Remarkable Creatures

I know that fossils are not technically animals, let alone horses, but the author of a new book about a woman who discovered a fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur in 19th century England, is about both and you must read it.

The author of this amazing book is Tracy Chevalier and the book is Remarkable Creatures. Chevalier also wrote (among others) The Girl with a Pearl Earing which was made into an incredible movie. I had the wonderful privilege of hearing Chevalier speak about her new book last week and it was spellbinding. And I don't use that word lightly.

Chevalier clearly has a lot of experience doing this type of thing but her presentation was fascinating. The book is based on her own visit to a small dinosaur museum in the corner of England where she has lived for about a decade. She accompanied her son and in the corner of the display area noted some information about Mary Anning, a "gifted" fossil finder from Lyme-Perry in Southern England along the coast, who was hit by lightening as a baby and survived. As she put it, "What else could a writer ask for?"

The story is about Anning and her discovery, of course, but it is also a story about the friendship Anning strikes up with one Elizabeth Philpot, a spinster who moves to the coastal town with her two sisters from London. Elizabeth's is the educated voice in the book and it is through her insights that the reader gains an appreciation for everything Mary is up against in this very male dominated profession.

It is also the story of intellectual ideas and how they come into existence because when Mary discovered this skeleton the concept of an animal that no longer existed was completely blasphemous since Religion and Science were one and the same. God created all the animals and the animals that existed were the ones he created--no more or less and the concepts of some no longer alive was heresy.

The prose is amazing. The story is riveting and regardless of whether or not you like fossils or even every considered them, you will be transfixed. I promise.