{"id":1137,"date":"2018-05-24T15:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T21:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2018-05-20T17:11:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T23:11:12","slug":"book-the-essex-serpent-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/24\/book-the-essex-serpent-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Essex Serpent (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheThe Essex Serpent
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2016
\nAuthor: Sarah Perry
\nLength: 464 pages<\/p>\n

***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY***<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve read a book as profound as\u00a0The Essex Serpent<\/em>. Perhaps it\u2019s because they don\u2019t write books like this anymore. While written in the last few years, the style of\u00a0The Essex Serpent<\/em>\u00a0is distinctly Victorian. It holds callbacks to the greats of gothic literature, including the physiological studies of\u00a0Frankenstein<\/em>\u00a0and the back-and-forth letter writing of\u00a0Dracula<\/em>. All the while, the ever-present gloom of the muddy and foggy Essex shoreline hides the eponymous serpent just outside the reader\u2019s view, providing anticipation of its reveal. Is the Essex Serpent real or is it a figment of so much imagination?<\/p>\n

Of course, in staying with the Victorian style, the book does suffer somewhat in readability. The vocabulary and description are certainly more voluminous than modern volumes, but my biggest qualm seems to be more along the lines of the seemingly endless talk that occurs in the first half of the book\u2014perhaps trying to mimic one of Jane Austen’s romances\u2014that only seems to be present for character exposition. There are also a few sub-plots that sound incredibly important, but don\u2019t end up having much sway on the outcome of the plot.<\/p>\n

Still, despite having to get used to the style, the characters and their drama is expertly crafted. In particular, the \u201cfriendship\u201d between the widow Cora and the married clergyman Will was positively heart-pounding. Cora\u2019s son was delightfully peculiar, as was Will\u2019s wife. If\u00a0The Essex Serpent<\/em>\u00a0was more predictable, I\u2019m sure the ending would have been different. I\u2019ll have to settle for the conclusion as written, instead of having to read a more serious version of\u00a0Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters<\/a><\/em>. At least, the plot surrounding the Essex Serpent is exciting and was what kept me reading through the muddy first half.<\/p>\n

A modern book expertly written in the Victorian style, I give\u00a0The Essex Serpent<\/em>\u00a04.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

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The Essex Serpent Year: 2016 Author: Sarah Perry Length: 464 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY*** It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve read a book as profound as\u00a0The Essex Serpent. Perhaps it\u2019s because they don\u2019t write books like this anymore. While written in the last few years, the style of\u00a0The Essex Serpent\u00a0is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,54],"tags":[9,55,1328,1329,97,339,308,8,1325,1326,1327],"class_list":["post-1137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-book","tag-9","tag-book","tag-dracula","tag-frankenstein","tag-giveaway","tag-goodreads","tag-goodreads-giveaway","tag-review","tag-sarah-perry","tag-the-essex-serpent","tag-victorian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}