Customer Reviews

Remarkable Creatures (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series)

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tracy Chevalier once again makes another time and place come alive in "Remarkable Creatures." I'm not particularly interested in fossils, but Chevalier presents such compelling accounts of two women who were, that she made me almost as interested in ammonites, ichthyosauruses and other extinct creatures as the fossil hunters and collectors who, in the early 19th century, changed scientists' views of the age of the earth and its history.

Remarkable Creatures is told in the first person narratives of two women in Lyme-Regis, on the Southwest coast of England. Mary Anning is the poor daughter of a cabinet maker and a laundress, while Elizabeth Philpot is a spinster two decades Mary's senior. Elizabeth and her two sisters, Louise and Margaret, have just moved to Lyme-Regis, their fortunes having decreased to the point where although they are of an elevated social status, their newly married brother can no longer support them in London. Chance brings these two women from different generations and social classes together, and through their mutual love of fossils they become unlikely friends. They tell their stories in alternating chapters as they flirt with love, hunt for fossils on the desolate cliffs and beaches of the southwest coast, and struggle to find their place in a society in which they are constrained by both their gender and their social status.

Chevalier has a gift for putting the reader squarely in another time and place and making them come alive. She also has the ability to delve into the workings of a trade as she did so skillfully in The Lady and the Unicorn (weaving) and Girl With a Pearl Earring (painting), here taking us into the workings of fossil hunting and preservation. Remarkable Creatures has less romance than either of the former, which I found to be a plus, but which faithful readers of Chevalier may consider a minus. The characters feel entirely real and refreshingly complex -- there are no real heroes or villains, just everyday people, acting in accordance with the beliefs and dictates of their time. The book is well written and easy to read through in one or two sittings, but not at all dumbed down. I give it 4 1/2 stars as Chevalier has a tendency in the more romantic portions of the book to become a bit melodramatic, but thankfully, the real romantic yearnings of the characters have to do with the unstable cliffs of the coast and the remarkable creatures these two truly remarkable creatures find on them. I finished this book with a tremendous respect for what these women went through to do what they loved, and a genuine appreciation for how their work contributed to my own worldview.

I made the unfortunate mistake of reading Chevalier's "The Virgin Blue" after reading--and loving--"The Lady and the Unicorn". I found "The Virgin Blue" such a letdown that it made me wonder if "Lady" was a fluke. I wanted to read more Chevalier just to make sure, but I was also a bit hesitant to do so because I have such an enormous backlog of books to read. When I saw this novel, though, I decided to give Chevalier a chance and, I'm happy to say, I now think it's "Blue" that was the fluke.

"Remarkable Creatures" is a tale of the remarkable fossils uncovered by a remarkable woman, Mary Anning, who, with the help of a long and remarkable friendship with Elizabeth Philpot, earned the credit she richly deserved. The tale is a fictionalized account of Anning's life and of her friendship with Philpot, and the author does acknowledge that she took some artistic license. Still, I think Chevalier has done a wonderful job of drawing attention to a woman who was, for me, an unknown historical figure. Yet, without Anning, a lot of what we now know about the creation of the world and the extinction of its ancient creatures may never have come to light.

Chevalier does a fine job of giving voice to Mary. Though Mary never received a formal education, Chevalier shows how Mary educated herself. The contrast between Mary's enlightenment and the reluctance of other, more learned people to accept the truths she uncovers is interesting. I found it interesting to speculate on whether some of the most esteemed minds of the time would have arrived at the scientific truths that we now take for granted, had it not been for the integral part Mary played in their uncovering.

Equally interesting to me was the character of Elizabeth Philpot. Though born into a more genteel family, Elizabeth in many ways is even more limited than Mary. Elizabeth's passion for fossils is considered unseemly and the fact that she is a spinster living with two spinster sisters makes her a subject of some scorn among those equal to her in class. I find it inspiring to read tales of women like Elizabeth, who are willing to buck convention for the sake of claiming their own independence.

The friendship between the two women is also nicely written. It is not a friendship that is all butterflies and roses. Just like any real life relationship, the friendship is strained at times by jealousy and strife. Both women learn from the other and, as a result, both women grow as characters. The tale of their friendship gives the novel an extra dimension. It becomes not just a book about the amazing scientific discoveries of an unschooled girl from Lyme, but also a novel about how empowering friendship between women can be, especially in an age as unfriendly to women as that in which Mary and Elizabeth lived. Though, at that time, society encouraged women to surrender everything to men, the lives of Mary and Elizabeth show that it was often only other women upon whom women could depend.

Tracy Chevalier's "Remarkable Creatures" focuses on two historical women--Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, and tries to flesh out the historical accounts of the lives of these women that exists in the scientific record. The book begins when Philpot has just moved to the town of Lyme Regis, and first meets Anning. Philpot, in her late 20s, is already a spinster, and moving to Lyme from London gives her the freedom to pursue her unladylike passion for fossils. Anning has a natural gift for fossil hunting, and Philpot is quickly drawn to her. Over the next two decades these women will develop a close bond and make many fossil discoveries together. But will a force bigger than themselves--love or fame--eventually draw them apart?

In "Remarkable Creatures" Chevalier has done a good job of taking real historical figures and crafting an interesting story around them. I had never heard of either Anning or Philpot, but I actually had seen some of the collections of fossils they contributed to at the British Museum. The novel quickly introduces you to these two women and their world, and does a good job of helping you to see the world through their eyes. I thought the most interesting dynamic of the story was how the men treated Philpot and Anning, especially how they were considered just "hunters" not real scientists because they were women. Some of the novel, particularly the love stories and jealousy did seem a bit forced, but not so much so that they ruined the rest of the story.

I would recommend this book to readers interested in women's lives during the early 19th century and to general fans of historical fiction. It was well done and an interesting quick read.

The novel is set in 19th century England and told through the eyes of two women: one who moved to lyme regis with her sisters to retire (as it was the norm for women who did not find a husband) and a young girl, born lyme regis and the common interest that drew them together was fossils. A lively story told of women in those times and although we take it for granted all the liberty and freedom ofmovement, at that time, many of those actions were unheard off: in that way it was refreshing to be reminded how far we have come,but in some ways there are still a lot of things that remain the same!

Dont expect an action pack story: the pace of the novel reflects the time of the characters: gentle, but yet reflective of what true friendship means. Human emotions remain the same and there plenty of women hormones roaring from disappointment, innonence, jeaousy. Austin-style it is not, but none-the-less very entertaining. A good read for those lazy sunday afternoons.

Like all of Tracy Chevalier's novels, the period is perfect, the characters well-developed and the place is easily vizualized. It's as well-written as her other books. Unfortunately, I'm personally not particularly interested in fossil hunting, so for me, the foundation story wasn't as engaging as others she's written. That might not be a problem for you. The material added to embellish the foundation story and flesh out the characters WAS interesting and I found a lot of the social commentary fascinating--such as the insights into the religious opposition to the idea that creation took a lot longer than six days or the Victorian sensibilities and mores. If the tedium of endless searching on the beaches and the fascination with ammonites and "monsters" doesn't bother you, it is definitely worth reading and I'm not sorry I read it. I just liked Chevalier's other works better, because I liked the stories better.

In the restrictive, male-dominated world of early-1800s England, three adult sisters are settled in a seaside cottage by their brother, the new head of the family after the demise of their parents. Class weighs heavily on all their minds; they are genteel middle-of-the-roaders, not gentry, and certainly not working-class, but not overflowing with money. Their quaint little cottage in a backwater community called Lyme Regis promises peace, quiet, and a freedom they don't have in London.

Elizabeth Philpot, the one amongst the sisters who could charitably be called slightly rebellious, finds joy in prowling the seaside, looking for fossil fish and ammonites that wash in on the shore. Margaret, the youngest sister, spends her time in card-playing and seasonal balls, the silly sister of the three; and Louise takes comfort in gardening. It is Elizabeth, however, who sets in motion events that revolutionize the world of natural science. She strikes up a friendship with a young girl of the town in which they live, a child of working-class parents constantly fending off the workhouse. Mary Anning, another forthright, plain-speaking female, supplements her father's earning as a carpenter by hunting fossils on the beach, like Elizabeth. What Elizabeth does as a hobby, Mary does to support her family. Mary has a gift, however; an eye to find more than fossilized marine shellfish - and her discovery of what she calls a 'crocodile' brings men of learning to her door.

In this novelized account of events, the author, Tracy Chevalier - what a great name for a writer! - presents a tale of real people, who stood the world of fossil-hunting on its ears. Many people in this book actually existed, usually in the context in which they lived, and the story is engrossing and different. The story screams for treatment as an English mini-series; I can almost cast some of the roles. Ms Chevalier seems obsessed with the English class system, which being foreign to American sensibilities may be hard for some to fathom, but in the time of 1804 England was most definitely a factor to be taken into account at every turn. Everyone had a place, and woebetide the person who stepped out of their own class. And the principal characters being women offers a new degree of lesser regard. Both Elizabeth and Mary strive against this suffocating attitude with greater or lesser success. They also have differences of opinion between themselves, while being aware how much they mean to each other as friends, even though they are so removed by age.

I finished this book in a couple of days, a fast read for me. It rarely lagged, even though the suspense is a little scant; I cannot recall ever reading a book quite like this one. It goes chapter on-chapter off between Elizabeth and Mary, giving each an equal time to state what's going on in their heads, and the scenery of the beach, cliffs, town and city are vividly portrayed. As a historical novel, it succeeds in story and characters, and made me want to go out and look for fossils myself. It is a book to be read quietly, near a window, with a cup of tea near at hand - and spins the reader into a time and place 200 years ago.

I strongly disagree with the mean-spirited Publishers Weekly review--which does a disservice to author Chevalier's accomplishment in melding fact and fiction in this gentle, well-told tale. It is a novel about friendship above all else. Fossils place a close second--the painstaking search for them and the thrill of their discovery, the effort to comprehend the life-forms they represent. The author succeeds so well at describing this searching that goes on from start to finish that I had to pause with refreshed eyes to examine my own sad little collection of fossils.

At its core, this is a quiet tale about two women drawn into friendship by their love for fossils. It is also about Elizabeth Philpot's quest to get young Mary Anning the recognition she deserves for finding and revealing the extraordinary creatures caught in stone. Like any friendship, theirs hits some bumpy patches but the two women rise from the pages as very real people: admirable, annoying and, ultimately, likeable and sympathetic.

The secondary characters are all well-defined--a few deft brushstrokes and they come to life, especially Mary's mother, the feisty Molly and Elizabeth's sisters Louise and Margaret. The men, too, get up and march about (or ride, well above the crowd, as in the case of the stupidly arrogant Lord Henley) or bounce cheerily onto the pages in the body of William Buckland. The characters are unpredictable, given to acts both of kindness and uncaring dismissiveness--but they are never dull or boring. Mary and Elizabeth return to life in the author's skilled reworking of their lives. Highly recommended.

Tracy Chevalier's new novel, "Remarkable Creatures" is an absolute triumph in terms of writing an accurate and personalized account of an absolutely fascinating chapter in the study of natural history-and two remarkable women who defied social convention of the time to advance knowledge of the past.

Elizabeth Philpot is a twenty five year old spinster sent into exile in the small sea town of Lyme Regis with her two equally unmarried sisters upon her brother's marriage. Though the sisters are comfortable well off, Elizabeth finds little in the small town that equals the intellectual stimulation she could reliably find in London. But all that changes with the discovery of her first fossils-and the even greater discovery of a local girl, Mary Anning, who was struck by lightning as a baby and possess an almost unnatural eye for finding fossils.

Mary doesn't know much about the "curies" (curiosities) she finds at first except that people will buy them from her-and how to find the best. But soon an unlikely friendship develops between Mary and Elizabeth and together they learn about the strange beasts they find upon the beach and captured in the cliffs-and how their very existent challenges the approved history of creation.

This book is fascinating in the intellectual sense. I had no idea that people ever, in all of history, denied that extinction existed, much less claimed that the very concept went against the supremacy of god. Since this novel takes place in the early 1800's extinction is still regarded as heresy by many people-making the strangest and most wonderful creatures Mary finds not only complex puzzles about nature, god and the past, but also cast aspersions upon her skill at hunting fossils and question if the magnificent creatures she pries out of the rocks could indeed be an unknown animal-as opposed to several animal parts combined.

But as interesting as the fossil history and creation arguments are, they don't really hold the book together. There is very little plot in this novel- it's more of a progression of time. And though it is only slightly over 300 pages long it covers over ten years-making for small descriptions of even the most important events.

My favorite Chevalier books, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "The Lady and the Unicorn" are really just the kind of stories that make up people's lives-nothing grand, just an out of the ordinary experience for the people involved. This book isn't like that. It's not so much a story as a short history with some dialog and emotion built in. And while the actual writing is impeccable, the writing style made it hard to care about characters or coming events. In short, this is a novel without any suspense.

But the quality of the writing and clearly fantastic research quality are mitigating factors. And the subject matter is fascinating enough to read through even when there is no plot.

Four stars.

In "Remarkable Creatures" Tracy Chevalier re-imagines the lives of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two truly significant women in the world of science in the first half of the nineteenth century. Both were fascinated by fossils of sea-land creatures that they collected up and down the cliffs and beaches around Lyme Regis, a small town on England's southern shore and a centre for amateurs to find and for scientists to buy fossils from the locals. In easy-going fluid language, Chevalier created two believable voices as they describe their lives, their friendship and the struggle to be recognized for their knowledge.

Mary, by twenty years the younger, had "the eye" for discovering fossils, often hidden in nodules, under rocks or emerging from landslips common in the region. Born into a very poor family, selling fossils as "curies" (curiosities) was a financial necessity for survival; her amateur fossil-hunting father taught his young daughter the skill of finding, identifying, cleaning the "curies" and presenting them for sale. At the age of eleven or twelve, Mary came to the attention of the "gentlemen scientists" when (probably with her brother Joe) she literally "unearthed" an almost complete dinosaur skeletons: an "ichthyosaurus". It was the first of an impressive number of such extraordinary discoveries that Mary made over the years, leading, eventually, to her becoming quite famous, and with more and more scientists seeking her out for assistance and advice. Nonetheless, poverty remained a constant threat for most of her life.

Interleafed with Mary's first person account of her younger life, are chapters that give Elizabeth Philpot a direct voice. An educated middle class woman, she experienced her own kind of limitations in taking charge of her life: she didn't have the money, societal standing or the looks to attract a husband, the first and foremost goal for a woman in Victorian England. Seeing the society through two different perspectives enables Chevalier to take a broader and deeper look into the society at the time, and the limitations that women were facing. Depicting the two women as close friends in some ways, driven by their fascination with fossils, but also prone to jealousy and suspicion, the author, nonetheless, stresses their differences in class and education and, related to those, opportunities. For example, it is Elizabeth who travels to London (a several-day expedition by ship) to defend Mary's reputation after her find of a "plesiosaurus" is deemed a fake by the famous French geologist, Baron Cuvier. She does it without sharing her intentions or the results of her visit with Mary. Here and in other instances, Elizabeth herself appears to be not only protective of her younger friend but also patronizing, judging Mary too uneducated and naive to be able to follow the emerging arguments on how the new scientific evidence challenges the long-held general view of life on earth. How could the finds of creatures never seen before be brought in line with God creating the earth in six days? Or, what were His intentions when allowing creatures to become extinct long ago? While Chevalier does not delve deeply into these evolving controversies among different groups of scientists and religious figures, the implied philosophical and moral questions are often present, directly or indirectly. The novel ends at a crucial moment in the friendship between Mary and Elizabeth and the later developments in their lives are briefly outlined in a "Postscript".

Chevalier's novel, like any historical fiction story that relies on the re-imagination of a little known individual, works with a creative balance between facts and artistic license to fill gaps in the historical records and/or to add colour, depth and dramatic drive to the story. On the other hand, Chevalier, intent on highlighting certain traits or developments in her primary characters, leaves out information that would reflect the real-life person more closely, yet skew the fictional character she has created. Personally, having read more about Mary Anning, I have some larger and smaller quibbles, especially with the depiction of Mary, and her relationship to some of the gentlemen scientists...

However, "Remarkable Creatures" was not my first acquaintance with Mary Anning and her life and times. Since Anning's 200th birthday in 1999, there has been renewed interest in her work and the role her discoveries played in the emergence of the new discipline of palaeontology and the growing debate on evolution of life. Among other material, another novel is of interest here. Published more or less at the same time as Chevalier's novel, Canadian author Joan Thomas's novel Curiosity, while also re-imagining Mary Anning's life, paints a somewhat different portrait (closer to the historical personality). Thomas's characterization of Mary suggests a stronger personality as she matured, and one who was a shrewd business woman. It will be up to readers to decide which line of presentation of Mary Anning and her work they prefer. Both books - as fiction - are valid in their historical recreation and, as such, entertaining reading. Finally, those, like myself, keen to learn more about Mary Anning, can study a recent biography by Shelly Emling, The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World (Macsci). It will shed more light on the veracity of either depiction. (3.5 stars) [Friederike Knabe]

Tracy Chevalier creates a fascinating fictional story about romance, jealousy and friendship between two women of vastly different backgrounds. It is loosely based on some historical facts from the life of Mary Anning an avid amateur fossil hunter who provided the world some important and interesting discoveries. She was the first to discover a complete pteradactyl (now called a pterasaur) and the squaloraja, a transition animal between sharks and rays. Her icthysaurus and pleiosaurus discoveries even today are on on display at the Natural History Museum in London. Her headless plesiosaur is on display at the Paleontology Gallery of the Museé National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

The story begins when Elizabeth Philpot reminisces how she and her sisters ended up living in the seaside resort of Lyme in reduced circumstances compared to their life in London. After their parents had died, their brother John married and he helped them relocate to live within their means of 150 pounds annual income. Elizabeth was 25 years old and realized all the reasons which existed that would cause her to remain a single woman, called a spinster in that era. Her sister Louise who enjoyed gardening was also likely to remain unwed but for different reasons. Their youngest sister Margaret who was fresh and pretty, with pleasing facial features, stood the best chance of finding a suitor and possible marriage partner. They moved to a stone cottage suitable to their new status. Elizabeth took up the unladylike activity of collecting fossils which washed up on the shore. Through this activity, she became good friends with Mary Anning, a working class girl who had "the eye" which meant she found fossils much quicker than almost anyone else and the ones she discovered had some unique and unusual features. Mary was the first to discover the bones of a large creature which caused a great deal of controversy within the town. It also caused difficulty for the local ministers who could not explain its place within the order of God's creation as written in Genesis. Her discovery and skills made her famous among paleontologists in London who came to Lyme to meet her with the hope of discovering the bones of another ancient creature to add to their collection at Oxford University. Unfortunately, she did not receive credit for her discoveries nor did she obtain the monetary rewards one would expect for such unique finds. However, with courageous action on Elizabeth's part, Mary's name, reputation and fame become well established and their nearly broken friendship is repaired.

I love how the author wove various elements from the reality of Mary Anning's life into the fictional account. Using creative license, Tracy Chevalier added new male characters which provided the element of tension in the friendship between Elizabeth and Mary. One of the characters was handsome and close in age to Elizabeth but unfortunately for her, he paid more attention to Mary and her special talent for finding ancient once living artifacts than one would expect for his social class and bearing. The author beautifully weaves together the social morés of the times, the controversy associated with Mary's apparent inappropriate association with the gentleman in question. Mary had hoped that he would marry her and save her from the poverty in which she and her family lived. The author provides some unexpected twists and turns in the plot which resolve the nearly disastrous events which followed Mary after she lost her heart to this fossil-hunting visitor. This book is a gem and should appeal to a wide reading audience. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]