Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN

Read and listen for free for 14 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
3.7(27)

The Essex Serpent : A Novel

NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIES

A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction * Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year *A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of The Year * Waterstones Book of the Year * Costa Book Award Finalist

“A novel of almost insolent ambition—lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home.” —New York Times

London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend.

Once there, they hear rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year’s Eve, the community’s dread transforms to terror. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species.

Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons: a man of faith, he is convinced the alarming reports are caused by moral panic, a flight from the correct and righteous path. As Cora and William attempt to discover the truth about the Essex Serpent’s existence, these seeming opposites find themselves inexorably drawn together in an intense relationship that will change both of them in ways entirely unexpected. And as they search for answers, Cora’s London past follows her to the coast, with striking consequences.

Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, The Essex Serpent masterfully explores questions of science and religion, skepticism and faith, but it is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different—and surprising—guises it can take.


Author:

  • Sarah Perry

Narrator:

  • Juanita McMahon

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 14 h 46 min

Language:

English


More by Sarah Perry

Skip the list
  1. Sweet Nothings : Confessions of a Candy Lover

    Sarah Perry

    audiobook
  2. Enlightenment : A Novel

    Sarah Perry

    audiobook
  3. Uhyret i Essex

    Sarah Perry

    audiobookbook
  4. After Me Comes the Flood : A Novel

    Sarah Perry

    audiobook
  5. Ormen i Essex

    Sarah Perry

    book
  6. After Me Comes the Flood: A Novel

    Sarah Perry

    audiobook

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. The Most Precious of Cargoes : A Fable of the Holocaust

    Jean-Claude Grumberg

    audiobook
  2. The Girls in Navy Blue : A Novel

    Alix Rickloff

    audiobook
  3. The Cat Who Saved the Library : Curl up with the feel-good new book in the bestselling Japanese series

    Sosuke Natsukawa

    audiobook
  4. Stolen Fury

    Elisabeth Naughton

    audiobook
  5. To the Farthest Shores

    Elizabeth Camden

    audiobook
  6. Thief of Souls

    Bec McMaster

    audiobook
  7. The Ravening Deep

    Tim Pratt

    audiobook
  8. Dreams of Destiny

    May McGoldrick

    audiobook
  9. Borrowed Dreams

    May McGoldrick

    audiobook
  10. Nothing but the Rain

    Naomi Salman

    audiobook
  11. Guide Star

    Joy Ellis

    audiobook
  12. Briar Rose : A Novel

    Susan Wiggs

    audiobook

  • 7 books

    Sarah Perry

    Sarah Perry is the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent, Melmoth, and After Me Comes the Flood. She lives in England.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5