I just finished this book by Tracy Chevalier, who also wrote “Girl with the Pearl Earring.” The story takes place in the early 1800s in a seaside town, where a spinster of diminished resources (which means the brother inherited everything and the unmarried sisters had to move to cheaper digs!) becomes involved in the world of hunting for fossils found in the chalk cliffs below the town. In doing so, she meets young Mary Anning, who has a gift for finding and extracting "curies," or "curiousities," as collectors then called them. It touches on a lot of issues, such as: the stubbornness of scientists to acknowledge that the fossils are of creatures that are extinct (thereby putting religious leaders’ theories to the test); the role of women in England at that time, especially in the scientific world; and of the clash between uneducated workers and their educated betters. I love books that combine good writing, a good story, and great historical research, and this book has it all.

I remember reading to my daughter when she was small a children's book about Mary Anning and how she inspired my daughter to study dinosaurs. We would go the Royal Tyrell Museum every year to see the fossils. So, to say the least, I was excited to read this book "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier and I was rewarded, it is a delightful book. Mary Anning was a working girl who had an eye for hunting out fossils and she discovered many fossils that had not been seen before, she was a pioneer and many men came to her to have her enrich their collections which they often took credit for finding. Being a female and living in the time that she did, Mary Anning's work went unrecognized as to receiving credit for the finds...the credit usually went to the males who purchased the fossils from her. Being of a lower class, Mary was never accepted into the upper society she sold her fossils within, they did respect her, but they used her to no end to expand their own collections. This book is a wonderful book that opens your eye to a world before women were given the respect and acknowledgement they deserved especially in the field of science. It was a treat to learn about Mary Anning's life in a fictional setting and to see her love for fossils intermixed with her need to survive by selling the fossils she devoted her life to. She is definitely a woman one can revere.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (Rated: C) ISBN: 978-0-452-29672-5 Penguin Group Published November 6, 2010 Trade Paperback, 299 pages Reviewed by Sandra Tracy Chevalier has done it yet again! She has managed, by her delicious choice of words, to authentically evoke a by-gone era, England in the early 1800’s. Jane Austen would have recognized the small English town by the sea, Lyme Regis, where people went to recover their health or because they were forced to live in “reduced” circumstances, as was the case with Elizabeth Philpot, one of the two fascinating and strong women portrayed in the novel. This is a story of two unlikely friends. Mary Anning is a young girl from a poor family who hunts for fossils that she sells to contribute to the family income. She has an “eye” for fossils. Elizabeth Philpot is a middle-class spinster about 20 years older than Mary who is also a fossil hunter. In fact, every day they go “upon beach” as Mary expressed it, to hunt for them. Their lives are worlds apart socially but they become fast friends because of their shared passion for fossil-hunting. One day Mary and her brother make a spectacular find embedded in a cliff – a remarkable creature – a fossil – an 18-foot stone “monster” – a dinosaur! This complete skeleton finds its way eventually to the British Museum. Sometime later, when Mary Anning’s reputation as a reliable fossil hunter is maligned, Elizabeth Philpot wants to defend her friend. Elizabeth is very much a woman of her time who has a mind of her own (Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice would have admired her) but is hampered by prevailing attitudes about women. She tells her brother that she wants to address the Geological Society (all men) on Mary’s behalf. His response is “they will not let you in for you are a lady, and their charter does not allow it.” Elizabeth shows what she is made of, however, and takes it upon herself to travel alone (not the done thing for single women at the time) to London to address the Geological Society. Read the book to find out if she succeeds. Mary, too, has her share of negative comments. An aristocrat condescendingly says about her, “Mary Anning is a female. She is a spare part.” Do I hear feminists ranting and raving about the injustice of it all? This novel is interesting on several levels. First of all the reader learns that there were noteworthy women paleontologists in the 1800’s, even if they didn’t get all the recognition they deserved; that Mary’s discoveries provoked considerable controversy between scientists and religionists that continues to our day; and that Mary helped to change the way people view extinct animals, those remarkable creatures. The book is filled with excellent descriptions. “The narrow road leads down to the shore, and then quickly turns its back on the sea and heads uphill again, as if it wants merely to glimpse the waves before fleeing.” “She stood at the range, stirring what smelled like oxtail broth, while a baby squalled without conviction in a drawer in the corner.” Remarkable Creatures will delight historical novel buffs for this is a story based on real people, real events. Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot are, in their own way, remarkable creatures.