Title : Remarkable Creatures
Author : Tracy Chevalier
Genre : Historical fiction
Pages : 320
Rating : 4/5

A spinster in search of fossils. Sound interesting ? Well, it should, because like it’s title “Remarkable creatures” this book is pretty remarkable too. I haven’t read this author’s previous novel “Girl with a pearl earring”, but when I came across a review of this book, I knew I wanted to read it.

The book is centered around Elizabeth Philpot, one of three sisters who have resigned themselves to the single life, because in the 1800s (the period this book is set in), without a fortune and good looks, a husband is hard to come by. The three move to the coastal city of Lyme Regis when their brother marries. Lyme Regis is special because on it’s beaches are found bits of fossils, known as “curies” (or curiosities). It is thus on the beaches of Lyme Regis, that Elizabeth who is of an inquisitive bent comes to meet Mary Anning, an avid fossil hunter.

Mary comes from a poor household and the sale of her “curies” supplements their meager income. Elizabeth, comparatively well off is not Mary’s social superior, (although she exists on the fringes of genteel poverty) but the two form a bond based on their love for fossils. The book charts their course of life and their thoughts, sometimes alike and sometimes diverging.

The narrative is in the first person, but switches from Elizabeth to Mary – a fact I appreciated very much since it allowed us to hear their innermost thoughts. This book does not have a big problem and it’s resolution, rather much like the sea which sweeps up so many of their precious “curies”, the story ebbs and flows. Mary and Elizabeth remain in Lyme Regis and life and it’s many events flow around them, shaping them and their friendship.

It is thus a rather gentle, not to be mistaken with placid, read. And lest I sound like this was not interesting, I will clarify that for the couple of days that it took me to read this book, I stayed up well past my bedtime to read as much as I could. Ms. Chevalier has that rare knack for writing which, even when describing the most humdrum of events, sucks you in and places you in the middle of the story. Her characters are well-drawn, and her narrative just the right amount of enticing.

I really liked this book (although like seems a simple word) for it’s wealth of emotions, and for the portrayal of Elizabeth and Mary – two women born into a society where a single woman was an aberration – who relied on independent thought. Feminism for the 1800s if you will, but there it is, subtle and in it’s place, without making a to-do of asserting one’s will. Their actions and their thinking is a natural extension of who they are and the circumstances they face, and it is this honesty flowing from Chevalier’s words that make this wonderful book what it is.

P.S. : Interestingly, although Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot are characters in the book they were real fossilists – Mary, the more famous of the two, and Philpot known for her collaboration with Anning.