The Signature of All Things

I've never had the slightest bit of interest in reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, so I was not looking forward to reading my book club's September selection The Signature of All Things (#423).  To my surprise, I was quite taken by this literary tale of a nineteenth century woman and her extraordinary family.  And by a novel centered around the theme of botany, no less, a subject of which I have no knowledge, nor any interest in rectifying that omission.

Gilbert's tale is mainly that of Alma Whittaker, born to a life of luxury to a most unlikely Philadelphia couple in 1800.  Her father, from poor English stock, makes the most of an encounter as a youth with eminent British botanist and adventurer Joseph Banks.  He uses it to parlay his  knowledge of botany gained from expeditions as an agent for Banks into the foundation of his own fortune.  Banks has rejected his ideas of making money from his discoveries in the most humiliating way; therefore Henry will best him in every possible way.  Having grown wealthy in the Dutch East Indies, Henry Whittaker determines to take a practical Dutch wife as helpmeet, and chooses Beatrix van Dervender for her connections to pre-eminent Dutch botanists.  When her family disowns her, the couple sail off to America, never looking back.  Thus, Alma is born into a family that encourages her independence and pursuit of scientific knowledge through her own research and the lively discourse of the era's scientists, explorers and inventors around the dining table of their home, White Acre.  Alma is not beautiful, but that does not concern her until in mid-life she meets Ambrose Pike and falls deeply in love.  And therein hangs a most extraordinary tale...

There are so many surprises in this book, I wouldn't even know where to begin to describe them; you just find yourself reading madly along to find out what will happen next to the Whittakers.  I think my only reservation about this book is that as far as I was concerned, the ending seemed to just peter out.  It wasn't a bad or unexpected ending to the story, but the rest of Alma's life is so unusual, I guess I just expected ... more, not less.  Even if you detested Eat, Pray, Love in both its print and film incarnations, give The Signature of All Things a browse; you may find yourself hooked as I was.