pip’s Reviews > The Essex Serpent > Status Update

“‘I know you cannot return my love,’ he’d said, but no-one ever wrote such a letter without hope.”

“It’s not a question of guilt and punishment. It’s not how the world turns. If we all got what we deserved- . We cannot help it, if we are to live. Causing harm, I mean; how could it be avoided unless we shut ourselves away - never speak, never act? If we all got what we deserved I’d be waiting for my punishment.”

“‘Good morning, Mrs. Seaborne,’ they said, eyeing her with slight mistrust, and Cora eyed them back, a little nervous. She’d never known what to do with children: Francis had wrong-footed her so completely that she’d come to think of them as a delightful but volatile species no more to be trusted than cats.”

Very excited to reread this book :)