The Signature of All Things: A Novel

by Elizabeth Gilbert | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0143125842 Global Overview for this book
Registered by ReallyBookish of Furlong, Pennsylvania USA on 8/9/2015
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by ReallyBookish from Furlong, Pennsylvania USA on Sunday, August 9, 2015
Bought used at the recommendation of a friend.

Journal Entry 2 by ReallyBookish at Horsham, Pennsylvania USA on Thursday, March 23, 2017
This book is not perfect, but I still can't bring myself to rate it any less than ten stars. It is intelligent, well-researched, and lyrically written. It could have done with some judicious pruning here and there, as there are a few passages that seem to go on for a bit too long. But I am so glad that I read it! I will be interested to see what others in my book club make of it.

Journal Entry 3 by ReallyBookish at Horsham, Pennsylvania USA on Sunday, July 16, 2017
Reserving for the General Literature VBB.

Description from Amazon:

"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. Look out for Elizabeth Gilbert’s newest book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear.

In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Exquisitely 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. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. 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. 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."

Journal Entry 4 by ReallyBookish at Horsham, Pennsylvania USA on Monday, May 21, 2018
Removing from the General Literature VBB and making available.

Journal Entry 5 by ReallyBookish at Wishlist Tag Game , A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Released 5 yrs ago (7/26/2018 UTC) at Wishlist Tag Game , A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This is headed out to BooksandMusic as part of the wishlist tag game. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 6 by BooksandMusic at Seattle, Washington USA on Thursday, August 2, 2018
Thank you very much!

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