Dinner conversation eventually turns to the Serpent. Will arrives later and, on meeting Cora, both fall into fits of hysterics: Will is the strange man whom Cora helped to free the sheep from the mud. When Cora arrives, the two women are immediately friendly with one another. Stella prepares for her dinner party and reflects on her three children and how much she loves her husband. Martha is a socialist, and Spencer is a privileged member of the bourgeoise they talk about social housing in London. Garrett and Spencer visit Colchester Martha explains to Spencer how interested Cora has become in the Essex Serpent. Francis, Martha, Charles, and Katherine are also invited. Stella Ransome, Will’s wife, writes to Cora and invites her to dinner. Will arrives, covered in mud, and takes them home. Will’s daughter, Joanna, and Joanna’s friend Naomi Banks cast a spell near the shore to ward off the Serpent. One day, while walking alone on a path and reflecting on how little she loved her husband, Cora hears a sheep trapped in mud. Cora moves to Aldwinter and begins to search for signs of the monster, believing it might be a hitherto undiscovered living fossil. Will has been struggling to convince his congregation that the Serpent is a myth. Cora meets her friends Charles and Katherine Ambrose on the street via letter, they introduce Cora to William Ransome, a local vicar in the village of Aldwinter in the countryside. Taylor tells them the story of the Essex Serpent, a “great creeping thing more dragon than serpent” (35). They meet Thomas Taylor, a disabled man who watches over a stately home ruined by a local earthquake. Cora has departed for Colchester Martha loathes the rural location, but Cora enjoys it. Garrett talks with George Spencer, his closest friend and a fellow doctor. That night, Cora falls asleep “clutching her Dorset ammonite” (25). Cora watches the funeral with an “interested detachment” (20) and afterward, she walks alone through London. Francis is known for his strange behavior he collects objects-his “treasures”-from everywhere he can. Cora has developed a burning passion for the natural sciences. He sensed an unhappiness in the marriage and became acquainted with Francis Seaborne (Cora’s son) and Martha (Francis’ nanny). Garrett has fallen in love with Michael’s wife, Cora, who he grew to know while treating her husband. Luke Garrett (nicknamed the Imp for his diminutive stature) travels to the funeral of a former patient, Michael Seaborne. In crowded London, a skilled surgeon named Dr. He senses something strange in the water and then disappears.

A drunk young man wanders down to the shore of the Blackwater estuary with the intention of swimming.

The serpent of essex book