Remarkable Creatures

  

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier.

 

Publisher : Penguin Books; Reprint edition (October 26, 2010)
Language : English
Paperback : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 0452296722

 

Amazon Review:

 

From the New York Times bestselling novelist, a stunning historical novel that follows the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two extraordinary 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever.

On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot ammonites and other fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man.

Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset.

 

 For me, this book is a "reread".  When I first read it was in 2011, ten years ago!

Every now and then programs on tv include Archeologists that dig up "history" in Egypt.  I love watching it and I think I get as excited about the smallest find as they do!  From time to time I remembered this book.  The ladies are not Archeologists but look for fossils along the seaside.

Of course back in the 1800's women were not thought to  have intelligence enough to even know what they are looking for.  But, trust me, they do.

They begin to find skeletons of "monsters" never before seen or known about.  Still they received no recognition for finding them, cleaning them  and putting their bones back together to see what they even looked like.

It's a lesson in history.

It's a lesson in the difference between the poor and the rich.

It makes you want to walk the beaches with them and find something "Remarkable" !