Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier (2009)
Tracy Chevalier has been one of my favorite writers for a while - ever since Girl with a Pearl Earring. I was excited to see she had a new novel out, and may have been the first to read this library find, which pleases me a lot.
Based in the early 1800s we get to meet Elizabeth Philpott, who due to a change in circumstances finds herself living with her two spinster sisters in Lyme Regis. Interested in finding fossil fish, this becomes a perfect spot for her, where she can be free to wander and spend the day digging on the beach.
A young local girl, Mary Anning is also digging about on the cliffs, looking for fossils (curies), that she can sell to the tourists to help out the families income. Becoming friends they help each other, and learn more about the bones and shells they dig up.
It was interesting to put the discovery of the first dinosaur fossils in the context of what scientifially was known at the time, and how it would question religious doctrine. It made me want to find out more about fossils, and to take up a spade and go digging and find a dinosaur.
I think the book sparkled not only because of the fine writing and character development, but because it was based in truth and on real women, who lived in a world of men deciding everything for them. It also had echoes of Jane Austen and the Brontes, in that the women are all honest and hard working and looking for love, while the men play with their affections and are in most cases scoundrels.
So a 4/5, cause it made me want to go and be Indiana Jones.
3 comments:
Any book that makes a person want to go be Indiana Jones is going on my TBR. :-)
Lezlie
I loved this one too! And I recently saw Young Victoria - they both made me want to go live in the 1820's (if that was possible!)
ms chevalier is one of those writers whose writing style i really don't like. i've read 3-4 books of hers, and by the 4th i said bye bye, tracy. it's a pity since her settings and plots are different and neat.
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