Their discussions and deliberations are a real treat for a reader who seeks novels with an intellectual angle. Human relationships are extremely complex and Sarah Perry is a master, unafraid to explore these delicate sentiments through her writing. The novel is about a group of friends who live in a time and age of progress and questioning. She pinpoints that moment when friendship becomes love and how love is also friendship. Friendships between two men, two women, and friendship between a man and a woman.

Through this novel, Sarah Perry explores friendships in all its myriad forms.

Essex is the author’s hometown and she manages to capture its natural beauty through the writing that is peppered with descriptive imagery. Here, we see the contrasting lifestyle of Londoners and simple English country folk who believe in myths and superstitions. It is believed that a winged serpent monster lurks in its marshes. Cora is drawn to fossils and her love for them brings her to the rustic town of Essex. Freed from the prospect of being a wife, she embarks on a journey of rediscovering herself. Cora grapples with her newfound freedom that comes with being widowed.

The heroine of this story is Cora Seaborne, a recently widowed naturalist from London.

Throughout the novel, we see juxtapositions of faith and science through conflicts in the belief systems of the characters. Love, friendship, medical science, feminism and the importance of myths are few of the central themes at work in this book. Filled with inspiring characters that harbor ideas that are far ahead of their time, The Essex Serpent plays with our understanding of an age long gone. This book is unlike any I have read that is set in the same time period. Sarah Perry re-writes life in the Late Victorian period and provides readers with a new lens through which they can view it. The Essex Serpent is a real treat for fans of the historical fiction genre.

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