“The Essex Serpent” by Sarah Perry

I wouldn’t say that this book was a disappointment to me. However, I have to admit that I expected more from it, and I wasn’t given it, sadly.

Maybe I thought that there would be more magical realism there. Something like “The Familiars” by Stacey Halls, you know. Maybe I expected, from the Wikipedia description, actually, that there would be more focus on neuro-divergent people. Maybe I hoped for something like historical fantasy novels by Frances Hardinge. But “The Essex Serpent” is none of them, and I shouldn’t blame it, should I? Now it seems to me that it was intended more as a homage to Victorian novel. Still, it’s a homage with some progressive themes presented convicingly, and that’s surely worth of praise. Nothing in this novel looks too contemporary to our times, but there is also no Dickensian naivety there. However, some threads, just like at Dickens’, get boring over time. And maybe that was my main problem with the said book.

It tells a story set in the 1890’s. Cora Seaborne, being widowed by her cruel and sophisticated husband, leaves London for Essex, accompanied by her autistic son, Francis, and by her friend (or more than a friend?), Martha. Cora hopes that she will pursue her scientific interests but in Essex, she is introduced to a Creationist, Reverend William Ransome, and his family. There is also a subplot of Doctor Luke Garrett, a physician in love with Cora, and of the gossips about the mythical Essex Serpent.

I have to admit that I counted on the said subplot the most, recalling supernatural threads in books by Hardinge. I counted on a more scientific atmosphere in Perry’s novel, but what I get here is a lot of discussion, not of showing scientific things. And sure, those discussions between Cora and William are thought-provoking, but they are more about bringing people and worldviews together than about actual reflecting on Darwin’s theory or dinosaurs’ remnants, or whatever I hoped it would be about. The message is important, surely, but the very title of the book is deceptive. And the very serpent is only… a remnant.

Still, it is clear that the author intended to raise many important topics. There’s evolutionary theory, there’s faith and atheism, there’s women’s emancipation, there’s medical progress, there’s socialism, there’s poverty. I’m glad that those social and economic questions, unlike at Dickens or Galsworthy, are shown in an almost enthusiastic manner, and that socialist characters, such as Martha, are shown neither as fanatics nor as naive Special Snowflakes. In the end, however, those interesting threads are obscurred by the main dynamics of the book: Cora Seaborne and/vs Reverend Ransome. And I have to admit that in the end, the said dynamics dissapointed me. Not going to give you spoilers, I’d just like to say that those two, especially William, haven’t looked so far for the people whose relation would take such a turn.

And honestly, I enjoyed more the subplots of the novel than the said main thread. Some of them were sad, some of them were thrilling, even if for a brief moment, but they gave quite a good picture of Victorian life, the picture which Dickens or Wilkie Collins were unable to given because of so many social reasons. I like a lot, for example, that there’s a relation between Cora and Martha, and that it is hinted in a very subtle way. I like also how Francis’ thoughts and reactions are described, and how he is welcomed by the Ransomes. But those interesting bits aren’t big enough, at least to me. And there is, of course, the character of Sally, William’s wife, and the trope of her disease, tuberculosis. Sally is just so convincing, so friendly and cheerful, that the awareness of her necessary passing is the most painful and poignant thing in the novel. But the very fact that Sally, a woman who is happy with her domestic life, and Cora, a woman seeking independence and scientific interests, are friends, is a very important message. In this book, women aren’t rivals criticizing each other. There are friends, united in sisterhood. They show that whether you want to be a housewife, a scientist, or an activist, it should be your choice, and a choice supported by other women.

Generally, I don’t think that The Essex Serpent is praised more than it deserves. However, you shouldn’t expect science, magic, and mystery while reading it. You’d better prepare yourself for a good retelling of Victorian times; sometimes surprising, sometimes moving, and sometimes taking turns you haven’t predicted.