Wow. An epic novel, for sure! I never expected to like this book. A 19th century botanist? Really? But Gilbert smartly roped in my curiosity with the backstory of the protagonist (by way of her father's rise to fortune) and then set me on a course to try and understand this character who is quite opposite to myself in a lot of ways. Gilbert doesn't shy away from the big ideas, either -in fact, I felt educated in both science and philosophy while reading, but not bogged down with boring "instruction". The metaphor of it all was beautiful.