The Signature of All Things in Around the World

Jan 07, 2014 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, read2014, tournament-of-books, reviewcopy

I had planned on skipping it this book, but then it was listed in the 2014 Tournament of Books and an audiobook came to my doorstep as part of a box of books for review. Fine, fine, I can tell when the universe is insisting I read something, so I decided to try it.

Full disclaimer: I hate the Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love, in fact that reading experience has made me an even greater skeptic of journalist-based travel books. I love the Elizabeth Gilbert that speaks so eloquently on creativit I had planned on skipping it this book, but then it was listed in the 2014 Tournament of Books and an audiobook came to my doorstep as part of a box of books for review. Fine, fine, I can tell when the universe is insisting I read something, so I decided to try it.

Full disclaimer: I hate the Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love, in fact that reading experience has made me an even greater skeptic of journalist-based travel books. I love the Elizabeth Gilbert that speaks so eloquently on creativity and genius. It has always been difficult to reconcile the two.

I feel like reading this book has helped me with my dilemma. This is a historical novel, about a female botanist, Alma, in the Philadelphia (and Tahiti, and Holland) of the 1800s. Her father was a poor Dutchman who made his fortune through botany. The novel has a central theme of exploration, science, facts, and the pursuit of new knowledge. I loved these parts, and I was paying full attention to things like moss and how orchids are fertilized.

Where the novel bothered me is also where Eat, Pray, Love bothered me, however these parts are mercifully short in the novel compared to the former. I am not convinced Elizabeth Gilbert puts as much stock in spirituality or romance as she does in experience and science. That's what made the last two thirds of Eat, Pray, Love lack any resonance with me as a reader, and those are the places in the story where I was rolling my eyes and hoping for everything to move along. Still, the protagonist Alma seems to feel the same way. She discovered pleasure in secret with very little facts ever presented to her, her short-lived marriage was an enormous disappointment, and even her parents eschewed religion for science. For Alma, scientific discovery is the greatest wonder.

All of that said, I'm not sure this is historical fiction for everyone. It feels very well-researched, but may suffer from trying to span a bit too much time, or to stretch reality too much in an attempt to make the story more interesting (something it doesn't need, truly!). Her father's story may have been better as context than told. It also felt that in an attempt to portray Alma as more sexually curious than her very puritanical society, so much energy was spent describing it that it often overshadowed Alma as a scientist! I hope to never hear the word quim again...

Since I listened to all 18 discs of the audiobook version, I feel I should mention the narrator - Juliet Stevenson. She did a great job keeping me interested, and the voice she uses for Alma reminded me so much of Elizabeth McGovern (the mother on Downton Abbey), I had to look her up before I'd gotten an hour into the novel. She pronounced Tahiti as "TAH - hiti" with a divided H, but perhaps that is a British thing. ...more

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Dec 28, 2013 Karen Witzler rated it it was amazing

Shelves: women-s-prize-orange-baileys, novels-2000-to-2015

I loved this book in spite of myself. Alma is formidable in her loneliness, in her desire, and in her quest for the understanding of the origin of all things. I liked her, inherited fortune notwithstanding.

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Nov 10, 2013 Claire rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

A well-researched, easily accessible 19th century historical novel seen through the eyes of a passionate female botanist Alma Whittaker.

It will provoke a variety of reactions, there is something in here for everyone and it provides an excellent balance of plot, character, philosophy and discovery to keep one reading late into the night.

My full review here at Word by Word. ...more

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Mar 22, 2016 Sharon rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

This book won me and lost me and won me and lost me and ultimately won me. I listened to the audio version, and Juliet Stevenson did such a delightful job of reading it that I suspect she covered up for the dry spells when I might have lost interest. I'm glad I stuck it out to see the story lines all come together in the end.

Ultimately a book about how to reconcile the heart with the mind, and the drive toward the spiritual with the mind, this takes us there through an exploration of botany, ab ...more

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Nov 05, 2013 KayG rated it it was ok

Shelves: audible-audiobooks, ultimate-around-world-list, read-2014

Tahiti.

Too darn long. I enjoyed the beginning - after that it droned on and on.

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Aug 13, 2013 Joy rated it really liked it

Shelves: around-the-world-in-80-books

The Signature of All Things was nothing that I expected. Set in the late 1700's through the mid-1800's, the story follows a father, Henry Whittaker, and his daughter, Alma Whittaker through their love for intelligence, knowledge, and most of all, botany. Henry Whittaker was a lover of plants, and traveled from England to Tahiti to Peru to America to know & understand these plants. Once he settles in Philadelphia, with his new Dutch wife, Henry goes about making his legacy & fortune…with plants, ...more

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Apr 19, 2023 Natasha rated it really liked it

This took me soooo long to finish. It reads like a marathon, no pauses, very dense, and packed full of knowledge and historical events. You better have a ton of patience if you want to finish this book. But once you finish it, you feel glad you did.

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