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Remarkable Creatures
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Involving themes of friendship and the hidden world of women as much as the excitement of discovering the fossils' significance, Remarkable Creatures is itself a find.
--London Metro
--London Metro
Product Description
In the year of the 150th anniversary of Origin of Species, set in a town where Jane Austen was a frequent visitor, Tracy Chevalier once again shows her uncanny sense for the topical. In the early nineteenth century, a windswept beach along the English coast brims with fossils for those with the eye! From the moment she's struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is marked for greatness. When she uncovers unknown dinosaur fossils in the cliffs near her home, she sets the scientific world alight, challenging ideas about the world's creation and stimulating debate over our origins. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is soon reduced to a serving role, facing prejudice from the academic community, vicious gossip from neighbours, and the heartbreak of forbidden love. Even nature is a threat, throwing bitter cold, storms, and landslips at her. Luckily Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly, intelligent Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who is also fossil-obsessed. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty and barely suppressed envy. Despite their differences in age and background, Mary and Elizabeth discover that, in struggling for recognition, friendship is their strongest weapon. Remarkable Creatures is Tracy Chevalier's stunning new novel of how one woman's gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century. Above all, it is a revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as remarkable as I would have wished,
By
This review is from: Remarkable Creatures (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I thoroughly enjoyed Tracy Chevalier's earlier books until the last one, `Burning Bright' which I found so disappointing that I stopped reading half way through and so approached this next one with far less anticipation than the others. I was pleasantly surprised therefore to find `Remarkable Creatures' a very readable tale.
The story revolves around the life of Mary Anning , the now renowned fossil collector, and her friendship with a lesser known collector, Elizabeth Philpot. We become aware of the impossible difficulties facing a woman trying to have her work and views recognised by the scientific establishment in the early 19th century and also begin to appreciate the problem that Mary Anning and her contemporaries had in reconciling the evidence of the fossils with the Biblical account of life on earth. I am only giving this novel three stars because although it made an interesting read, rekindled my interest in fossils and has made me keen to revisit the Jurassic coast, I found it very unsettling that I was never sure what was fact and what was fiction. I am not a reader of historical novels so maybe this is a common problem but I really wanted to know if the background story of love and friendship was made up purely as a ruse to bind the recorded facts together. I think that this is a novel which can rouse one to an interest in fossils, can hold one's attention throughout but, having roused your interest, is ultimately unsatisfying because it leaves too many questions about the lives of the main characters unanswered.
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An extra special treat for those with an interest in geology, but well rounded,
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This review is from: Remarkable Creatures (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
The woman who spawned the famous tongue twister 'She sells sea shells on the sea shore' is again immortalised in words in this latest novel by Tracy Chevalier.
You can find a short biography of Mary Anning at the Natural History Museum website, but what this novel does in fill in the gaps (with some imaginative license, of course). For example, while history records a Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas James Birch as a patron of the family, this novel puts a different spin on his relationship with Mary Anning. The interplay of fact and fiction makes for really interesting reading. Mary Anning is not the only heroine of this novel, her close friend Elizabeth Philpott, an older woman, recently relocated to Lyme Regis from London. She is educated and knowledgeable about earth sciences; she has a passion for finding fossils, while for Mary Anning it was a harsh necessity. Were the novel just written from Mary's point of view, I believe it would have suffered. Having a more mature voice adds balance and depth - especially in the sections where Elizabeth starts to question the Church's unscientific explanation of fossils of now extinct creatures. For those who have an interest in geology, ecology or women scientists, this novel will hold extra special appeal, but the story is compelling enough, and the writing skilled enough that it's really an enjoyable novel for all. However if you are looking for a strict biography of Mary Anning, this would not fit the bill - artistic license has been applied.
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating novel - Fascinating topic!,
By Charliecat (Oxfordshire, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Remarkable Creatures (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I was really excited about this new novel from Tracy Chevalier because I've read a biography of Mary Anning (which Chevalier cites in the back of her book as reading for further research) and I wasn't disappointed. This is a really lovely novel. It is set in such an interesting period of scientific discovery and history, and being published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species, it ties in very topically with the debates at the moment.
It's a gentle type novel which charts the friendship between Mary Anning, a working-class fossil hunter in Lyme Regis, and Elizabeth Philpot, a gentlewoman fallen on hard times who becomes a fossil hunter in her own right. It also highlights the difficulties that women in the scientific community must have faced in the fight to be taken seriously. At times I was frustrated with the novel switching between the two first person viewpoints (of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot) and I think it might have worked better as a third person narrative, as at times Mary Anning was slightly unconvincing and I feel that the invention of a love affair for Anning was unecessary and somehow detracted from her achievements. Really though, these are small criticisms of a very enjoyable novel and I would recommend you read this novel and then read some of the books which Chevalier suggests in the back of the book to find out more about the remarkable Mary Anning!
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