The premise of that book did not appeal to me, as it smacked of something syrupy and self indulgent. I also had no interest in ever picking it up. We Hoarders swoon over pretty books.īefore I review The Signature of All Things, I have to confess that I did not read Gilbert’s first novel Eat, Pray, Love. With its rough paper edges and the botanical artwork throughout, it’s a beautiful addition to anyone’s home library.) (Truly – this is such a lovely hardcover that it can easily sit on one’s living room table.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Many thanks to Viking, of Penguin Group, for sending an absolutely gorgeous copy of Elizabeth Gilbert’s new novel The Signature of All Things. Written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time, Gilbert’s wise, deep, and spellbinding tale is certain to capture the hearts and minds of readers. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who-born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution-bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. Alma is a clear-minded scientist Ambrose a utopian artist-but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.Įxquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, The Signature of All Things soars across the globe-from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction-into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself.
Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker-a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Look out for Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, on sale now! A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed
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