The Signature of All Things

Posted on 12 January 2018 by Elizabeth Gilbert

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. Download The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert – kino-fada.fr I m on page 120 of 512 of The Signature of All Things I was sceptical Eat Pray Love was so indulgent and I have as little interest in botany as I do in Indian ashrams Surprisingly however The signature of All things has so far been delightful.19 10 13 I have to revise my initial glowing review Although The Signature of all Things started with much promise, it descended into a pit of humdrum with no view of escape.I cannot fault Gilbert s writing Without a doubt she s a gifted lyrical I m on page 120 of 512 of The Signature of All Things I was sceptical Eat Pray Love was so indulgent and I have as...This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers To view it, click here Ambitious is the first word I think of with this novel There were many times during my reading when I felt Gilbert nailed the intersection for which she was aiming tension between science and the divine strong heroine journey historical development of science in the 1800s particularly women in botany love triangles father mother sister complexes writing style born of Dickens Austen Alcott and, a plethora of travel and transformation metaphors Gilbert s evolution from Eat, Pray, Love Ambitious is the first word I think of with this novel There were many times during my reading when I felt Gilbert nailed the intersection for which she was aiming tension ...Simply fantastic My God Why had I waited so long to read this GeeeeI was hooked with the Prologue Fascinating reading There is so much to comment onWhat first The story itself 19th Century The life of Alma Whittaker Her talents Intelligence Her educational growth Personal growth Her passion for Botany OrDo I share about the rich, amusing and stimulating other characters including Alma s friends and adopted sister Or do I share about the extraordinary Simply fantastic My God Why had I waited so long to read this GeeeeI was hooked with the Prologue Fascinating reading There is so much to comment onWhat first The story itself 19th Century The life of Alma Whittaker Her talents Intelligence Her educational growth Personal growth Her passion for Botany OrDo I share about the rich, amusing and stimulating other characters including Alma s friends and adopted sister Or do I share about the extraordinary gorgeous poetic writing My God This book has some of the most beautiful writing I ve read in a long time I especially loved the way plants and flowers were described I felt like I do when I m listening to music the way a song can put me in another zone Or how about mentioning the amount of research that must have gone into this book Incredible I must ask Did Elizabeth Gilbert win any award for this novel This book is Pulitzer Prize quality If it had won published in 2013 , it sure would have been...This novel has no right to be such an immersive bewitching page turner Its nearly 600 pages long, its narrative force relies on a single character, a plain almost loveless woman whose passion is, of all things, mosses and, though it s very well written, there probably isn t a single sentence of memorable virtuoso prose in the entire book And yet Elizabeth Gilbert doesn t possess the rarefied brilliance of Hilary Mantel as a prose stylist but The Signature of all Things shares lots of This novel has no right to be such an immersive bewitching page turner Its nearly 600 pages long, its narrative force relies on a single character, a plain almost loveless woman whose passion is, of all things, mosses and, though it s very well written, there probably isn t a single sentence of memorable virtuoso prose in the entire book And yet Elizabeth Gilbert doesn t possess the rarefied brilliance of Hilary Mantel as a prose stylist but The Signature of all Things shares lots of similarities with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies one complex and beguiling character is called upon to personify an entire age, an age of upheaval Cromwell was the sensibility of the Reformation, Alma Whitaker is the sensibility of the Enlightenment She s something of a fictitious female Charles Darwin She arrives at Darwin s theory of the survival of the fittest before Darwin has published his book but, based on personal experience, is plagued by the doubt that humans, under the microscope, aren t so easily cate...Loved it that girl can write her way out of a paperbag and as someone who loves plants and flowers well its my kinda bookI am going to keep this review deliberately vague, because there is nothing I despisethan checking out a review of a potential book and having the whole damn plot laid out before me It just ruins the whole reading experience, as far as I am concerned With that being said, this is not an Eat, Pray, Love kind of book, nor is it like her God awful second novel, the name of which escapes me, which was a horrible disappointment.It is so difficult to describe and categorize this book It is I am going to keep this review deliberately vague, because there is nothing I despisethan checking out a review of a potential book and having the whole damn plot laid out before me It just ruins the whole reading experience, as far as I am concerned With that being said, this is not an Eat, Pray, Love kind of book, nor is it like her God awful second novel, the name of which escapes me, which was a horrible disappointment.It is so difficult to describe and categorize this book It is part sweeping saga, part textbook, part philosophy Elizabet...If you approach this book looking for an Eat, Pray, Love experience full of pathos and personal insight you will be sorely disappointed I wanted to read The Signature of All Things because I have been a huge fan of Liz Gilbert both as a person and for her narrative style for a long time now, and my experience reading this book has been a mixture of enjoyment and frustration, with the scales ultimately tipping to a kind of resigned satisfaction The novel gets off to a fantastic start Her If you approach this book looking for an Eat, Pray, Love experience full of pathos and personal insight you will be sorely disappointed I wanted to read The Signature of All Things because I have been a huge fan of Liz Gilbert both as a person and for her narrative style for a long time now, and my experience reading this book has been a mixture of enjoyment and frustration, with the scales ultimately tipping to a kind of resigned satisfaction The novel gets off to a fantastic start Her characters are industriously well formed and there is much humor to be found initially As with her memoir Committed, Gilbert s prose sometimes feels textbook y but her narrative style is en...I ll writelater, but these are my comments having just finished this about an hour ago I really didn t enjoy reading this book and would have put it down after 50 pages had I not been committed for the long haul A feeling of detachment pervaded every scene, almost as if the author had no grasp of her character s inner lives, even as she reported it in stilted and wooden detail Do not blame this on her attempt to capture the flavor of 19th century English Just read a few lines of her I ll writelater, but these are my comments having just finished this about an hour ago I really didn t enjoy reading this book and would have put it down after 50 pages had I not been committed for the long haul A feeling of detachment pervaded every scene, almost as if the author had no grasp of her character s inner lives, even as she reported it in stilted and wooden detail Do not blame this on her attempt to capture the flavor of 19th century English Just read a few lines of her attempt at recreating dialogue and you ll see what I mean I am a botanist, with an interest in the history of botany I have no quibble with the aut...This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers To view it, click here A review in three parts 1 I was actually enjoying this and then at 49% a spinster has a spontaneous orgasm from holding hands with a dude in a closet.2 ten percent later Oh wait, and now he s a closeted gay This went from historically interesting to 18th Century days of our botanical queer lives popcorn.gif Not sure if want but reading rapidly anyway 3 when done Oh, sweet Jesus This book was dedicated to the great women of science, which would be a great dedication if this wasn t also A review in three parts 1 I was actually enjoying this and then at 49% a spinster has a spontaneous orgasm from holding hands with a dude in a closet.2 ten percent later Oh wait, and now he s a closeted gay This went from historically interesting to 18th Century days of our botanical queer lives popcorn.gif Not sure if want but reading rapidly anyway 3 when done Oh, sweet Jesus This book was dedicated to the great women of science, which would be a great dedication if this wasn t also a book in which a 60 ish year old virgin gives her dead gay husband s former lover a blowjob in a cave and thinks, EVERYTHING I VE EVER WANTED, AT LONG LAST I mean, I don t subscribe to the idea that women don t think about sex as much as men do, nor do I think there is anything wrong with thinking about sex, but there is something very sad and desperate about a woman who, in her lifetime...From the opening pages, it is evident that Gilbert can write with lyricism, confidence, and substance I was afraid that her mass popularity would lead to a dumbed down book with pandering social political agendas or telegraphed notions I am thrilled to conclude that this was not the case Gilbert is a superb writer who allows her main characters to spring forth as organically as the natural world that they live in This is a book of well considered people of the times, who are emblematic of From the opening pages, it is evident that Gilbe...

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12 January 2018

Elizabeth Gilbert