Sarah Perry
The Essex Serpent

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This book was recommended to me by a friend who said it reminded him of a Jane Austen book, and I see one of the reviewers says it is Dickensian in style, so as these are two of my favourite authors I felt sure that this book was for me. However, I now realise that Perry also wrote Melmoth, which makes me slightly more cautious and wonder if this Essex Serpent novel would suit me, as I did enjoy Melmoth and it was a great read but I struggled with the ambiguity of it and the lack of clear answers. I guess I will soon see if that was just Melmoth or if it is her style in general.

I love the front cover of Essex Serpent, with the embossed words and the green glittery spots on the serpent’s body. 

The book starts on New Year’s Eve, a drunk man celebrating the evening goes down to the edge of the Blackwater Estuary to clear his head, and decides to take a swim. He is familiar with the estuary and has swum there before, but it is very dark when the moon goes behind some clouds and something seems to alter in the surface of the water making it go very still and then move with an uneven motion, and he also thinks he sees something large in the water. He begins to feel afraid, sensing that the thing in the water is waiting and watching him. Then the moon comes out from behind the clouds again and he feels that he has been silly and confused and affected too much by drink, so he takes that swim. Hmmm, so there is no year stated, I wonder when it is set, the blurb about the book describes it as a historical novel, so I am presuming it’s not modern day. Actually I see on the back of the book that it’s set in 1893, but it’s strange that this isn’t stated in the text. And presumably the Blackwater Estuary is in Essex. And I was worried about him swimming at night after he’d been drinking (which seemed very foolish) even before his feeling that something was in the water, but, oooh, Perry has built up the apprehension and tension incredibly well with her darkly descriptive words of the water, ‘the estuary slow and dark…something alters in a turn of the tide or a change of the air, the estuary surface shifts…nearer he goes, not yet afraid…clouds hide the moon and he’s blind…(it’s) as if something out there has displaced the water…he thinks he sees, is certain he sees, the slow movement of something vast…there’s something there…biding its time…with an eye cocked in his direction’. Shiver, shiver, shiver! And presumably this is the Essex Serpent. But does the man survive his swim in the water, or not? This preface ends without us being told…!

Dr Luke Garrett is on an Underground train on his way to the funeral of a patient, Michael Seaborne, who recently died of throat cancer. While attending Michael during his illness, Luke fell in love with Michael’s wife, Cora. Luke also noticed during his time at their house in Foulis Street, that Michael enjoyed fostering a feeling of unease and was a ‘malign influence’ in the household, particularly so with his wife. In the house is also their son, Francis, and his nanny, Martha, who is very close to Cora and protective of her. Cora is very keen to educate herself and asks Luke lots of questions about surgery, and also speaks to him of her fascination with fossils. Even though Michael has now died, Luke still goes to the house in Foulis Street every day, and Cora always seems pleased to see him. Cora is getting dressed for the funeral and fingers a scar on her neck which Michael inflicted on her. She analyses her feelings now she is a widow and decides it isn’t a happiness that she feels but is more of a relief. She remembers how awed she was by Michael when her father first brought him home to meet her, she being then 17, and she was married to him two years later. Her mother died when she was young. Francis is aged 11 and collects items he views as talismans or treasures, such as feathers and stones and the fur of the family dog and bits of fabric, all of significance to him in some way, and he displays these in his room in complex patterns and carefully chooses which ones he takes with him when he goes out, such as to the funeral that day where he takes one for him, one for his mother, one for his father, and one for Martha. He is often a puzzle to his mother, and he declines the comfort she offers on their way to the funeral. During the funeral, Cora wonders what Michael was like in his office as an MP and if he was kinder there than he was at home. She looks across at Luke and thinks of him as ‘her friend’ although recognises that he has an ‘ability to bring about such total reversions in her mood’. Martha reflects on Michael’s cruelty to his wife and remembers her own hatred for him and how she had felt she could have killed him for how he hurt Cora, but she also remembers how Cora came to her for comfort after his cruelties and how pleased she was to be able to give that comfort. Hmmm, Michael does not at all sound like a nice man, obviously mentally and physically cruel to his wife. And something about Luke makes me think he’s quite an arrogant man, and I’m not really hoping that Cora ends up with him. Martha seems lovely and obviously cares deeply for Cora, it seems like she’s been the only one to show care to Cora and to try and comfort her. Francis seems interesting, I wonder if he is autistic, but it’s a shame that Cora hasn’t found comfort in her life with him. And this chapter begins in January but it’s not clear if this is immediately after the previous chapter (with the man deciding to swim in the water on New Year’s Eve) or years afterwards, as there is still no date given in the text. 

I’ve also noticed that Perry writes in an almost poetical style, mentioning or implying the same word a couple of times in one sentence but with opposite aspects given to it, for example with the word bells, ‘oranges and lemons rang the chimes of St Clement’s, and Westminster’s division bell was dumb’, and I see the same example with the words ‘ice’ and ‘time’ too. She also uses contrasting words or images in the same sentence, such as ‘terraces and tenements’ and ‘high society and low company’. It’s interesting to read and makes me think that Perry has a love and affection for words, and that she has spent quite some time and care devising her sentences, which makes me warm to her. 

Cora has gone to Colchester in Essex with Martha and Francis, as some fossils were discovered there after a landslip. Martha is not happy being there, as she thinks the locals are all ‘half-wits’ and is astonished that coffee can be bought there, though is disgusted at it when she tastes it. However she likes seeing Cora more relaxed and cheerful as she is there. Cora, to Martha’s disapproval, speaks with a crippled beggar who tells her of the earthquake in the town in April eight years ago, and also tells her about the Essex Serpent which he says the earthquake has brought forth again. He says the serpent was first seen in 1669 and then disappeared for over 200 years until the earthquake shook something loose under the water and set it free, he says it is more like a dragon than a serpent and can survive both on land and in the water, and says that the first man who saw it lost his mind and was put in an asylum where he died but he made several drawings of the creature. Cora is fascinated by this. They bump into a colleague of Michael’s from London, there with his wife, Charles and Katherine Ambrose, both of whom Cora greatly likes, and they go to a cafe together. The Ambroses offer to introduce Cora to their friends, Reverend Ransome and his wife and children, who live very close to the area where the fossils were found and who could take her along the coastline and guide her. They also share what they’ve heard about the Essex Serpent, saying that a man was found at the edge of the water on New Year’s Eve with his neck broken. Cora is very excited now, thinking that the serpent could even be an animal presumed to be extinct. She also wishes she could say more privately to Katherine about how she feels now Michael is dead, that ‘her years of marriage had so degraded her expectation of happiness that to sit cradling a teacup with no thought for what waited behind the curtains on Foulis Street seemed little short of miraculous’. Oooh, I was fascinated by the earthquake, I am guessing that really happened? I will have to google for more details. And I was fascinated by the stories of the Essex Serpent! So the man who entered the water in the preface was killed and this happened as the main story began. I chuckled at Martha’s view of Essex, as determined by the coffee! And I loved that Francis, whilst in bed with a cold, had begun reading Sherlock Holmes stories, good for him, and I’d imagine Holmes’ rigid logic would appeal to Francis. I also very much liked Charles, with him ordering in the cafe ‘at least a dozen of the cakes…and a gallon of tea’. But poor Cora’s remembrance of the dread she used to feel about her home, due to her husband waiting there, was really sad.

Reverend Will Ransome receives Charles Ambrose’s letter asking him to make Cora welcome if she visits the village and giving her contact details. Will doesn’t like the sound of Cora, thinking of her as an elderly lonely widow who has latched onto fossil-hunting as a fad. He takes comfort from the thought that his village, Aldwinter, doesn’t have much to recommend it. He is also annoyed at the local people’s belief in the Essex Serpent, their ‘godless superstition’ as he calls it, and their belief that the sins they have committed has brought the creature on them as a judgement, and he is determined to stifle these rumours if he can. He walks through the village and talks to some of the residents, Henry Black who travels up and down the estuary in his barge, transporting goods that Will suspects may not be legal, and Mr Cracknell who lives alone at the final house in the village, which is close to the edge of the marsh and estuary, and who ‘feels’ that something is out there. Heading home as night approaches, Will thinks of his wife and children and ‘felt such a rush of joy that he gave a quiet shout’. Awww, I like Will, he seems very much a family man, very different from the men so far in the book, Michael and Luke. And I liked the description of some of the trees in the village, the historic old oak tree in Aldwinter with its down-curved lower branches forming seats, and the ash trees with their bare branches looking ‘like so many grey feathers stuck in the ground’.

Cora writes to Luke inviting him to visit them in Colchester, saying ‘I miss you, I don’t like to do without you’. Luke replies that he will come with his friend, Spencer, probably next week. Cora has gone for a long walk, alone, wanting to escape Francis counting the feathers in his pillow. It has begun to rain and she has walked eight miles out of Colchester but she is enjoying nature around her, ‘birches unfurled their strips of bark like lengths of white cloth’ and she thinks that the green moss looked like ‘wads of green fur swaddling the trees’ and she listens to ‘a chattering thrush’, feeling that the happiness she now feels allows her to fully notice and appreciate all this nature, and she sometimes laughs out loud with the joy of it. She reflects that she had loved Michael but that she had been too young to deal with his moods and sternness and remoteness and his ability to ‘lay her waste’ and how that love had turned to fear. She thinks also of Francis and how she had felt he was an ally and had worshipped him when he was born, but within weeks of his birth he seemed filled with rage and struggles and she felt he had also rejected her love. She also thinks of Martha and how close they are and how much she needs her. She comes across Will trying to pull a drowning sheep out of the water, and helps him, although she firstly thought he was harming the animal and had shouted at him to stop. They don’t introduce themselves to each other, and Will dismisses her curtly once the animal is saved and walks off after directing her to the local pub where she can get a taxi back to Colchester. Hmmm, I’m disappointed that Cora has urged Luke to visit her, as even if she doesn’t have feelings for him (and I hope she doesn’t) then I think she is encouraging him to believe that she has feelings for him. And Will and Cora’s first meeting didn’t go well! Though I like Will again for his kind-heartedness in trying to rescue the sheep, and I like Cora’s concern and her bravery in trying to intervene when she thought a creature was being hurt.

Will’s daughter, Joanna, who is 12, has brought her brother John aged seven, and her friend Naomi Black, to an old boat wreck on the edge of the estuary in late afternoon in order to make a sacrifice to appease the Essex Serpent. This involves burning pieces of paper with their names on and chanting and holding their hands over the flame of a fire she has made in a circle of stones, and doing all this after not eating that day. Joanna knows she has influence over the other two and enjoys the drama of play-acting infront of them. As they leave for home, now it is nearly dark, they all think they see ‘a curious thickening and rising of the water…a movement that was too swift and directionless to be the casting of a wave’. They are met by Cracknell who scares them with his tales of the Essex Serpent and having ‘seen it myself twice or thrice when the moon’s bright’. Their father then comes across them, so muddy from the incident with the sheep that they almost don’t recognise him, and takes them home, ‘a child in the crook of each arm’. Oh, bless him, I was quite worried about little John getting hurt in this sacrifice, and he was so sweet worrying about missing his dinner. And oooh, I wonder if the children did actually see anything in the water, or if it was just their vivid imaginations heightened by the drama that Joanna had created.

Stella Ransome writes to Cora inviting her and Francis and Martha to dinner, along with Charles and Katherine, saying it is ‘the chance to see old friends and make new ones’, and enclosing a pressed primrose. Luke and Spencer have arrived in Colchester, Luke repeating to Spencer the phrase from Cora’s letter, ‘I miss you, dear’, and adding with ‘his wolfish grin’ that ‘the woman begged’. Spencer asks if they will see Cora that night, ‘he had motives of his own for this display of impatience, but having successfully concealed them even from Garrett’s forensic gaze was unwilling to show them’. Spencer goes for a walk and comes across the crippled beggar outside the ruined house, and he gives him all the money in his pocket, feeling guilty of his riches. As he is being shown over the threshold of the house, Martha comes up and takes Spencer back to their room at the hotel. Francis’ latest obsession is with feathers and Martha has brought several back for him, which he proceeds to thread onto Spencer’s coat. When Luke arrives later, greeted enthusiastically by Cora, Francis stops threading the feathers and instead begins collecting them all up, counting them down from 367. Martha and Spencer talk naturally together. Spencer admires her greatly, asking her to educate him about her socialism beliefs and passion for better housing for the poor of London. She likes him for how patient he is to Francis and how kind he is to Cora, but disapproves of his enormous wealth and privilege. Cora talks to Luke of the Essex Serpent and her theory that it might be a dinosaur who has escaped extinction, and reminds him that a fossil of a plesiosaur had recently been found at Lyme Regis. Awww, I straight away liked Stella just from her note to Cora, it’s written so naturally and in such an honest friendly manner, she seems like a genuinely lovely person. And I didn’t like Luke seeming to gloat over Cora’s ‘I miss you, dear’ in her letter. Admittedly I did regret that Cora had written that as I didn’t want to think that she had feelings for Luke as I’m not convinced that he is suited for her, but now he seems almost arrogant and presumptuous regarding her, grrrr. And oooh, I was very intrigued what ‘motives of his own’ Spencer was concealing from Luke, I had wondered if he was concealing his own romantic feelings for Luke, with how he seems to look out for him, providing him with money but doing this surreptitiously so as not to wound Luke’s pride, and putting up uncomplainingly with Luke’s curtness. But no, it’s Martha who Spencer likes. I’m not sure what I think of this either, I like that he values her as I like Martha myself, but I’m not sure they’re suited. I do like Spencer though, far more than I like Luke, he seems kind and thoughtful and generous. I also liked some of the descriptions of nature in these chapters, such as ‘the high clouds hurried on to pressing business in another town’. And there’s more things for me to look up on Wikipedia, not just the Essex earthquake but also the plesiosaur found at Lyme Regis.

While Stella awaits her guests, she thinks of her 15 year marriage to Will and how much she loves him and how strong they are together. When Cora arrives, she and Stella like each other immediately and speak very naturally together, complimenting and delighting in each other. Will and Cora realise that they have already met at the incident of the drowning sheep, and resort to helpless laughter at the memory, to the puzzlement of the others. When they have explained all this, to everyone’s amusement, they all go into the dining room for dinner and Cora notices how homely the small and humble room feels in comparison to Foulis Street. Will tells them that he had seen Cracknell earlier in the day, whose goat, Gog, had died, Cracknell insisting that the Essex Serpent had killed it by frightening it to death. Stella has a coughing fit towards the end of the evening and heads off early to bed, but as Cora is staying at their house overnight she tells her that she looks forward to spending more time with her the next day and promises to show her the village and the serpent carved into the church pew which she refuses to let Will remove. I do like Stella, and I like that she is interested in everyone she meets ‘without ever being heard to speak ill of anyone’, and I love her and Will’s bond. But I can’t help being a little concerned about Cora and Will’s closeness and ease together and them frequently bursting into laughter, I am pleased that Cora has a friend and they seem to be good for each other, challenging each other’s and their own thinking and yet valuing the other’s opinion, but I definitely don’t want anything to harm Stella and Will’s relationship, or for Stella to be hurt. And I’m worried about Stella’s cough and that it could be something serious and fatal, I really really hope not.

Spencer writes to Charles asking for his advice on how he can best use his trust fund to help the housing situation for the poor. Cora writes to Stella, on their return to the hotel in Colchester, inviting her and the children to visit them, and enclosing a note and leaflet for Will, the leaflet being a copy of the original pamphlet years ago warning about the Essex Serpent. She receives a pleasant letter back from Will, friendly and joking about the serpent and welcoming her back to Aldwinter should she wish to come. A few weeks later Cora and Martha and Francis move to a house in Aldwinter which Stella had told them of, Cora being determined to research the Essex Serpent more thoroughly. Hmmm, I want to just be pleased that Cora has friends in Will and Stella, and a purpose with the Essex Serpent, but I can’t help feeling just a bit worried about what the friendship with Will may lead to. And awww, Spencer must think a lot of Martha, with him wanting to take action and help, rather than to just talk about helping.

Luke is notified by his friend at the hospital that there is a patient there who would benefit from heart surgery. This type of surgery has never been done before but Luke is full of self-confidence in his ability to do it. The senior surgeon tries to bar his entrance when Luke arrives at the hospital, telling him he cannot do this surgery as he will bring disgrace on the hospital and risk the life of the patient. But Luke’s determination is obvious and he is allowed to see the patient, whose mother agrees to the operation after Luke explains that her son will be dead by morning if this is not tried. Spencer helps him during the surgery, and it is a success. Afterwards and in private, Luke shakes and cries with tension and relief. Hmmm, the surgery Luke does sounds a dramatic breakthrough but I was a bit apprehensive that performing it would make Luke even more boastful and self-confident, however I liked him a bit more for being so overwhelmed afterwards by the tension he had felt, showing that he had experienced moments of self-doubt and nervousness.

Cora is having tea and cake at Will and Stella’s house, after Will bumps into her while they were both out walking. They chat about Charles and Spencer and Martha’s work for the poor, but Stella then says she feels tired and needs to lie down, saying she can’t shake the flu that she had at winter. After Stella has left them, they both feel ‘a sensation of freedom…a curious liberty’. Without remembering his rule that no-one but Stella was allowed to enter his study, he takes Cora there to show her a fossil he found on a walk, asking for her opinion, ‘both eager and shy’. They then speak on more personal matters, having first agreed that they will address each other as ‘Will’ and ‘Cora’, instead of ‘Reverend Ransome’ and ‘Mrs Seaborne’, she asking him how he came to be in Aldwinter, saying he could have been successful in one of the big cities and gently telling him he is wasting his talents and his mind and shutting his eyes to the country’s problems by staying securely in his village, and he telling her that she has run away from London and its issues, that she professes to know about science and is trying to lose herself in this but that she barely understands it. They are briefly annoyed with each other but are ‘conscious of having traversed uncertain terrain without serious injury’. He walks her home, and they suddenly together see a ‘strip of pale and gauzy air’ on the horizon of the water, and ‘within the strip, sailing far above the water, a barge moved slowly through its lower sky’, they see the details clearly, ‘flying in full sail, high above the estuary, it flickered, and diminished, then regained its size, then for a moment it was possible to see the image of it inverted just beneath, as if a great mirror had been laid out’. They hold hands, gazing in wonder. Will later writes to Cora from the British Museum, where he had gone for information for a sermon but has instead been trying to find an answer to what they saw, he thinks it is a Fata Morgana illusion and copies out other examples of it which people have recorded, he says it is created when a particular arrangement of cold and warm air creates a refracting lens which makes objects on the horizon seem far above their location, and the image shifts and is mirrored as the air shifts. He admits to not being able to stop thinking about it as it bothers him that his mind cannot be trusted to correctly interpret what his eyes are seeing, and he then wonders if this could somehow explain the Essex Serpent, and he finishes his letter by stating how grateful he is that he hadn’t witnessed it alone and that she was with him. Wow, that’s all very interesting about the Fata Morgana illusion, and yet something else for me to look up on Wikipedia! But I can’t help thinking that them seeing this special thing together will have made a bond between them, and I’m unsure if that’s a good thing as there is Stella to be considered too.

Over the next few weeks, Cora and Will meet frequently to read and study and discuss and argue together. Stella is genuinely pleased that Will has a friend, she still feels weak from the flu and prefers to sit by her window looking out, rather than going out. Luke is disconcerted by Cora’s frequent talk of Will, though she describes him as a brother. Will comes across Francis when out walking and the boy asks him what sin is, saying that Will had mentioned the word several times in his recent sermon, Will is a little stumped but describes it as ‘to try but to fall short’, which then results in further questions from Francis. Cora speaks at Joanna Ransome and Naomi Banks’ school about fossils, the girls ask her about the Essex Serpent and she says that there may be animals alive today like those ones in the fossils, as there are places in the world and the deep ocean waters which haven’t yet been explored. Naomi seems to have a kind of hysterical fit, which then affects the other girls. It is put down to their fear of the Essex Serpent being heightened by Cora’s talk, but Naomi had been abused in the local pub recently, she has kept this a secret and feels ashamed of it and hasn’t been eating or sleeping and is also upset that Joanna seems to be growing apart from her. Cora is uneasy by what happened in the classroom, and writes to Luke asking for his help, saying that ‘something’s here…something isn’t right’. Luke suggests putting Joanna under hypnosis to try and find out more about the incident in the classroom, Stella and Cora are both enthusiastic about this but they hadn’t had a chance to mention it to Will or ask him. Luke also surreptitiously takes Stella’s pulse when holding her wrist, after she says she is hot. Will discovers them partway through the hypnosis and is very angry at this being done to his daughter. Hmmm, interesting with the hypnosis, I will be intrigued to hear Luke’s thoughts on what Joanna said and what it could mean. And I am getting more and more nervous that Stella is ill, with how swiftly concerned Luke was about her.

Martha has been visiting Edward Burton, the patient whose life Luke saved, having been introduced to him by Luke’s colleague, Maureen Fry, Martha knowing Maureen through her socialism work. They, and Edward’s mother, are concerned that Edward seems quiet and weak and like a different person after his surgery. Martha talks to him of her socialist beliefs and he begins to hope for change in the system as she does, as he is very interested in buildings and likes designing them in his mind. He tells her that the injury he suffered was his own fault and he knows who did it and that he deserved it. He explains that he had often led the workplace teasing of an unhappy colleague, Samuel Hall, and he had then seen Samuel with a woman who he clearly loved and Edward had taken this woman in his arms and kissed her, in order to make the others laugh, and then Samual had been off work for the rest of that week, and when Edward had stopped to look up at the dome of St Paul’s, Samuel had bumped against him and ran off, Edward realising a moment later that he’d been stabbed. Martha feels touched that Edward has trusted her enough to tell her this, and she tells him of letting Spencer believe she may in time return his love so she can use his money to do good works, she recognising the guilt she feels in this as similar to guilt that Edward feels about Samuel. I was quite struck by Martha’s words that we can’t help causing harm, that we do it just by living and could only avoid it by shutting ourselves away, never speaking or acting. And I feel sad for Spencer that Martha doesn’t return his feelings. I also chuckled at the phrase ‘lines of laundry running between the houses like the pennants of a coming army’.

Cora is buying supplies in Colchester, to take back to Aldwinter, and is sat eating cake and sharing gossip and reading the newspaper with the crippled beggar, Thomas Taylor. She reads an article from the paper about a meteorological phenomenon called night-shining, which is expected to occur in the next few weeks, when clouds at twilight make the sky look a curiously brilliant blue colour, and the cause may have been the Krakatoa volcano erupting in 1883 and spewing ash into the atmosphere. Charles and Katherine discover them, as they walk by, and Charles tells Cora off for upsetting Will and asks her if she will apologise, which Cora states she won’t do as Joanna and Stella had given their permission, though Cora has been upset by Will’s silence and cold manner towards her and has missed him. Charles and Katherine also talk to Cora about their concern for Stella, as her letters seem obsessed with the colour blue and they wonder if she is ill, but that Will had called out the doctor who said she was just struggling to shake off the flu. Cora adds that Stella is always hot, and that Stella had spoken to Cora about hearing the Essex Serpent but not knowing what it said, and she remembers that Luke had taken Stella’s pulse and frowned. She writes to Will in a jokey manner saying she won’t apologise and that the scriptures state she should be allowed 489 transgressions before being cast out, and asks why either of their minds should cede to the other. He writes back in a formal way saying she is forgiven and that he had forgotten the incident. Oh dear, more fears about Stella, sigh. I like that Cora is kind enough to spend time with Thomas though, and treats him with respect and courtesy. And the night-shining sounds interesting, I wonder if that will be developed further into this story, and of course I am going to have to go onto Wikipedia yet again to look up noctilucent clouds and night-shining, and Krakatoa erupting! And I do like the occurrence of letters in this book, as a chapter often ends with a couple of letters. 

I’m intrigued that each section of the book is another month (the next being June), so I am wondering if we are seeing a whole year through (although having flicked through the book a few times in order to check, I think we are missing March. Why, I wonder? Though where the March chapter heading should be is a letter dated 11th March, so maybe it is just missing from my copy?). And some of the sections have headings, ‘Strange News Out of Essex’, ‘To Use His Best Endeavour’, ‘To Keep a Constant Watch’, are these quotes from another book, I wonder? I feel with Perry’s writing that all is significant and each word weighed and of relevance and that nothing is included lightly. When I’ve googled ‘Strange News Out of Essex’ I am taken to a passage which says that in 1669 William Winstanley (a writer and historian) published a pamphlet entitled Strange News Out of Essex which details the sightings of a dragon or serpent at Henham near Saffron Walden, and pubs in that area have even been named The Flying Serpent. Omg, so this is all based on a real incident in history (well, not necessarily that there was a dragon or serpent of course, but that people believed that there was in 1669), I know Cora sends Will a copy of this leaflet which she found in a bookshop in Saffron Walden, and that Thomas Taylor had spoken about the serpent being seen before 200 years ago, but I’d just assumed that was part of the story. ‘To Use His Best Endeavor’ seems to be a legal term. And I can’t see that the ‘To Keep a Constant Watch’ means anything, apart from the importance of watching over something important. Perhaps these were all terms in the 1669 pamphlet? Or perhaps they just describe what happens in the following chapters?

Cora is having a party, inviting Will and Stella, and Luke, and Charles and Katherine. Will is apprehensive at seeing her. Stella is tired with the walk to Cora’s, she knows herself that she has consumption, as she has seen blood when she coughs, but she doesn’t intend to tell Will yet, and she has decided that when she gets very ill she will ask Will to take her to a hospital ward in the mountains. When they arrive at Cora’s, Will feels fascinated by her and can’t stop watching her circulating with her guests, wanting to share with her all the things he’d thought and done over the last few weeks while they’ve not communicated. Luke gives Cora a slide that looks like a miniature Japanese fan, it is actually of the very thin lining of the human stomach, set in ebony, which he’d made in college and shown Spencer, telling Spencer at that time that ‘I live in hope of one day knowing someone who’ll think it’s as beautiful as I do’, although he explains none of this to Cora. Will apologises to Luke for losing his temper, and Luke talks to him about medicine, showing him the drawings he has of the heart surgery he one day hopes to perform. There is talk of dancing and Stella pushes Will and Cora to dance together, saying ‘see how well-matched you are’, though they just stand holding one another seeming unable to dance, and Martha and Luke look at them a little fearfully, and Katherine is puzzled at them, as is Francis. Will then says he and Stella must leave, and they immediately go, followed by Charles and Katherine. Later, Will is marching along the common alone in the dark thinking of Cora, he realises that he has always loved her but after holding her tonight he now thinks of her in a physical way as well. After Cora goes to bed, Luke and Martha discuss her and Will, Luke saying that he thinks Cora is unaware as yet of what they’ve done, Martha saying that they have actually done nothing but that every day Cora talks of Will, and Luke says Cora always mentions his name in his letters. Luke says that he would kill Will if he could. And suddenly Luke and Martha go to bed with each other, but both pretending it is someone else they are with. Eeek, I was a bit shocked at Luke and Martha sleeping together! And I wondered who it was that Martha was imagining in place of Luke, was it perhaps Cora that they were both imagining, does Martha have feelings for Cora like that? I had presumed before that it was just a motherly nurturing love that Martha felt for Cora, but perhaps it is more than that. And poor Stella, consumption is tuberculosis, isn’t it? That’s not good! And is Stella trying to ensure that Will won’t be alone after she dies, by engineering him and Cora to dance together? And oooh, Luke has given Cora the slide of the lining of the stomach which was so precious to him, I’m quite touched that he’s done that, and done it without a boastful explanation of his cleverness, perhaps he does really care for her, maybe I’ve been a bit hard on him. And poor Will is suffering too with his feelings for Cora. Oh dear, Cora is unknowingly causing lots of turmoil to people’s feelings. I remember Martha’s words to Edward, that ‘we cannot help it (causing harm) if we are to live…how could it be avoided unless we shut ourselves away, never speak, never act’, and I guess it could be said that Cora is an example of that, she isn’t meaning to hurt these people, she is just speaking and acting and living life. 

Frankie has gone out walking after midnight, as he usually does, puzzling about things like gravity and reflections, and thinking of Stella who also collects treasures, and he has taken two treasures with him on this night’s walk. He is unsettled by the evening with its lack of order and method, but doesn’t know why. He decides to go to the edge of the estuary to see if he can see the Essex Serpent, thinking of the others who say they have seen it. It is the night of the night-shining and the sky looks an odd blue light, and Francis is delighted looking at it. He spots something moving on the sand which crawls along and coughs, and Francis realises it is Cracknell, who tries calling Francis to fetch help. Francis is puzzled at why Cracknell should choose to die there and is distracted again by the night-shining, he then watches with detached interest the process of death come over Cracknell’s body, thinking he will certainly die so there is no point in wasting time getting help and instead decides to share the joy of the sky with Cracknell and pulls his head back so he faces the sky, and Francis then lies beside him looking up at the sky too. Cracknell dies ‘on a long untroubled breath’ while Francis lies beside him and says ‘there, there’, feeling satisfied that things have gone as he thought they would. The next morning Will is angrily hacking off the carving of the serpent on the church pew, to Joanna’s distress who feels ‘for the first time the helpless rage of a child knowing itself wiser and more just than its parent’, but he is interrupted by someone asking him to view something on the sand, and he finds Cracknell’s body with his neck pulled so far back that it was broken, and there are Francis’ two treasures on his chest. The locals believe the Essex Serpent has done it, but Will says that Cracknell was an ill and confused man who probably wandered out in the night for air and got lost. Francis is watching and holds a button with an anchor on which he had torn from Cracknell’s coat. Phew! But Francis didn’t kill Cracknell, did he, pulling his neck back? Was his neck actually broken, or did he just die of his cough? And what was his cough anyway, is it consumption like Stella has, and if so did she get it from him? And so there was to be another mention of the night-shining, it wasn’t just a throwaway thing. There seems to be a few of these nature’s mysteries, with this night-shining and the Fata Morgana illusion, it makes me think of the power and beauty of nature and its influence on us, which I presume Perry was meaning to convey. 

Cora writes to Will saying that she saw the night-shining in the sky. She also explains how she felt about Michael’s death, and how her marriage was with Michael and how she was jealous of the affection that Michael used to show the dog as ‘he never touched me so kindly’. She says she is going to London for a while to stay with Charles and Katherine. She also says that Luke will write to him about Stella and she hopes that he will consider the offer of help. Will replies, sending her a postcard saying he will write again soon. In a later letter, he tells her about Cracknell being found dead, ‘though the coroner says there’s no foul play’, and that Cracknell had likely been there on the sand all night and had been looking up at something. He says that the villagers believe it was the Essex Serpent that killed Cracknell, especially as a few of them had seen a ‘strange blue light in the sky’, and adds ‘I don’t know what to do’. He says that Luke has written and they will go to London next week, and he shares his reservations in the letter about Luke’s enthusiasm for surgery. He writes about his faith and says that he can understand her and Luke’s doubts but that he can’t account for how he feels when he turns towards Christ. And he mentions the ‘longing’ he has for her, that he wasn’t looking for anything new, and how he has ‘learned you by heart, seemed at once to know you, had immediate liberty to say everything to you I could never have said elsewhere’, and equates this to religion and belief in things not seen. He adds that he isn’t ashamed or troubled by these feelings, and ends his letter ‘with love’. Will then writes to Cora six days later, concerned that he’s not heard from her, and also sharing his increasing concerns about Stella. Luke’s letter to Will mentions ‘respiratory disease’. Hmmm, so with Cora writing to Will about her marriage and leaving Aldwinter for a while, was she actually as unsettled by her feelings for Will that night as everyone else was, she did realise then what had happened, though Luke and Martha thought she didn’t realise? And what was the postcard that Will sent, I’m curious as I want to know everything! And I see that Will also puts Philippians 1:3-11 at the bottom of the postcard, so something else I will have to look up, I feel like Perry is educating me with this book! And I feel his letter is quite dangerously intimate with him sharing so much of his feelings, and not just his feelings about her but also his feelings about religion and his uncertainty about how to deal with the villagers, he obviously doesn’t feel that he needs to conceal his uncertainties and doubts and fears from Cora, and the level of intimacy that then demonstrates again makes me apprehensive. And why hadn’t Cora replied to Will’s letter, after she seemed to set the tone of sharing feelings in her letter? And phew, so Francis didn’t kill Cracknell by breaking his neck, thank goodness for that, though it would have been unintended, surely, if he had.

At Stella’s hospital appointment, Luke’s colleague Dr Butler diagnoses tuberculosis. Will is shocked and upset at the news, and surprised at how calm Stella seems, although she says to herself privately that she could have told them this months ago. Will feels uncertain what he should pray for, regarding this, as he feels that if he asks to turn back time to when she caught the infection then shouldn’t he also ask to turn back time and bring back to life those in the village who have already died. Luke tells Will that Stella should be isolated and the children sent away. Dr Butler prescribes injections of tuberculin, which makes Will feel nauseous at the thought, but Luke suggests surgery on the infected collapsed lung, which Will, and Dr Butler, immediately angrily dismiss, although Stella states that it is her body and so her opinion should be considered. Omg, tuberculosis, that’s so sad, I don’t want lovely Stella to die. And I did feel for Will, so uncertain whether his instinct to pray for her is actually selfishness. And I don’t know if the surgery which Luke is suggesting actually ended up being adopted as a treatment for tuberculosis, but I find myself trusting his knowledge and courage, however coldly it is dispensed, and willing Stella and Will to say yes to it.

Naomi Banks has gone missing, she left a note saying ‘coming ready or not’. Cora and Martha and Francis are still in London. Samuel Hall follows and watches Edward Burton every day, holding his knife in his pocket, waiting for another chance to stab him and have his revenge. Luke writes to Cora saying that he loves her, that he carries it about ‘like a growth…it aches’ and lists all the different Coras he has known her be and stating that he loves each one, but it is also quite an angry letter at how he knows she doesn’t return his love, how she tolerates him, and no matter how much he gives it won’t be enough. He feels relief when the letter is sent, ‘like lancing a boil’. Stella seems to be losing her mind, she writes in her blue book about blue things, but also that they have taken her children away from her and they are now living with Charles and Katherine. Oh no, poor Naomi is missing. I don’t like that note she left, it made me wonder if she meant that a baby is coming, following the abuse she suffered. And oh no again, I feel such foreboding with Samuel watching and waiting to strike Edward again. And yet another oh no with Luke’s letter to Cora declaring his love, it quite surprised me how passionate and starkly honest he was about his feelings and particularly how hopeless he knows it is as she doesn’t feel the same. I felt quite sorry for him, and found myself wanting Cora to reply kindly. And again, oh no with Stella (it’s a tough section of the book here!), I do wonder what will happen to her but it is so sad to see her mind disintegrating, and I wonder how the children feel being sent away from her, I know it is to keep them safe from the infection but how tragic that they may not see her again if she dies. 

Edward and Martha and Spencer and Luke and Charles are walking in Bethnal Green discussing housing for the poor. Samuel is watching Edward from a nearby alley, ‘addled with beer and loathing’, he is also watching and hating Luke for saving Edward’s life with his surgery, as Samuel had read about Luke’s success in the newspaper. Samuel runs at Luke, pushing him against a wall and winding him, he is pulled away by Spencer, then Luke sees Samuel take the knife from his pocket and go to attack Spencer and Luke had ‘never felt so appalling a surge of terror’ at the thought of Spencer being killed so he launches himself at Samuel with his hands outstretched. He and Samuel fall to the ground and Samuel’s head hits the pavement and he is dead, but Luke’s right hand and forearm have been terribly cut by the knife. Luke begins listing the bones he can see revealed in his hand, and then faints. Omg omg omg, poor poor Luke to be so terribly injured, I didn’t see that coming! I was worried for Edward, and my only thought of Luke regarding it was how angry he’d be to have saved Edward’s life and then had all his work undone by Samuel killing him. But this will surely end Luke’s career, how can he do delicate surgery now, even if his hand and arm can be repaired somewhat they will surely be compromised, I can’t imagine he’ll have full mobility. What will he do, his whole life is his work! And what about Stella, as I can’t imagine any other surgeon would be brave enough to do the surgery that Luke suggested. But how lovely that Luke acted to save Spencer, realising how much he cared for his friend. But omg, I can’t believe this has happened, and now what will happen?! And grrr, I can see that the next chapter is Cora and her feelings for Will and Luke, when I want to stay with Luke and find out what is happening!

Cora is thinking about both Will and Luke, trying to analyse and identify her feelings. She realises that she had liked Will’s affection because he seemed to have never physically wanted her as a woman, he was too bound up in Stella, but then when they danced that had changed and it made her uncomfortable and like something had been lost. And she is angry at Luke for putting into a letter how he feels for her, making it then impossible for her to lightheartedly and dismissively tease him as she had done in the past when he’d said he loved her before. She is angry that she is only a few months free of Michael’s possession and now Luke seems to want to possess her. She posts a letter to Luke in which she expresses her anger at him, asking how he could have written such things, saying that she loves him too but as a friend and that’s all she has to give to anyone. The following day she writes to Luke again, apologetically, Martha having told her what has happened to him, she says he is the bravest man she knows and such a true friend to Spencer, and begs to be able to see him, and sends her love. Spencer writes to Cora, saying Luke doesn’t know he is writing to her. He says Luke saw her first letter and ‘I would never have thought you capable of such cruelty’, he says that she has hurt Luke very much, ‘where the knife failed, you have succeeded, he is shattered, you have turned out all his lights’. He details the incident and how Luke was taken to hospital, how the muscles and tendons that controlled his fingers had been severed, that Luke asked Spencer to operate but refused any anaesthetic as he didn’t want his mind to be meddled with and he planned to put himself into a hypnotic trance and also to be able to watch and advise on the surgery if he came out of the trance, making Spencer promise that he would only administer anaesthetic if Luke begged him to and giving Spencer guidance beforehand after he had examined his own wounds himself. Spencer said he broke his promise and administered anaesthetic to him once he was in his trance. Spencer said he tried his best with the surgery but it was not enough, that Luke now has shortened tendons which have made his fingers crooked and hooked towards the palm, he can’t write or hold a pen and he refuses to do exercises to try and improve his mobility as ‘he has lost hope…he has no resolve…you cut something out of him’. He adds that her second letter also hurt Luke as she offered pity and she should have known how Luke feels about being pitied. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, the pain she has caused Luke, on top of what he is already suffering, she seems to have an unfortunate instinct of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and causing pain when she only means to express herself truthfully and to be respectfully honest with the other person. And Spencer’s letter, how curt and blunt and designed to hurt her, which I guess I can understand, it must hurt him so much to see his friend in pain and disabled, so how easy then to take that hurt out on someone else. And how awful for poor Luke to be so dreadfully injured, oh god, this is just so tragic!

Will stops writing to Cora, as she doesn’t reply, and he struggles to be enthusiastic about anything ‘what, after all, is the point of observing this, of encountering that, if he cannot tell her, and watch her laugh or frown in response?’ Cora is ‘bored and bad-tempered…has little interest in her books and bones’, she is angry at Spencer’s letter, and feels lost without Will and Luke, she debates about writing to Will but ‘her pride revolts against it’. Martha writes to tell Spencer that Edward and his mother will probably lose their home as they can’t afford the increased rent. Edward asks Martha to marry him, but she refuses saying she ‘cannot promise to love, honour, obey…don’t ask me to enter an institution that puts me in bonds and leaves you free’. She offers instead to be his ‘companion…comrade’, and Edward accepts. Hmmm, I was intrigued by Martha’s refusal of Edward’s marriage proposal, I am still unsure if she is in love with Cora or not, she tells Edward that she can’t be in the institution of marriage which puts her in bonds, but she also says ‘I see the day coming when Cora Seaborne’s done with me but I can never be done with her’, so is her refusal to Edward based on the institution of marriage or based on her feelings for Cora? I also liked the descriptions of nature at the start of this chapter, they made me hope that perhaps the characters might be about to have a more positive time at last, ‘skeins of geese unravel over the estuary, and cobwebs dress the gorse in silk’, both lovely images that I can easily picture, and again an example of Perry’s use of opposite images in the same sentence which so fascinated me before with ‘unravel’ and then ‘dress’, and also the similar imagery of material with ‘skeins’ and ‘silk’, how does she write so beautifully, do these word formations just almost magically occur to her or does she slave over them for hours? 

Aldwinter wakes to a foul smell which permeates every home and makes people’s eyes water and makes some of them feel unwell. They are all puzzled at what the cause can be, though the villagers all suspect that the Essex Serpent has arrived on the sands and has regurgitated the dead it had taken, so Will goes to the estuary to investigate and the villagers follow him. ‘The carcass of a creature lay in putrefaction…twenty feet in length…wingless…limbless…gleaming silver…all along the spine the remnants of a single fin…very fine teeth…a pair of gills…that resembled the underside of a mushroom’. Will sees that it had been wounded ‘either it had suffered an attack, or caught against the hull of a Thames barge’. Will sees it as ‘a decaying fish…simply an animal’. Banks, the bargeman, advises that they just let the tide and gulls and rooks take the body, rather than them trying to dispose of it in some way, although Will has no idea how they would have disposed of it if they had to. Oh, so this is the Essex Serpent, that’s it, after all this time and wait? What is it exactly, a whale or dolphin who was injured and became trapped in the estuary and died? I felt I had to jot down all the description of it, in order to clarify what it exactly is, although I’m still not quite sure what it is. So nothing supernatural or monstrous, nor a dinosaur who survived extinction? What does this mean for the rest of the book? Although I wonder if this ending of the belief in a monster cleverly emphasises other endings that have come at this point in the book, such as the ending of Will and Cora’s relationship and the ending of Luke’s career and presumably the forthcoming ending of Stella’s life, and perhaps also emphasising the contrast of beliefs that seems to run through the book, belief in religion from Will on one side, belief in the supernatural from the villagers on another side, and belief in science from Luke on another side. But is it shallow in me to be a bit disappointed that it wasn’t a monster or dinosaur?!

Charles and Katherine go to Aldwinter, and Katherine writes to Cora telling her about the Essex Serpent being found after all to be ‘a fish’. Katherine gently rebukes Cora in her letter for breaking her ties with Luke and Will and Stella, saying she presumes Cora is still grieving after Michael’s death, but she also admits to being curious about Cora’s relationship with Will and surprised that they no longer seem to be in touch. Cora replies, explaining that she has written to Luke but they don’t want to see her, ‘I go blundering about, I break things’. She promises to write to Stella and to go to Aldwinter. She goes there with Francis, who is impressed at Stella’s huge collection of blue treasures, such as bottles, shards of glass, buttons, feathers, stones, and bits of paper. Stella is by turns focused on what Cora says and is then vague, is interested in gossip about people and then says that the Essex Serpent is still out there and she hears it whispering in the night, she talks sense and then talks nonsense. Will isn’t at the house when Cora visits, and Stella says that he will be sorry to have missed her. Cora writes to Will saying she has returned to Aldwinter, she says she seems to be in disgrace with everyone, including Francis who is now enamoured of Stella, and she says that only Stella seems not to be angry with her. She asks Will how he is, mentioning several of his habits and asking if he still does them, and finishes her letter asking if she can see him. Will sends a similarly long letter in reply, thanking her for bringing gifts for Stella, detailing the way the village is without the fear of the Essex Serpent, and saying how much he loves Stella, wondering ‘who will I be if she is gone? If she is not looking at me, will I still be here? Will I look in the mirror one morning and find my reflection gone?’. He adds that he goes for a walk every evening at about 6pm, and invites Cora to join him, saying he’d like to see her. They meet and walk together, talking as if they’d never lost contact, both so ‘delighted in each other then as they had from the start’. They talk about the Essex Serpent, Cora calling it an oarfish and saying that there was one washed up in Bermuda and that they ‘loiter near the surface when they’re dying’, and Will saying how powerless he felt to have been unable to say anything to allay the villagers’ fears. They also talk of Stella’s bravery in facing her illness, and Cora talks a little of Michael’s illness and how it felt to watch him become ill and to have a doctor suggest treatments. She talks about forcing her way into Will’s life, with her suggestion that they write to each other, and he says that he had welcomed her, though he didn’t know why as he had everything he wanted with Stella, he goes on to tell her that she walls herself away and has never been loved properly. She tells him to stop, feeling that these kind of intimate words seem safer on paper, ‘he was at his best sealed in an envelope’. They then share an intimate moment together. I loved Will’s words about Stella, questioning who he would be without her and if he’d still see his reflection in the mirror, such beautiful sad words. And I chuckled at Cora feeling that Will was at his best sealed in an envelope, tee hee. And so Cora says the Essex Serpent was an oarfish then, I must look that creature up too (well, unless the serpent is still out there witnessed by Francis, of course…!). And I see oarfish are quite incredible creatures, really huge and very like a serpent in shape, and interestingly their appearance is believed by some to foretell disasters such as earthquakes.

Luke and Spencer are in Colchester, and Luke is walking alone in the countryside at night, feeling angry at how useless he feels he has become, and embracing the extra pain from Cora’s letter which he carries with him. He decides to end his life, now he has lost his ambition and also lost the hope of love from Cora, and he feels that no-one would really grieve for him. As Luke prepares to hang himself from a tree with his belt, he suddenly thinks of Spencer and how he will be worried at his absence and perhaps come searching for him and would then find him dead, and how hurt and sad he would be. Luke thinks about how long they’ve been friends and how much they have been through together. He then feels angry and humiliated that he has been prevented from killing himself because of a friend, rather than because of his career or the lack of love of Cora. Luke returns home in a rage and hits Spencer, knocking him down, saying ‘if it hadn’t been for you it would all be done with now’. Spencer apologises and says he’s not going to go away. Awww, lovely Spencer, he really is a true and loyal friend. But poor poor Luke feeling so desperate and hopeless. 

Meanwhile Banks is sat drunk by a fire on the sands of the estuary in the fog, still convinced that the Essex Serpent is out there and that it has his daughter. Francis then appears and asks him ‘did you see it?’, saying he knows that is why Banks is out there. Banks feels unnerved by Francis so says he can see barely anything through the fog, but then Francis grabs his hand and tries to pull him towards what he says he’s seen. Banks then hears a groaning noise, and he runs home in fear. Francis stays out there and the fog briefly clears and he sees what it is, he feels relief and disappointment and then mirth, and as the fog covers it again he decides he needs to tell someone so decides he will tell Stella. Grrrr, that’s so frustrating that we don’t find out what Francis has seen!  

Cora writes to Will, saying she feels no guilt for what they did and urges him to keep guilt at bay, and says ‘we are cleaved together, we are cleaved apart, everything that draws me to you is everything that drives me away’. Hmmm, I was quite fascinated with her explanation of the word ‘cleave’, with it meaning two very different things, to cling to something with all your heart and also to break something apart, that’s quite profound, I will remember that.

Francis goes with Martha to see Stella, he tells her that he was down at the estuary in the early hours of the morning wanting to see the Essex Serpent as he thinks it may still be out there. Stella says that she is certain it is still out there and that she hears it whispering ‘coming ready or not’ to her. He tells her what he’d seen on the edge of the estuary, and she is at first disappointed and then laughs, as Francis had done. They agree that they must show people and Stella draws a plan in her notebook for how they will do it. Francis notices her feverish eyes and trembling hands and wonders if he should get help, but he is flattered and proud to be wanted, and promises to help her complete her plan tomorrow. Martha sees Francis sitting on Stella’s lap with his arms around her neck, and realises the irony of Will’s wife and Cora’s son being so close. Omg, why does Stella have written in her book the same words as Naomi left in her note when she disappeared? Maybe Will told her what Naomi’s note said? And what is Stella’s plan? And how can we still not know what it is that Francis saw, grrr?! 

Charles and Katherine and the Ransome children visit Luke and Spencer. Charles breaks it gently to Spencer that Martha and Edward are together, which shocks and wounds Spencer. Katherine tries to draw Luke out and speaks kindly and encouragingly to him, shocked at how pale and thin and depressed he looks, but he doesn’t respond. Out on the street, Joanna suddenly spots a boy sitting begging with the cripple, Thomas Taylor, and recognises ‘him’ as Naomi, even though she is dressed as a boy and has had her long hair chopped short. She immediately runs over and Naomi admits who she is, saying that she left because no-one wanted her after she had the fit in the classroom, especially Joanna, and she was scared to live near the water with her fear of the Essex Serpent. Naomi returns to her dad, saying she’s sorry she went away, that she was scared but it’s all right now. Neither of them say much, though Banks is quietly emotional. The children are taken to see Stella, and all are delighted to be together again. Will thinks about how he will write of his joy at the children’s return in a letter to Cora, and then feels guilty thinking about Cora and of writing to her. He yearns to be with Stella, but remembers that she always wants to be alone now, writing in her blue book. Omg, I can’t believe Naomi is found, I never guessed for a moment that she was the boy that Thomas Taylor had adopted. And I feel like things must have happened to her while she was away, for example why had she cut her hair, was this to disguise her femininity and therefore protect her from people who might have hurt her? It just feels a bit glossed over. And I like that Joanna Ransome has read Little Women, and admires Jo March.

Joanna and Naomi walk along the banks of the estuary, Naomi now confident and quite dominant over Joanna. The fog is still thick, and suddenly they hear a groaning noise and see something on the sand, they are convinced it is the Essex Serpent but then realise it is Banks’ boat, named Gracie after his wife, having partly rotted in the depths of the water and mud, ‘which gave it the look of uneven flesh, coarse and battle-scarred’, moving forward and back with the tide against the shingle. The girls begin to laugh, realising that this is what had scared the villagers, lurching in the water, this was the Essex Serpent. Joanna runs to get her father, saying everyone should come and see it, while Naomi offers to stay with the boat, worried it might disappear into the water again before people arrive. Francis is also there, out of sight in the fog, having followed the instructions that Stella had given him. Hmmm, so this is the Essex Serpent then, this boat is what Francis saw! This seems even more of a disappointment than the oarfish, and I’m wondering why we’re bothering with the boat as the Essex Serpent in the first place as it seemed more fitting that the Essex Serpent was an oarfish. Or at least have one, not both, and I think the oarfish was better. And I’m nervous for Francis and of what Stella, with her confused thinking, has ordered him to do. Oh god, I’ve just had the awful thought that she’s perhaps asked him to put her in the boat, thinking in her confused way that the Essex Serpent will take her off over the water to heaven, particularly as Joanna thought she saw something blue slightly sticking out from under the boat.

Joanna brings Will to see the boat, he is very pleased with them for finding it, realising immediately that this was the Essex Serpent, and grateful that this will be the end of it. He and Joanna and Naomi walk home, Will thinking of telling Cora about this discovery but then wondering if he should contact her again. Francis reaches home and says to his mother, tearfully, that he’s afraid he’s done something wrong, and to her surprise he sits on her lap and hugs her. She takes the drawing he is clutching, which shows a smiling woman beneath a wave and Stella’s writing reads ‘Tomorrow, six, my will be done’. He tells Cora that he went down to the water with Stella, as she had told him she was being called home and that the Essex Serpent wanted her, even though he had told her there was no Essex Serpent. Oh, poor Francis, to be so upset and conflicted at what he’s done. But I guess one good thing is that it has made him closer to Cora, trusting her with his admission and his unhappiness and confusion, so hopefully his ability to do this and to hug her and to allow himself to be hugged by her will continue. But omg, what will Will say to Francis, how angry he will be! And the irony that Will is thinking of how keen he is to share the news of the boat with Cora, and that he will shortly be devastated by something her son has done.

Will and Joanna see Cora running towards them in the direction of the water, she pushes the drawing at Will, saying she thinks Stella is down by the water. They lift the boat, and see Stella underneath it, with all her blue tokens around her. They cover her with their coats and tell her that they’ve come to take her home, though she looks close to death as her skin is blue. Stella opens her eyes and tries to explain the belief that made her go down there, she says she wanted to make peace with the Essex Serpent for Aldwinter’s sake and that she was being called home. Will begs her not to go yet, reminding her that they promised each other that they’d go together and not leave one of them alone. Will lifts her up, saying she has sent the Essex Serpent away and he is now taking her home. Stella tells Cora to ask Francis to give all her blue treasures to the water. Oh god, how sad and tragic. At least they found her before it was too late, I was sure she was already dead. I am wondering though, as the next chapter starts, if she shortly dies through being so weak and being outdoors and damp overnight. And how significant is it that Will and Cora were together when they found her, will this enable Will to be closer to Cora as she shared this trauma with him, or will he feel even more guilty and push her away?

Banks burns his ruined boat. The Ransome children are back with Charles and Katherine in London. Spencer has anonymously bought the Bethnal Green tenement block where Edward and his mother live, and he has ensured each home has been repaired, but without the rents being raised. Spencer has written to Martha wishing her happiness, he says he wishes she had loved him, but that he has now found a purpose due to her. Martha has had articles published, using a typewriter given to her by Cora, she misses Cora now she doesn’t live with her but no more than she often missed her when she did live with her, and ‘in the absence of Cora, it’s Edward Burton she wants’. Spencer has moved in with Luke, saying that as Luke saved his life then he is now Luke’s possession and responsibility. Luke is glad that Spencer is with him, though doesn’t say it, and is sustained by his loathing of Cora. His hand has healed though he doesn’t have full mobility, but Spencer has suggested a partnership between them at the hospital, where Luke guides Spencer in surgical operations, and Luke is now more enthusiastic and re-energised. Awww, lovely lovely Spencer, I would have liked a happy ending for him, but perhaps him finding love would have taken him away from Luke, and it seems like his purpose is giving Luke a reason for living, as well as his other purpose of improving housing. Although is it fair that Spencer sacrifices his life for Luke? I guess we may see towards the end of the book just what that entails. And what were Martha’s feelings towards Cora in the end? Just a wish to look after her, or something more? And why is Martha not with Cora now? Is it because Cora is with Will, or is Cora focusing fully on Francis with their improved relationship, or is it just because Martha has chosen to live with Edward? And why are the children back with Charles and Katherine? Even if Stella has died, then surely they would be with Will?

Stella has survived, she is weak but walks round the common with Will every week, he relays the village gossip to her, they talk together about the children, and they are close again and laugh together. Will is ‘maid and mother’, doing the cooking and cleaning. Stella looks back proudly at what she sees as her defeat of the Essex Serpent, though she sometimes misses her blue treasures, which all went into the estuary. Dr Butler is pleased with how she is doing, saying it is a question now of management. Will determinedly never thinks of Cora while he is with Stella, though it is ‘by an effort he thinks might one day halt his heart’, but allows himself to think freely of her on his daily walks alone where he analyses what she is to him, feeling that he doesn’t miss her because she is everywhere around him, ‘in the yellow lichen wrapping the bare beech branches, in the kestrel he once saw skimming the oaks’, and is unable to decide how to name her or their relationship, he decides ‘she is my friend’. He doesn’t write to her but imagines he knows what she is thinking and that she knows what he is thinking, ‘their conversations go on, in the downspin of a sycamore key’. Cora writes to Will saying she is at Foulis Street again, but on her own, with Francis away at school and Martha with Edward. She describes the simplicity of her days, and says that solitude suits her. But she says she thinks about the Essex shore and can taste its salt on her lips, and feels her heart cleaving, ‘something severed, and something joined…I am torn and I am mended, I want everything and need nothing, I love you and I am content without you’. She ends her letter ‘Even so, come quickly!’.

Well, that’s the end. Phew! I’m pleased that Stella is still alive and seems to be doing well, I am surprised but pleased as I felt sure she would have died. She seems stronger in her mind now too. And I loved the beautiful words about lichen and the kestrel and the sycamore key describing how Will feels that Cora is all around him. And of course, the book rightly ends with Cora, seeing as it began with her. And I feel it is perhaps fitting that she is back at Foulis Street where she was dominated by Michael, now on her own and answerable to no-one, just pleasing herself, and I can’t help feeling that she deserves that after everything she suffered with Michael and that perhaps it would have been better if she’d done that straightaway, just recuperate and recover, and then go out into the world and mix with Luke and Will, perhaps she would have done less damage then if she’d tended to her own needs first, though I feel she never meant to do damage but perhaps as damage was done to her she needed to repair this first? But it seems to be implied at the end that she and Will are meant to be together, and will be together. And I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. I have to remember that Cora had been treated badly by Michael and was hurt and vulnerable, so I should be happy for her that she has found happiness and love with someone, and as her happiness seems to be with Will then perhaps that is what I should wish for her. The book feels mostly about her journey (rather than a monstrous Essex Serpent), her being able to grow after she was so stifled and crushed down by Michael, and even the mistakes she makes and the hurt she causes along the way are all part of her growing and coming out of her shell and developing the kind of person she will become, after she married Michael so young and he then dominated her and shaped her and subdued her into the person he wanted her to be. So the fact that the book begins with her becoming free and able to make mistakes and learn and try new experiences and follow new interests, just free to do what she wants, is wonderful and I’m very pleased for her and have enjoyed watching her begin to enjoy life, that feels a success story. And Will does seem to suit her very well, with how similarly their minds work and that they challenge each other and push each other to defend and develop their own ideas and beliefs, and yet how they listen to each other and value each other’s opinion and often then try to incorporate the other’s ideas and beliefs into their own lives, and how they laugh together (I feel Cora had rarely laughed up to that point). But then Will is married to Stella, arrrgh! And Stella is lovely, and he loves her. And Cora does have some aspects of the things she shares with Will, with other people too, admittedly not all contained within one person as she does with Will, but the other people in her life do bring value to her and I think do also help shape how she grows and develops now she is free, so it’s not just Will as her only influence or route to freedom. And I wonder how Will would view his future relationship with Cora, if he would be content to just be friends or want more, he obviously needs her in his life but I’m not quite sure as what, though I suspect as more than friends really. I guess it wouldn’t be such an effective book if Perry had let Will be single and unmarried, and he and Cora then lived happily ever after, as the power of the book and her writing comes from how it makes you feel about the characters and how you question what is best for them. 

It’s interesting to consider all the different kinds of relationships that are in the book, obviously Cora and Will’s is the main one, but Spencer and Luke’s is also fascinating, and I think my favourite relationship is Charles and Katherine’s, as they seem very loving and yet also very equal to each other, and he’s quite individual with his quirks and obviously very confident to be that way and I’d think a fair amount of that confidence comes from being loved and accepted by Katherine, and they must be completely secure in their relationship too to be able to deal with the challenges that taking in the Ransome children would no doubt have brought. I think Charles may be my favourite character too, obviously his love of cake and tea is a massive tick in his favour, tee hee, but I like his eccentric and individual style and his generosity and humour, and also how loving and kindhearted he is to the Ransome children, drawing them out and building their confidence, and he can relate to a mix of different people too as he knows all the other characters in the book, he could be said to be the central person who links them all actually, and he tries to do good, not just with the housing scheme but also with warning Spencer that Martha has feelings for Edward and trying to save him from getting hurt further.  

And what do I feel about the Essex Serpent being nothing? I don’t think the blurb on the back of the book really made it sound like the Essex Serpent was real, it wasn’t really billed as a supernatural or horror story, but I think at times in the book (especially at the start on New Year’s Eve) I did get caught up in the excitement of it possibly being a real monster or a dinosaur that had survived extinction, and there were so many other seemingly unbelievable things that Perry introduced me to (the Colchester earthquake, the Fata Morgana illusion, the noctilucent clouds and night-shining, etc) that I felt there was a possibility she could surprise me with the Essex Serpent being real too, and I did feel a bit disappointed that it wasn’t real! And I can see it made sense to have the ruined boat as the Essex Serpent, as this then caused Stella to think about being placed there by Francis, but I think I would have preferred it to be assumed that the oarfish was the Essex Serpent, as it is so clearly serpent-like so fits far better and gives us a bit of that monster aspect. So all the injuries and death supposedly caused by the Essex Serpent, especially the man at the start of the book who dies on New Year’s Eve, are just accidents and carelessness, I guess, we’re not saying that the oarfish caused these things?

I was wondering if I felt that the book was Dickens or Austen-like, as it had been described. I can see that the time it is set in is similar, and some of Perry’s beautiful and thoughtful turns of phrase are similar to how those authors expressed things, and their love of language is like Perry’s. And I realise that I am thinking about the book a lot now I’ve finished it and more things keep occurring to me (hence me adding more and more to these notes!) and I keep wondering what Perry meant by a particular phrase or storyline or why she included certain things and what happened to the characters in the future, all of which I feel when I read a Dickens or Austen book, so I can see that there are similarities. 

I do love the way Perry writes and (as I’ve mentioned before) am quite fascinated by her using parallels and opposites within sentences (and I think Cora’s last few lines in her letters demonstrate this oppositeness again), and I think there is an element of her encouraging the reader’s own experience to guide them to come to conclusions about the characters, and that things in the book can be interpreted in different ways, and I imagine that if I was to re-read the book then I would probably see more things and interpret things in a different way than on the first read, the main themes in the book seem to have lots of possible little in-roads and paths to other things. And although some things are ambiguous at the end, this feels a different ambiguity to what was in Melmoth and which I found quite frustrating in that book (as I had so many questions, and wanted answers!), although Melmoth was a completely different book to this one and I think I’d struggle to guess it was written by the same author, which impresses me all over again at the range that she obviously has. 

I certainly feel like Perry has gripped my imagination and she made me eager to research several things she mentioned within the book, particularly the instances of the power and mysteriousness of nature, such as the Fata Morgana illusion, noctilucent clouds and the night-shining, the earthquake in Colchester, and even Krakatoa erupting. It’s interesting why there are so many of these in the book. Some serve to bring people together with their awe of the shared experience, but I wonder if they are also included in order to remind us that whilst the characters are going about their lives and developing relationships and making each other happy (and also hurting each other), they are really fairly insignificant compared to nature and what she can do. And perhaps the fossils are mentioned also in order to demonstrate the longevity of nature, compared to the characters’ (and our) little lives and problems.

I’m interested in the Author’s Note at the end saying she was struck with how similar the Victorian age actually was to our own modern time, with the beliefs and lifestyle problems. It makes me wonder if this is why she didn’t put in the text the date the book is set in, as maybe she wasn’t wanting to pigeon-hole it and have the reader view the story and characters on their preconceived ideas of that time, so almost allowing the reader to wonder if it is actually our own time? And oooh, she says that the titles of the book’s four parts are taken from the text of the 1669 pamphlet Strange News out of Essex, about the Essex Serpent. Well, I appreciate her appreciating that the reader may wonder and desire an explanation, and I like how she has subtly and cleverly tied her story to that pamphlet too. 

And I was also interested in the Reading Group Questions at the back of my copy of the book. One of the questions referred to the choice Cora made by saving her rival Stella rather than letting her drown, which really quite shocked me as it hadn’t even occurred to me that Cora would consider not acting to save Stella, so it’s interesting then to find out how moral I obviously view Cora. 

I loved how many books were mentioned within this book (I imagine displaying Perry’s love of books), especially Cora listing the books that she was reading at Foulis Street, ‘Bronte and Hardy, Dante and Keats, Henry James and Conan Doyle’, all good choices, and part of me wonders if she needs anything else but her books, tee hee! It makes me want to re-read many of the books mentioned, such as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and I always feel I should read more Thomas Hardy so Cora mentioning that she was reading him has inspired me again, I remember being very affected by Tess of the d’Urbervilles so perhaps I’ll try that one again. The use of letters in Essex Serpent to tell some of the tale also reminded me of Wilkie Collins’ novels (The Moonstone, and The Woman in White) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and made me tempted to re-read those books. And it also reminded me a little of Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River with the beautiful language used. And I’m keen to read more of Perry’s books, and oooh, After Me Comes The Flood sounds very very intriguing!

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