The Essex Serpent

The passage of time affects everyone in London; time is “spent and squandered, eked out and wished away” (13). It rains constantly. Garrett mumbles to himself on a packed underground train. His diminutive stature has given him the nickname The Imp. Aged 32, he is a surgeon with a “hungry disobedient mind” (14). He is happily attending the funeral of Michael and thinks about Michael’s widow, Cora, as he had long detected dissatisfaction in the marriage. She had flattered Garrett when they first met; she was a seemingly doting wife, but “Garrett never saw anything passing for affection between Cora and her husband” (15). Garrett becomes familiar with Francis, “the Seabornes’ black-haired silent son” (15), and Marta, Francis’ nanny. Garrett and Cora talked often, and he “practiced hypnosis on her” (16). Eventually, Garrett realizes that he is in love, though he “sought no cure for the disease” (16). When Michael died, Cora was “unchanged, neither mourning nor relieved” (16). After the death, Garrett returned to the house each day to see her. He grieves for the time he will no longer spend with Cora. In front of her mirror, Cora dresses “as the day demanded” (16). Her room is equal parts that of a wealthy woman and that of a scholar. Botanical prints and scientific specimens litter many surfaces. She feels relief and a small amount of grief. Her father had introduced her to Michael, whom she never particularly liked.

When his father first fell ill, Francis was moved “to a room on the fourth floor” (18), far away from the disease. He develops a habit of taking items from around the house and arranging them in complex patterns. On being told that his father was dead, his first thought is, “I cannot understand why these things happen to me” (19). However, he is pleased that he gets to attend church, and he takes a selection of items in his pockets that he believes are “well-suited” (19) to the occasion, including a feather and a broken eye glass. He goes to join his mother.

They arrive slightly late for the funeral. Cora watches with “an interested detachment” (20). Michael had been a civil servant, and she knew little of his professional or public life. She spots Garrett and stifles a laugh. Afterward, she “greeted the departing congregation” (21). Garrett appears last; Martha has always considered him an annoyance. Martha takes Francis home, and Cora and Garrett begin to walk together, though she says she wishes to walk alone. Cora walks toward the Strand and then home. At home, Martha waits for Cora, and Francis is in bed. Later that night, Martha joins Cora beside a fire. Over the past years, the two have become very close. Cora has been looking over “her studies” (25), a collection of natural objects. She has fallen asleep “clutching her Dorset ammonite” (25) but has held it too tightly, and it has crumbled to pieces.

Garrett sits in his office, talking to George Spencer about the nature of pain. The two were at medical school together. Spencer asks after Cora, and Garrett replies that “she went last week” (30), and her house appears empty. Martha refused to give Garrett a forwarding address for Cora. He believes, however, that she has gone to Colchester, where many people are “finding fossils on the coast” (30). Garrett returns to his academic work and Spencer leaves, placing a bank note on the floor as he goes, so as “his friend might mistake it for one he himself had dropped” (31).

Cora and Martha walk through Colchester. Though Martha loathes the rural location, she appreciates the effect it has had on Cora, who has “abandoned her dutiful mourning and receded ten years to a merrier self” (32). They meet a beggar named Taylor sitting in front of a ruin, who teaches them about the earthquake that had struck the town eight years before. Taylor then tells them the story of the Essex Serpent. Stories of the Serpent date back to the 1600s, but the earthquake has recently freed the Serpent once more. It is a “great creeping thing […] more dragon than Serpent” (35). After Taylor departs, Martha convinces Cora not to enter the ruins; the sun is setting, it is raining, and Francis is in bed with a cold.

On the way home, Cora meets Charles and Katherine Ambrose, old friends who had first recommended Garrett’s services. In his brash, friendly manner, Charles compares Cora’s style of dress to Boudicca, who would “be ashamed to be seen like this” (37). Much to Martha’s chagrin, they all go for coffee. Charles explains his efforts to recruit Colonel Howard into politics; Martha’s comments do “her best to disgrace herself” (39). Cora explains that she has come to Colchester to search for “fossil remains” (40). Charles views fossils and evolution with suspicion and blames himself for kindling Cora’s interest in such matters. Despite Charles’ mistrust, she hopes to find a fossil of her own. Katherine wants to put Cora in contact with the Ransomes; Will is “the disappointing brother of a Liberal MP” (41), a priest who is both fiercely intelligent and lacking in ambition. He and his family live beside the Blackwater estuary. Charles agrees to introduce Cora to Ransome, and he and Katherine depart, mentioning the Essex Serpent as they go.

Charles writes a letter to Will, introducing Cora as having “an exceptional—really I might even say a masculine!—intelligence” (46). Will remembers Charles fondly, though begins to speculate wildly regarding Cora. He is relieved that Aldwinter is “so resolutely unpicturesque” (48) that it rarely attracts outsiders. He hides the letter behind his son’s drawing of a dragon. Rumors of the Essex Serpent have spread through the small village, and “no amount of reasoning on Will’s part could persuade” (49) its inhabitants that the Serpent did not exist. He takes a walk around the village, passing his All Saints church.

He arrives at the small quay and talks to Henry Banks, a bargeman. Then he walks on to World’s End, “the last Aldwinter house [that is so large, it seems to be] a living thing feasting on the hard earth” (51). Mr. Cracknell, the inhabitant, is nearly as ramshackle as his home. Cracknell is skinning moles beside his garden wall; he too has come to believe in the Serpent. Will tempers his anger, as Cracknell has lost his wife, sister, and son in the previous three years. As Will is about to leave, Cracknell fetches him a “brace of handsome bright-eyed rabbits” (54). In response, he talks seriously to Cracknell about the Serpent. After leaving, Will feels guilty that “his parish could have succumbed to such godless superstition” (55). He returns quickly to his home as night falls.

Cora writes to her “dear Imp” (57), updating Garrett on her fruitless search for a “sea-dragon” (57). She misses Garrett and invites him to Essex. Garrett replies and agrees to visit “with Spencer probably next week” (59). Cora walks through the countryside in the rain. She occasionally remembers her grief and how much she had loved Michael when they first met, though “in the years that followed, her fear of him was so very like her love” (61). By the time she understood Michael’s true malignancy, Francis was too set into his strange ways to risk breaking the routine. Arriving on an isolated path in front of a fallen tree, Cora hears a sound “like a child crying, but a child old enough to know better” (63), which becomes a man’s voice. She follows the sound to a small lake and sees a man, “shabby and rough-looking” (64), trying to pull a sheep from the thick mud. She offers to help and uses her belt to help drag the sheep free. The man thanks Cora “a little curtly” (65); she considers him closely, eventually asking him the direction to Colchester. He points her toward a pub from where she can call a cab.

Joanna and John Ransome play a game, holding their hands over a flame. They are near World’s End, determined to “do something” (68) about the Serpent by making a sacrifice. Joanna invokes “Persephone to break the chains of Hades and bring spring to our beloved land” (69) as her friend Naomi watches, astonished. Joanna chants theatrically, handing out paper dipped in holy water so as to “commit to the spells” (70). All three hold their hands to the flames and, at that moment, “the full moon passed out of a low blue cloud” (71) and lights up the marshes around them. When it is finished, Joanna promises her brother that they will return home soon, before dark. All three children will later claim to have seen “a movement” (73) on the water that put the Serpent in their minds. They pass Cracknell at World’s End, and the old man warns the children to be wary around the black water. He makes John cry, and then a dark figure emerges from the shadows. It is Will, caked in mud. He has been out freeing a sheep that got caught in the mud. Will walks the children home.

Stella writes to Cora, inviting her, Martha, and Francis to a supper with Charles and Katherine. Garrett arrives at a Colchester hotel and approves of its spotlessness. Spencer is with him. Cora leaves a letter inviting both men to dinner. Garrett reads medical reports while Spencer ventures out to explore Colchester. He explores the ruined house and meets Taylor, the beggar, who gives him a tour. Martha arrives, greeting Spencer as a friend. They walk together and talk; Cora has become very interested in the Essex Serpent.

Garrett arrives later and finds his friends “studded all over with feathers” (83), Francis’ latest obsession. Cora gives “a little yell of delight” (83) and kisses Garrett on the cheek. They catch up, and the landlord brings a platter of food. Spencer and Martha talk; she views him with “a kind of reflexive loathing which took an effort to suppress” (84). Martha is a socialist, while Spencer is a privileged member of the bourgeoise. She appreciates, however, that he is friendly with Francis and seems to have no romantic intentions toward Cora. Nevertheless, she complains to him about the state of London’s social housing. Cora details her findings regarding the Essex Serpent and says that she plans to travel to the Ransome home to find out more.

Stella prepares for “the night’s visitors” (88) and thinks about her three children: Joanna, James, and John. She loves her husband as much as she had when she was 17; they have been married 15 years. The couple have lost two children over the years but have remained happy. Will takes his duties very seriously, though his parish is small. He has his trepidations about Cora and plans not to “indulge a wealthy woman’s dabbling in the natural sciences” (90).

When the guests arrive, neither party is what the other had expected. Cora and Stella take an immediate liking to one another. Martha is intrigued by Joanna, and the two play cards. Will arrives late, having been called away as one of Cracknell’s goats has died. He brings Charles and Katherine in with him. Cora finds Will to be “a man who’d not be categorized” (92). Though Will recognizes Cora from the rescue of the sheep, Cora remains nonplussed. He bursts into laughter, and then Cora realizes who he is. She too bursts into laughter. Will finally recovers enough to tell the story. They sit down to dinner. Eventually, conversation turns to the Essex Serpent, including the wooden Serpent carved into one of the church’s pews. Cracknell, Will reveals, believes that the Serpent took one of his goats, though Will is adamant that the Serpent does not exist. Cora and Will debate the possible existence of the creature; they both wish to illuminate the world but have “different sources of light” (97). They are only interrupted by Stella’s cough, so strong as to tip over a glass of wine. She retires to bed, promising to show Cora the Serpent in the church the next day.

The next day, Cora, Will, and Joanna visit the All Saints church. While Joanna explores, Cora and Will talk with freedom, and Cora admits that she gave up religion “a long time ago” (99). Both confess that they thought the other would be entirely different. The congregation arrives; Cora sits in the back in the Serpent pew. The people are rife with rumors about the Serpent. As the service begins, the doors burst open to reveal a disheveled Cracknell. He enters dramatically, and Will welcomes him. Cracknell sings along with the hymns; he considers the Serpent real and has decided that it is “divine justice” (101). He falls asleep before he can mention this. Cora watches from the shadows. At one point, she cannot help but cry. She catches Will’s eye and feels sympathy. At the end of the service, she tries to slip out and runs into Cracknell. He introduces himself and pushes her into the shadows, certain that she has heard of the Serpent. She tries to escape his clutches and slips. Joanna arrives with Martha, and Cora rushes to see them. Stella watches the congregation break up and thinks about her dreams the previous night.