![]() ![]() ![]() A brilliant scholar, yet unattractive and overly tall, she abandons hope for romance until, in late middle age, she meets Ambrose Pike, a talented orchid illustrator who shifts her life’s course. Growing up on her father’s large, isolated Philadelphia estate, Alma spends her days studying plants, which are described in loving detail. Carrying readers through this sweeping novel of ideas is a singular heroine whose life suits these big themes perfectly.Īlma Whittaker is born in 1800, the daughter of Henry, a self-made English entrepreneur whose botanical import-export firm makes him “blisteringly rich,” and his practical Dutch-born wife, Beatrix. Brimming with verve, wit, and intellectual curiosity, Gilbert’s absorbing epic embodies the spirit of the transformative 19th century: an age of exploration, industrial expansion, and scientific discoveries which saw people pondering the links between religion and nature. ![]()
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