The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry by Sarah Perry 9781788169622, 178816962X instant download after payment.

Sarah Perry's award-winning novel, set at the end of the nineteenth century and inspired by true events, is a thrilling and unforgettable novel of intrigue, love, and the many forms it can take.

"Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent is a novel of almost insolent ambition — lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate. Set in the Victorian era, it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable."  -  Jennifer Senior, The New York Times

London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Along with her son Francis - a curious, obsessive boy - she leaves town for Essex, in the hope that fresh air and open space will provide refuge.

On arrival, rumours reach them that the mythical Essex Serpent once said to roam the marshes claiming lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for superstition, is enthralled, convinced that what the local people think is a magical beast may be a yet-undiscovered species. As she sets out on its trail, she is introduced to William Ransome, Aldwinter's vicar, with whom she will strike up an intense relationship, and although they agree on absolutely nothing, they find themselves at once drawn together and torn apart, affecting each other in ways that surprise them both. 

"... an absorbing story told in a style that’s antique without being dated, rich but never pretentious...Raised on the classics and the Bible, Perry creates that delicate illusion of the best historical fiction: an authentic sense of the past — its manners, ideals and speech — that feels simultaneously distant and relevant to us..."  -  Ron Charles, The Washington Post

The Essex Serpent is a celebration of love, and the many different shapes it can take.