The story focuses on the relationship between Mary Anning, a working-class girl who collects fossils along the beach in the coastal town of Lyme Regis in England, and Elizabeth Philpot, one of a trio of unmarried (read, spinster), middle-class sisters who move to Lyme from London. Mary Anning, now recognized as the finder of the first known ichthyosaur skeleton and the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons, was not permitted to join the Geological Society of London, even though her fossils comprised the most exciting discoveries in geological science up to that point. I suppose I should say “real women on the outskirts of science” because, as females, they were barred from having a meaningful place in scientific discussions in 19th century England.
What I didn’t know until I was about half-way through this novel is that Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures is based on real women in science about whom I’d never heard. It reminds us that friendship can outlast storms and landslides, anger and and jealousy.I’m on a roll with splendid historical fiction featuring strong female characters. The strong bond between Mary and Elizabeth sees them through struggles with poverty, rivalry and ostracism, as well as the physical dangers of their chosen obsession. In danger of being an outcast in her community, she takes solace in an unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Philpot, a prickly London spinster with her own passion for fossils.
Working in an arena dominated by middle-class men, however, Mary finds herself out of step with her working-class background. Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning, who has a talent for finding fossils, and 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. With its long snout and prominent teeth, it might be a crocodile – except that it has a huge, bulbous eye. In 1810, a sister and brother uncover the fossilized skull of an unknown animal in the cliffs on the south coast of England.
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