Book Description
Thomas Hart and Grace Macauley are fellow worshippers at the Bethesda Baptist chapel in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits – torn between their commitment to religion and their desire for more. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of love.
Thomas falls for James Bower, who runs the local museum. Together they develop an obsession with the vanished nineteenth-century female astronomer Maria Veduva, said to haunt a nearby manor. Inspired by Maria, and the dawning realisation James may not reciprocate his feelings, Thomas finds solace studying the night skies. Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love?
Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former who represents a different, wilder kind of life. They are drawn passionately together, but quickly pulled apart, casting Grace into the wider world and far away from Thomas.
In time, the mysteries of Aldleigh are revealed, bringing Thomas and Grace back to each other and to a richer understanding of love, of the nature of the world, and the sheer miracle of being alive.
Thomas falls for James Bower, who runs the local museum. Together they develop an obsession with the vanished nineteenth-century female astronomer Maria Veduva, said to haunt a nearby manor. Inspired by Maria, and the dawning realisation James may not reciprocate his feelings, Thomas finds solace studying the night skies. Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love?
Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former who represents a different, wilder kind of life. They are drawn passionately together, but quickly pulled apart, casting Grace into the wider world and far away from Thomas.
In time, the mysteries of Aldleigh are revealed, bringing Thomas and Grace back to each other and to a richer understanding of love, of the nature of the world, and the sheer miracle of being alive.
Publish House: Jonathan Cape
- ISBN: 9781787334991
- Length: 400 pages
- Dimensions: 242mm x 34mm x 163mm
- Weight: 619g
- Price: £20.00
I adored The Essex Serpent and Melmoth and this is what I’ve come to expect in subject matter from Sarah Perry. You find these elements in Enlightenment with the characters of Thomas Hart, The Macaulay girls, Nathan, etc., with Thomas’s obsession with the haunting’s in Lowlands Park in Bethesda Chapel and one astronomer Maria Veduva. This could’ve been the whole book for me. I was hooked reading those chapters and loved those characters and the misty rainy nights set the perfect atmosphere in the Essex town of Aldleigh. However, all of the astronomy, celestial references that are quite scientific and in depth with interrupting chapters took me right out of the novel and gave me headaches. I know nothing of astronomy and felt jarred by the subject matter. I found myself looking things up while reading a chapter. If you don’t mind that, I enjoyed the religious elements as well as Sarah Perry’s writing stellar as usual.
For more information about the book, Penguins UK
Book Description
Meirionydd, 1783. Dr Henry Talbot has been dismissed from his post in London. The only job he can find is in Wales where he can't speak the language, belief in myth and magic is rife, and the villagers treat him with suspicion. When Henry discovers his predecessor died under mysterious circumstances, he is determined to find answers.
Linette Tresilian has always suspected something is not quite right in the village, but it is through Henry's investigations that a truth comes to light that will bind hers and Henry's destinies together in ways neither thought possible.
Linette Tresilian has always suspected something is not quite right in the village, but it is through Henry's investigations that a truth comes to light that will bind hers and Henry's destinies together in ways neither thought possible.
- Imprint: Harvill Secker
- ISBN: 9781787302907
- Length: 464 pages
- Dimensions: 240mm x 41mm x 162mm
- Weight: 704g
- Price: £16.99
The Shadow Key does not contain dark gothic elements throughout. The book reads more like a murder mystery with elements of witchcraft where the setting, Wales during the 17th century, becomes the most interesting aspect of this novel. When you finally find out who the murderer is at the end of this book its predictable. I was expecting a much different story based upon the promotion for this book.
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