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"
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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