remarkable creatures tracy chevalier summary

As usual, Chevalier puts together an enthralling mixture of fact and fiction with skill, including plot elements which would not be out of place in an Austen novel (appropriate given that the narrative’s events are contemporary with Austen’s writings).Ĭhevalier has an enviable gift for creating a tangible sense of time and place. Mary Anning found ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and the first complete pterodactyl in Great Britain but remains a relatively obscure figure, a footnote in the contemporary scientific papers written by men. In her sixth novel, Chevalier uses her characteristic blend of fact and fiction to tell us another story of a woman who has been pushed to the edge of history. The story of two unlikely dinosaur hunters Both their voices are clearly defined, distinct, and draw the reader back over two hundred years to the south coast of England.

The narrative alternates between Mary and Elizabeth’s first-person accounts of events. While it details their remarkable discoveries, the true focus of the tale is their unlikely friendship. Above all, it is a revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship.Another captivating story of a woman pushed to the fringes of history.Ĭovering events which occurred in the early nineteenth century, Remarkable Creatures tells the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two fossil hunters in Lyme Regis. Remarkable Creatures is a stunning novel of how one woman’s gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century. But Mary must face powerful prejudice from a male scientific establishment, not to mention vicious gossip and the heartbreak of forbidden love. Then - in prickly, clever Elizabeth Philpot, a fossil-obsessed middle-class spinster - she finds a champion, and a rival.ĭespite their differences in class and age, Mary and Elizabeth’s loyalty and passion for the truth must win out. Her discovery of strange fossilized creatures in the cliffs of Lyme Regis sets the world alight. In the early nineteenth century, a windswept beach along the English coast brims with fossils for those with the eye…įrom the moment she’s struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is different. A stunning novel of female friendship, forbidden love and evolution from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Remarkable creatures tracy chevalier summary