Review : Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Title : Remarkable Creatures

Author : Tracy Chevalier

Publication date : August 24th 2009 by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 

Hello there! Glad to see you again. So, some of you may know that I am a big fan of Tracy Chevalier. I find her writing style to be very appealing, even on my first time reading her book, I was sure confident already to be her new fan.

Remarkable Creatures is not her newest book, I know. I have this pledge to read each work by her, so why not continue with one that has most unusual story? A tale of fossils and the admirers. I never knew that this book is based on true events. If you the characters, you will find that they were actual people. How cool is that!

Elizabeth Philpot was a fossil collector, just like many other aristocratic people on her social circle. With her two sisters, they moved from London to a smaller and quieter town, Lyme Regis. It turned out that the town was perfect for Elizabeth's passion and it led her to a local fossil seller girl, Mary Anning. Both Elizabeth and Mary were super talented and together they challenged the sexist judgement from the male scientists.

I find the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot to be very heart-touching, despite of it might be dramatized a bit by the novelist. The bond they had together was unusual, I can even say they're closer than sisters. It is amazing how one interest glues two different people together. Mary Anning was a nobody. She was a mere fossil merchant (or so they said) and her family background and her gender made it hard for everyone to took her seriously. How sad is that?

I began frequenting the beaches more and more, though at the time few women took interest in fossils. It was seen as an unladylike pursuit, dirty and mysterious. I didn't mind. There was no one I wanted to impress with my femininity.

Except for Elizabeth, of course. She noticed Mary's talent and decided to help as a friend, and as patron. If it weren't for Elizabeth people would not give credit for Mary's work and simply claimed them as their own. It saddens me that back then people would just dismiss you because of your gender, which you have no choice in deciding. Both of these women were just two examples. I am sure, there were many women back then whose works left non-credited to them, even worse, claimed by somebody else.

Both Mary and Elizabeth are fragile in their own way. There isn't any shocking scene in this book, but it amazed me how such a simple (yet beautiful) story kept me going until the last page. Maybe it's the characters' smartness?

But I was not done. "So every rock we see is as God created it at the beginning," I persisted. "And as the rocks came first, as in Genesis, before the animals."
"Yes, yes." Reverend Jones was becoming impatient, his mouth chewing an imaginary straw.
"If that's the case, then how did the skeletons of animals get inside rocks and become fossils? If the rocks were already created by God before the animals, how is that there are bodies in the rocks?" 

Easy high 5 rating from me. Remarkable Creatures is as satisfying as other novels I've read from Chevalier. I love it when an author consistently makes wonderful novels. Despite of my fondness of this book, it is a little hard to review it because the book actually left me speechless, so yes, now you see why I didn't really talk much.

So how about you? Have you read any books by Tracy Chevalier? What is it? Was it good? Who's your favorite historical fiction author? Let's chat!