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Remarkable Creatures Tracy Chevalier 9780007178377 Books

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Remarkable Creatures Tracy Chevalier 9780007178377 Books

This is only ADULT novel I've read on Anning, the previous ones having been a children's book and a Young Adult novel (DRAGONS IN THE ROCKS was the title of one of them--i forget which). Mary Ann Anning was a real person, a Napoleonic-era female credited with the discovery, description, and naming of several prehistoric species. I found Chevalier's version--necessarily creative, since facts are, not surprisingly, few about this too-early pioneer-- very absorbing and, btw, very filmable.
The novel is actually two interlaced memories; one narrated by Mary Ann Anning, as the story starts a pre-teen of poor family. Her father is a distractible (by fossils, collections of which were trendy) and not highly competent cabinetmaker, whose early death plunges the Annings into marginal living. The other narrator is Elizabeth Philpot, a slightly older and
better-off woman, something of an exile from the bright lights of London, through the marriage of her older brother, the sole heir, given the times, to her family's comfortable income. She has the benefits of better education, though, especially relatively to almost all women of early 19th-century England, and is fascinated by science literature of the day.
Elizabeth's intellectual interests, and Mary's financial straits, drive them together onto the beaches of Lyme Regis, a small village in Dorsetshire, on the south shore of England, in the days when dinosaurs could be denied, and were, by all but a few, in the infancy of paleontology. To Mary, the "curios" are primarily items to sell to tourists, although she also has her imagination stirred by them. Vacationing Londoners flocked to Lyme Regis for the bathing beaches, which were equipped with "bathing machines" for the ladies--little houses that could be wheeled out into the surf so that ladies (it would be less delicate to refer to them as "women") could bathe in their --slightly-- reduced clothing without being exposed to the eyes of
men.
The two hit it off, at first in an almost mother/daughter way, and form a working partnership. (Mary's mother, practical and made desperate by pre-safetynet widowhood, has no patience for her daughter's scientific passion or her attraction to the patrician Philpot). The stories from then on trace several developments: Mary's growth into womanhood, her romantic sufferings and an eventual self-acceptance that is shockingly modern (and feminist) for her time; Elizabeth's
parallel and…overlapping...romantic sufferings ["Spoiler" spoiler: Despite that last bit, REMARKABLE CREATURES is not a bodice-ripper…well, OK, maybe ONE bodice]; a bitterness that temporarily divides them; the struggle of these two women against the sexism of their times--now long behind us, of course-- in being accepted as women of science; the progress of that science itself against religious prejudices.
All told within the convincingly re-imagined context of an absolutely true story of two early science heroes, by a skilled and popular (GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING) author.


Tags : Remarkable Creatures [Tracy Chevalier] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A voyage of discovery, two remarkable women, and an extraordinary time and place enrich bestselling author Tracy Chevalier's new novel. On the windswept,Tracy Chevalier,Remarkable Creatures,HarperCollins,0007178379

Remarkable Creatures Tracy Chevalier 9780007178377 Books Reviews

In some ways, life in the 1800" s was much like it is today. The lines between the classes were broader then. Discrimination was not only tolerated but expected and upheld. In this story we meet a group of people surviving and coming together despite their differences, due not only to mutual interest but genuine kindness and humility. The discoveries they made were astounding and challenged everything they thought they knew about our world. I wish to visit the museums in London and Paris to see the fossils and imagine what funding then would have been like.

The story begins and ends with lightening striking. The first physically and figuratively the latter. I suppose this is to tell us that lightening strikes can be a good thing. Hmmm
Based on real characters, I found the story interesting and wondered just how this remarkable woman actually found the where with all to continue her fossil hunting among such obstacles of the times where women were looked at not even as second class, especially in a financial situation of being poor. It makes me wonder just how far this woman and others could have gone if not held back by the social restraints of the times. Cleverly written, it gives you a story of how things may have gone for her during her hunts, how she might have been treated and mostly how the men at the time never gave her credit for being the most clever fossil hunter in the area. If she had only been able to be schooled in the science's, she'd have been a remarkable paleontologist.
One of the pleasures of reading historical novels is being immersed in attitudes, beliefs, and customs very different from our own. This book, a novelization of true events, focuses on a time when the idea that the earth might be older than 6,000 years, and there had once existed creatures now extinct was considered shocking and heretical, as was the idea that a woman might contribute something to science. Ms. Chevalier does an excellent job of evoking this era as she portrays the slow and painful process through which the two women protagonists realize the significance of the fossils they find on the beach. The story is told through alternating narratives by each woman, one educated and upper middle-class and the other a young, initially illiterate girl with a talent for spotting the fossils her family sells to tourists. The relationship between these two women forms an important plot line, raising issues of class and social expectations, although I found this aspect of the story less compelling than the gradual recognition that the remarkable creatures whose fossilized bones they unearth are what we now recognize as dinosaurs. Altogether a satisfying read.
Like her better-known Girl With a Pearl Earring, Chevalier leans toward historically-based literature. While much of this one is based on fact, she does say that she invented parts of the story also. The plot doesn't seem as tightly constructed as "Girl", with less suspense as well. The characters are interesting. There are certainly parallels to Jane Austen's novels and the plight of single women in England at this time, and especially women of intelligence and curiosity. I felt like the friendship between these two women never quite reached a point to find it interesting. It was recommended to me by a science person, and I can see the attraction if that's where your interests lie. I'm more of an art person, and enjoyed "Girl with a Pearl Earring" much more.
This is only ADULT novel I've read on Anning, the previous ones having been a children's book and a Young Adult novel (DRAGONS IN THE ROCKS was the title of one of them--i forget which). Mary Ann Anning was a real person, a Napoleonic-era female credited with the discovery, description, and naming of several prehistoric species. I found Chevalier's version--necessarily creative, since facts are, not surprisingly, few about this too-early pioneer-- very absorbing and, btw, very filmable.
The novel is actually two interlaced memories; one narrated by Mary Ann Anning, as the story starts a pre-teen of poor family. Her father is a distractible (by fossils, collections of which were trendy) and not highly competent cabinetmaker, whose early death plunges the Annings into marginal living. The other narrator is Elizabeth Philpot, a slightly older and
better-off woman, something of an exile from the bright lights of London, through the marriage of her older brother, the sole heir, given the times, to her family's comfortable income. She has the benefits of better education, though, especially relatively to almost all women of early 19th-century England, and is fascinated by science literature of the day.
Elizabeth's intellectual interests, and Mary's financial straits, drive them together onto the beaches of Lyme Regis, a small village in Dorsetshire, on the south shore of England, in the days when dinosaurs could be denied, and were, by all but a few, in the infancy of paleontology. To Mary, the "curios" are primarily items to sell to tourists, although she also has her imagination stirred by them. Vacationing Londoners flocked to Lyme Regis for the bathing beaches, which were equipped with "bathing machines" for the ladies--little houses that could be wheeled out into the surf so that ladies (it would be less delicate to refer to them as "women") could bathe in their --slightly-- reduced clothing without being exposed to the eyes of
men.
The two hit it off, at first in an almost mother/daughter way, and form a working partnership. (Mary's mother, practical and made desperate by pre-safetynet widowhood, has no patience for her daughter's scientific passion or her attraction to the patrician Philpot). The stories from then on trace several developments Mary's growth into womanhood, her romantic sufferings and an eventual self-acceptance that is shockingly modern (and feminist) for her time; Elizabeth's
parallel and…overlapping...romantic sufferings ["Spoiler" spoiler Despite that last bit, REMARKABLE CREATURES is not a bodice-ripper…well, OK, maybe ONE bodice]; a bitterness that temporarily divides them; the struggle of these two women against the sexism of their times--now long behind us, of course-- in being accepted as women of science; the progress of that science itself against religious prejudices.
All told within the convincingly re-imagined context of an absolutely true story of two early science heroes, by a skilled and popular (GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING) author.