I read this book in hardcover form, but came across the audio book version at the library and just finished listening. I enjoyed my original read but this version was just great. The characters truly came alive with Juliet Stevenson's narration.
Such a fascinating tale: Alma Whittaker is the central character. We meet her as a girl of eight, born in 1800, and follow her thereafter until she dies eight decades later. She is a brilliant young girl with an analytical mind, raised by her formidable Dutch mother, a brilliant and capable woman, and her father, an Englishman of modest background who has made an enormous fortune through his ingenuity, shrewdness and native intelligence. They live in a vast estate on the banks of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia, where Alma is exposed to the worlds of business, philosophy and the intelligentsia at her parents' dinner table. Her father is so rich and powerful that everyone comes there in hope of sponsorship for their project or scheme.
In time, Alma finds her calling as a botanist, and chooses mosses as her specialty. As she is no beauty, she comes to feel no one will love her, and she throws herself into her work.
Things change when she meets Ambrose Pike, a botanical artist, and falls in love with him, though he is much younger. Despite that, they marry.
Her relationship with Ambrose becomes the pivot point for the rest of her life. Every choice she makes thereafter is based on it.
This novel is not a romance, however, it is a story of self-discovery and of discovery of much larger concerns, including the quest to understand the origins of life itself – hence the title, The Signature of All Things.
The action shifts locations – the London of Henry Whittaker, Alma's father – and on through Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Tahiti and more during Alma's life. And, the people she meets are extraordinary... and her life equally so, though she does not see this for a very long time.
The descriptions are vivid, the dialog is superb, and the historical and social contexts of Alma's 19th century are brought to life. And in the end, the conclusion is most satisfying.
Highly recommend!
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