![]() Scientific excitement by happily widowed, upper-class Cora Seagrave, obsessed in her new freedom with evolution and palaeontology. In the novel each response is given an avatar. It’s return in the 19 th Century provokes scientific excitement for some but from others scepticism. Back then it inspired fear but eventually disappeared. The Serpent, real or not, first emerged from the water in the 16 th Century, a time of far greater credulity. Should we fear the unexpected movement in the night, the half seen, possibly imagined, loose-formed shape in the dark? Should we flee from it? Or should we follow the Serpent and discover if it exists, understand its purpose, discern its true shape? That question drives the key challenge of Sarah Perry’s hugely successful second novel The Essex Serpent. ![]() Is it something real, or something the community has only dreamed? ![]() More and more about the world is understood.īut then, on the banks of the Blackwater estuary in rural southern England, something seems to stir in the darkling waters, a terrifying Serpent. ![]() The role of religion in everyday life is receding. It’s the late Victoria era and the citizens of a bloated British Empire feel confident they have mastered nature. ![]()
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