narrator drawing a spotlight from one person to another with ease and skitty descriptions painting a perfect picture without demanding exhaustive concentration. The only niggling doubt I had was in accepting that all that happened could unfold within the space of a year, especially in an era when the pace of life was supposedly markedly slower than we know it today.

Favourite Character: I realise that choosing a favourite character really depends on who you either associate or sympathise with the most. Perhaps then, for a male reader of the book, it comes down to a choice between those two suitors of Cora – Will or Luke – religion vs. science. For me, at least, it is the ill-fated doctor who comes out on top.