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Dutton, 2009

For Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier dug up the skeleton of a story, cleaned the scattered pieces, and rearranged them in just the right order. In doing so, she has revealed a stunning of account two amazing women in early 19th Century England, a time when many believed that Bishop James Ussher had "proved" the world was created on October 23, 4004 BC.

Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpott are the two extraordinary protagonists of this biographical fiction.

They found amazing fossil creatures in the cliffs along the seashore at Lyme Regis on the Southwest coast of England. As a young teenager, Mary found the first complete ichthyosaurus skeleton. (Actually, her brother found it but wanted nothing to do with it other than helping her dig it out and carry it home.) Credit in this male-dominated society was very slow to come for her and required the intervention of Elizabeth at great risk to herself.

Lord Henley, for example simply collects/hoards fossils and give no credence to Mary's efforts. After buying the ichthyosaurus skeleton, he claims he found it. "Mary Anning is a female. She is a spare part," he says to Elizabeth.

Chevalier sets the scene at Lyme Regis beautifully. The reader is there, fully comprehending both the physical and moral geography of the place and time. A preacher has an "oboe voice, which lacked the depth one expected of a man in his position."

She contrasts the lives of Mary, the daughter of a poor cabinetmaker, and Elizabeth, a spinster from an upper class family now down on its luck and eking out an existence in greatly reduced circumstances.

We hear the distinction in their language: Mary's verteberries for Elizabeth's vertebrae; bellies for belemnites; ammos for ammonites; Devil's toenails for gryphaea.

The narration switches between Elizabeth and Mary, each providing a unique point of view. Their unlikely partnership and conflicts propel the story in many ways. They work together collecting fossils, yet this also supplies a major conflict. Both rebel against gender and social class limitations. For example, fossil collecting by Elizabeth is "seen as an unladylike pursuit, dirty and mysterious." The village is aligned against both protagonists because they dig for fossils and each is traitorous to her class because they associate with each other. Both have a "crush" on Colonel Birch, another collector. Neither is truly able to requite that love, but it does afford a point of conflict.

This is a notable book in the vein of The Girl With a Pearl Earring. There is the same strong, riveting story told well. Finely drawn characters, including memorable secondary characters, inhabit and enliven this story. While it is a novel, its "truth" teaches us much about the lives of Mary and Elizabeth, the hurdles they faced and overcame, and the time in which they lived. They were truly remarkable creatures.

Tracy Chevalier is the author of 6 novels, all with historical connections because she can "get away" from herself when she is not writing in a contemporary setting. A graduate of Oberlin College and the University of East Anglia, she has lived in England for the past twenty years, which would certainly account for the European focus of her writing.