The Great Unknown: A Novel

by Peg Kingman Narrated by Henrietta Meire

Overview

What is your name? Where did you come from? And where are you going? In this immersive novel set in 1840s Britain and France, these questions probe at the essence of what it means to be human.



A wet nurse in a lively Scottish household goes by an assumed name, but longs to know the identity of her father. A quarryman furtively extricates a remarkable fossil from an island off the Northumberland coast and promptly smuggles it abroad to Paris. A sensational bestselling book that shatters cherished notions about the universe and everything in it triggers widespread argument and speculation-but its author's name is a well-guarded secret. Another book, roundly ignored, neatly sets forth in an obscure appendix the principle that will become the centerpiece of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. All these threads-some historical, others fictional-converge and illuminate one another in unexpected ways in the climactic revelations of this brilliant story.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal - Audio

★ 07/01/2020

Constantia MacAdam is hired as wet nurse in the household of a prominent Edinburgh publisher. The year is 1845 and there is much discussion of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, an anonymously published book that is a precursor to Darwin's theories of natural selection. Polite Victorian society does not know what to make of the sensational book, and Constantia, a well-educated young woman, is a witness to and participant in to the ongoing discussion. The role of chance, curiosity, and desire for answers to questions both large and small inform the Vestiges debate and propel the plot forward. Constantia's search for answers to her own past are parallel to questions in Vestiges. Henrietta Meire's narration is solid and features distinct accents that contribute to the sense of time and place. VERDICT Kingman brings together wide-ranging topics and unique characters, creating a fascinating view of a period of intellectual ferment. Recommended for historical fiction listeners.—Cynthia Jensen, Gladys Harrington Lib., Plano, TX

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177369341
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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