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Last week, I reviewed a collection of holiday-themed novellas, A Yuletide Kiss. Tina enjoyed With Our Blessing by Jo Spain, the first book of a new-to-her mystery series that is set in Dublin.

Book: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication date: 2021
Pages: 328

Source: Trade paperback from the library

Summary: Remarkable Creatures tells the story of two women from two different classes. They met, two hundred years ago, over a passion for hunting fossils along the beaches and cliffsides of Lyme Regis.

Mary Anning was a professional. She began hunting fossils as a child to contribute to the family coffers that were in dire straits even before the death of her father. As a self-educated woman, she didn’t reap the rewards of her finds and observations in the way that upper-class men did. Many of those upper-class men relied on Anning’s samples and the context she supplied for their scholarly work in the early scientific works about fossils.

Elizabeth Philpot was a spinster living with her sisters after their brother married. Lyme Regis was a cheaper place to live than London for ladies with limited means. At first, the small community seemed lacking in amusements. Through her friendship with Mary Anning, Miss Philpot found a pursuit that garnered her some small recognitions from the gentlemen geologists who were particularly impressed by her fossil fish collection.

Thoughts: December 10, this Sunday, will be the 200th anniversary of one of Mary Anning’s greatest finds — the first nearly complete skeleton of a plesiosaurus. This marine animal was over nine feet long and had a broad body with an extremely long neck. (Some people like to postulate that the Loch Ness monster is a descendant in the plesiosaurus family). The novel includes this discovery and its aftermath, including some speculation that Mary Anning combined two fossilized creatures to make one hoax. That proved not to be the case. Her skeleton remains the holotype for this species.

I wanted to read this book since Bonnie of Bonnie’s Books recommended it after reading my review of the film Ammonite. Bonnie’s review of Remarkable Creatures talks more about the systemic denial of opportunities to women.

Marianne of Let’s Read read Remarkable Creatures with a book club. They felt that these two women deserved a nonfiction book. As I was reading, I often wondered which parts were real and which were fiction. On the other hand, I read much more historical fiction than I do biographies, so I was glad to have the means to explore this world through fiction.

If you prefer a biography, the author’s note mentions this one: Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters by Patricia Pierce (2006).

One of the things that I enjoyed most about this book was imagining myself walking alongside Mary and Elizabeth on the beaches surrounding Lyme Regis. I could kind of picture myself there after my fantasy travel trip to Lyme Regis a couple of years ago.

Appeal: If you enjoy a fictional spin on real lives, especially women who have been neglected by history, Remarkable Creatures is an enjoyable tale.

Have you read this book? What did you think?