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 … 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.
From the author of At the Edge of the Orchard and Girl With a Pearl Earring comes this incredible story of two remarkable women and their voyage of discovery.
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Guess nothing stands up to “Girl with the Pearl Earring”.
This book was amazing for me. The story is all right, but the information told through the story was a revelation to me. I was shocked to finally understand why the discovery of fossils in England in the first half of the 19th century sent the religious and philosophic (scientific) communities into shock, anger, and dissension. It is a book I think of often.
I found “Remarkable Creatures,” by Tracy Chevalier to be a very interesting and informative book on many different levels. One gets to experience the discovery of the ancient dinosaur fossils, hear of the unique concept of “extinct,” find the scientific world anti women and see how the world grapples with how this remarkable creatures amme to be and came to be discovered and explained by a mere, uneducated woman in rural Britain. It is an enlightening and compelling story.