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3 Formats: Library CD
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3 Formats: MP3 CD
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3 Formats: Playaway
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ISBN: 9781482927757
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ISBN: 9781482927801
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ISBN: 9781482948745
Runtime: | 21.74 Hours |
Category: | Fiction |
Audience: | Adult |
Language: | English |
Summary
Summary
A 2013 Time Magazine Best Book for Fiction
A New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2013
A 2013 Washington Post Notable Book for Fiction
An Amazon Top 100 Book of 2013
A New York Times bestseller
A #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller
A USA Today bestseller
A Washington Post bestseller
An NPR bestseller
A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller
A BookPage Best Book of 2013
Selected for the October 2013 Indie Next List
A Publishers Weekly bestseller
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 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.
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Details
Details
Available Formats : | Library CD, MP3 CD, Playaway |
Category: | Fiction |
Runtime: | 21.74 |
Audience: | Adult |
Language: | English |
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