In 1810, a sister and brother uncover the fossilized skull of an unknown animal in the cliffs on the south coast of England. With its long snout and prominent teeth, it might be a crocodile — except that it has a huge, bulbous eye.
Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning, whose discovery of ancient marine reptiles such as that ichthyosaur shakes the scientific community and leads to new ways of thinking about the creation of the world.
Working in an arena dominated by Oxford and Cambridge men, Mary finds herself out of step with both her working-class background and the middle-class scientific world. She takes solace in an unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Philpot, a prickly London spinster with her own passion for fossils. The friendship between Mary and Elizabeth sees them through struggles with poverty, rivalry and ostracism, as well as the physical dangers of their chosen obsession.
Inspiration
One day I went with my young son to a small dinosaur museum in Dorset, on the south coast of England. Among the usual displays, there was a corner devoted to Mary Anning, who lived in the early 19th century in the nearby town of Lyme Regis, where fossils are abundant. At age 12 she discovered the first complete specimen of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile about 200 million years old.
I was fascinated that, though female and working class, Mary managed to work with the middle-class male scientists of the day. She was prickly and independent and eccentric. Plus, she was struck by lightning as a baby and survived. Discovering her felt like my own jolt of lightning, and I knew I had to write about her.
Reviews
Thoroughly absorbing historical novel...Chevalier has taken the true histories of Anning and Philpot and fashioned from them a moving story of the resilience of an unusual female friendship and of ground shifting beneath people's feet as new discoveries force them to look at the world with fresh eyes. —Sunday Times (London)
Chevalier excavates her two main characters with great confidence and wit. These women, neither of whom I had heard of before, become vivid and engrossing. Like a fossil hunter herself, Chevalier has again combed the beaches of history for subject matter and created an engaging story for the modern reader. —Financial Times
A book of impressive scope. It is not just the story of this young fossil hunter and her rise from indigence and anonymity to renown, but also of how her discoveries were to revolutionise the way people thought about the origins of the world. It is not merely a triumphant tale of female adventure, but a moving reflection on how much intellectual pursuit may cost women in terms of romantic happiness. And in its depiction of the relationship between Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, an educated woman living nearby who also hunted fossils, it is also a celebration of female friendship. —Telegraph
It is a stunning story, compassionately reimagined. The ways in which Mary and Elizabeth regard each other over the years allows the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring to do what she excels at: reveal slowly, in meticulous period detail, not one but two women being looked at. —Guardian
Chevalier focuses on Anning’s early life and her relationship with another historic figure, Elizabeth Philpot, vividly imagining the former’s inner life. —New York Times
The author admirably weaves historical figures and actual events into a compelling narrative. We care for these two headstrong women as they defy, sometimes unwittingly by just being themselves, the conventions of their day. —San Francisco Chronicle
In an age when the theory of evolution is taken for granted by educated people, Chevalier manages to convey how genuinely challenging these ideas were when they first appeared. That she does this in such an entertaining book is impressive. —Independent
