The Alchemist's Daughter

katharine mcmahon

During the English Age of Reason, a woman cloistered since birth learns that knowledge is no substitute for experience.

Raised by her father in near isolation in the English countryside, Emilie Selden is trained as a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. In the spring of 1725, father and daughter embark upon their most daring alchemical experiment to date attempting to breathe life into dead matter. But when Emilie against her father's wishes experiences the passion of first love, she is banished to London, where she soon discovers she knows nothing about human nature or her own family's complicated past. So begins her shocking journey to enlightenment.

Genres historical fictionfictionhistoricalromanceaudiobook18th centuryadultfantasymysteryalchemy

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 31,2006

This edition

Format: 352 pages, Paperback
Published: October 24, 2006 by Crown
ISBN: 9780307335852
ASIN: 0307335852
Language: English

About the author

katharine mcmahon

Katharine McMahon is the author of 10 novels, including the bestselling The Rose of Sebastopol, which was a Richard and Judy pick for 2007. The Crimson Rooms and The Alchemist's Daughter.

Her latest book, The Hour of Separation, is our in paperback on 22nd August.

Her fiction is based on the lives of extraordinary women. She loves to explore how women in the past - but with a contemporary slant. The Hour of Separation tells the story of a complex friendship played out against a backdrop of resistance and betrayal in two world wars.