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3.5 

The Signature of All Things

By Elizabeth Gilbert
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, Big Magic, and City of Girls

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.

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846 Reviews

3.5
Thinking Face“I read the entire book but all I remember is that this big book about self discovery ended with a blowjob and I found that very unsettling. There might be good actual discoveries about self but the rest of the book was so dull compared to that one 'member' moment.”
Beaming Face with Smiling Eyes
Characters change and growBeautifully writtenDescriptive writingImmersive settingRealistic settingComing of age
Loudly Crying Face“This is a gorgeous, sweeping novel that takes place all over the world, yet is seen through the eyes of a woman who was focused on the very small details of biology. There is some sex, but it is much more about longing and desire than about spice.”
Believable charactersCharacters change and growMulti-layered charactersBeautifully writtenDescriptive writingOriginal writingTwistyRealistic settingComing of ageThought-provoking

About Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big MagicEat Pray Love, and The Signature of All Things, as well as several other internationally bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest novel, City of Girls, comes out in June, 2019. 

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