Remarkable Creatures

Remarkable Creatures (2009), a novel by Tracy Chevalier, is historical fiction that explores the unlikely friendship between Mary Anning, a working-class woman with a passion for fossil hunting, and Elizabeth Philpot, an unmarried middle-class woman. The novel is set against the backdrop of the rigid societal conventions of 19th-century England. When Mary uncovers a prehistoric fossil on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, her discovery ignites enthusiasm in the scientific community and threatens her village’s deeply entrenched Biblical worldview. However, Mary and Elizabeth refuse to be bound by society’s expectations and go on to reshape the study of paleontology. Chevalier is best known for her award-winning 1999 novel Girl With a Pearl Earring, which was adapted into a film in 2003. In 2008, Chevalier was inducted as a fellow into the Royal Society of Literature, and in 2013, she received the Ohioana Book Award for The Last Runaway.

This guide uses the Penguin Random House 2009 eBook edition of Remarkable Creatures.

Plot Summary

Elizabeth Philpot lives in London with her brother, John, and her sisters. After John marries, per tradition, his wife becomes the lady of the household, and Elizabeth and her two unmarried sisters, Louise and Margaret, must find a new home. After touring the coast, they purchase Morley Cottage in Lyme Regis, a quaint seaside village. At first, Elizabeth struggles to settle into small-town life, but she soon finds living in Lyme Regis offers her more independence than London’s cosmopolitanism. She has always been interested in the natural sciences, and she begins combing the beaches where she finds rich deposits of fossilized fish and other strange creatures.

Elizabeth’s collection of fossils, called “curies” by the locals, grows, and she seeks out the village cabinet maker, Richard Anning, to build a case for her specimens. While at his shop, Elizabeth meets Richard’s daughter Mary, a bright, energetic young girl who also enjoys fossil hunting, though she does it primarily to make money for the family. Though it’s socially unacceptable for their classes to mix, Elizabeth begins spending more time with Mary. She learns that the young girl has a keen eye for finding fossils and a curious, open mind. However, the people of Lyme Regis dislike fossil hunting: At best, they keep the curies as part of a collection and, at worst, they see the practice as sinful. Mary and Elizabeth become outcasts in the town as they spend their days digging in sand and clay instead of attending social events or participating in activities seen as more appropriate for their gender and class. Then, Mary’s father dies, leaving her mother, Molly, to care for the family, and Mary must seek and sell more curies to keep her family from starving.

With the help of her brother Joe, Mary finds a giant skeleton that locals assume is a crocodile, though it has paddles and a different bone structure. Elizabeth helps Mary pay the local stone cutters to excavate the skeleton, and soon, word of Mary’s extraordinary find spreads throughout the town and other villages. Other fossil hunters travel to Lyme Regis to view the skeleton and hunt for more treasures. The Anning family begins selling more curies and charging people to view the skeleton, which significantly improves their financial situation. Mary sells the crocodile fossil, which is formally identified as an ichthyosaurus, to a local gentleman, Lord Henley, who sells it for profit to Bullock’s Museum in London.

Colonel Birch, a gentleman and fossil hunter, comes to Lyme Regis looking for Mary, who is now locally famous for her hunting skills. Elizabeth is jealous of the attention Mary receives, especially since Colonel Birch is a charming man. However, Colonel Birch exploits Mary’s skill, using her to collect many fossils to enrich his collection. Mary finds another ichthyosaur for him, and he takes all the credit. Though he flirts with Mary and kisses her, Elizabeth insists that he would never marry below his class. Finally, he leaves town after selling the ichthyosaur fossil to a museum, leaving Mary devastated. When Molly Anning writes to Colonel Birch, demanding that he pay Mary for her services, he ignores the letter. Later, Elizabeth sees Colonel Birch in London and chastises him for his treatment of Mary, but he confesses that he has no money to pay her. Meanwhile, Mary is heartbroken and refuses to hunt more curies, and the family is in danger of going to the workhouse. When Elizabeth returns to Lyme Regis, she says Mary’s lovesickness is foolish. Mary accuses Elizabeth of being jealous, and the friends part ways.

For years, Mary doesn’t find any more giant skeletons; but one day, she discovers a new species called a plesiosaur. Colonel Birch returns to Lyme Regis to purchase the skeleton. He tells Mary he can’t marry her, but they end up having sex. Later, Mary finds a second, more complete fossil of a plesiosaur and sends sketches of the skeleton to Georges Cuvier, who is a famous naturalist in France; but he accuses her of fraud, saying she has fused two skeletons to create a new creature. Mary is hurt by this accusation, but she sells the plesiosaur and it travels to London to the Geological Society. Elizabeth hears about Cuvier’s accusation and travels alone by ship to London to convince the Geological Society to substantiate Mary’s findings and give her credit for the discovery. She succeeds, though the statement remains off the record of the meeting’s minutes. While in London, Elizabeth contracts pneumonia and must remain there to recover. When Mary hears about her illness, she regrets the breach in their friendship; she understands that Elizabeth has worked so hard to clear Mary’s name. Though Mary has become a town celebrity, she is lonely without her friend. Mary finds another plesiosaur, and Cuvier sends two French scientists to Lyme Regis to inspect and purchase the skeleton; he, too, trusts Mary’s skills as a fossil hunter. When Elizabeth returns to Lyme Regis, she and Mary reconcile and resume hunting fossils together.