Review: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In 1810, a sister and brother uncover the fossilized skull of an unknown animal in the cliffs on the south coast of England. With its long snout and prominent teeth, it might be a crocodile – except that it has a huge, bulbous eye and a body with far more parts than your ordinary crock.

Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning, who has a talent for finding fossils, and whose discovery of ancient marine reptiles such as that ichthyosaur shakes the scientific community and leads to new ways of thinking about the creation of the world.

Working in an arena dominated by middle-class men, however, Mary finds herself out of step with her working-class background. In danger of being an outcast in her community, she takes solace in an unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Philpot, a prickly London spinster with her own passion for fossils.

Autograph letter concerning the discovery of plesiosaurus, from Mary Anning. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The strong bond between Mary and Elizabeth sees them through struggles with poverty, rivalry and ostracism, as well as the physical dangers of their chosen obsession. It reminds us that friendship can outlast storms and landslides, anger and jealousy.

My impressions:

I took this one with me to the sea. I expected quite a lot from this book. I had every right to do so. After all we owe our knowledge of ammonites, bivalves, plesiosaurs,  and other aquatic beasts of the era to these remarkable women, both historical figures, who hunted for and preserved fossils along England's Dorset coast. Mary Anning was  more productive of the two as it was she who found the major specimens but it does not minimize the better-off Miss Philpot's many contributions, both emotional and financial, to the process. Overall those were two female fossil hunters in the early 1800s whose contributions to paleontology couldn't have been overlooked even by an extermely paternalistic society.  

As you delve into the book you realize how ground breaking the events of the novel were. If there were creatures buried in the earth that no longer lived on land that meant that God had made a mistake or created something not completely good! Or that Genesis as they knew it didn't make sense - if God made Heaven and Earth first and the animals after, how could there be animals buried in the earth? And for an uneducated, working class girl to be right in the center of all of this discovery, in an educated man's world, was equally surprising.

However, it was a slight disappointment, this one.  As it was presented, it was perhaps a solid, well-made entertainment, about a subject most of us have never given a lot of thought to, but nothing exceptional. 

Partially I blame the narration. The first person voice is perhaps ok but two first person accounts of two different women, more than two decades apart and coming from different walks of life, should have been as different as chalk and cheese, right? Only they weren't. From time to time you are gently reminded that Mary is a daughter of a simple carpenter from a small town near the sea - mainly when she remembers to butcher one sentence out of three or says 'verteberry' instead of 'vertebrae' -but it was too little. Personally I felt that, whereas the narrative voice of Elizabeth came quite naturally to the author, that of the Mary was overshadowed by the older, more mature and better educated Miss Philpot. In fact I suppose a third person limited narration would work much better, at least in my case. It didn't help that there were too few scenes showing the incredible interaction that must have been established between those two; instead we are given a love affair between both of them and Colonel Birch, a man who first preys on their skills and exploits their infatuation in order to gather a nice collection of fossils and then does something rather out of character, (I won't spoil you here), unbearably altruistic and completely spurious, at least in my view. 

The setting "Remarkable Creatures" is in the English town of Lyme Regis in the early 19th century.  You might remember this quiet resort village from Jane Austen's "Persuasion". I was rather happy to revisit it, especially that here Ms. Chevalier managed to present both sides of that town, that of a joyful summer resort full of happy holidaymakers and of a winter hell hole where it is difficult to earn your living and suffer cold weather, rather well.

Final verdict:

I wanted to read a story about fossil hunting which triggered the tension between religion and science and challenged biased attitudes towards women. I was given a story of female friendship, rivalires and the woes and tribulations of being a spinster told through the lens of fossil hunting. It wasn't very bad but it wasn't  brilliant either. The best part of the book in my opinion was the author's historical note at the end, telling us more about the later fates of her characters- rather remarkable in a negative way, isn't it? Meh, nuff said.

Review: Tracy Chevalier, “Girl with a Pearl Earring”

Synopsis

Have you ever experienced such a moment: you admire a fascinating portrait painted by a famous artist and you would like to know more about the model; you glance at the title of the picture and you find out that the model is anonymous…what a pity. On the other hand, though, your imagination has been immediately set at work to fill in the void. Who was this woman? Family? A friend? A stranger? I suppose such a feeling might have been a source of inspiration for this book.

We are shown the household of Johannes Vermeer, one of the 17^th century Dutch geniuses, whose 35 canvases are like precious crown jewels for every art museum in the world. He needs a new maid to clean his studio and decides to hire Griet, a 16-year-old daughter of a tile painter who had become blind in an accident at work. It was partially an act of charity and solidarity of guild members– at the time of that accident Vermeer had been the headman of the Guild of St Luke and Griet’s father, although just a simple artisan, belonged to that organization too. Griet is a perceptive and intelligent girl; her new master quickly sees she might be also artistically talented. Soon enough the new maid advances to an unofficial part-time assistant and ultimately she sits for her master as a model with the pearl earrings of his wife in her earlobes. And then an avalanche of problems is set in motion. Vermeer’s eternally pregnant wife, Catharina, despises Griet (as wives always know when their hubbies get too interested in another girl), and the children, following the example of their mother, give her some grief too. Other maids start to spread gossip about the nature of intimacy between her and Vermeer– it is known that some servant girls have got pregnant while doing modelling for their masters. Such rumours might seriously hurt Griet’s chances to find a husband and she needs a husband very badly as her family can no longer support her financially. She suffers further losses. Her younger sister dies during a bout of plague. Finally her beloved brother, Frans, loses his job in scandalous circumstances and has to go away from Delft. Griet’s biggest ally is Maria Thins, Vermeer’s taciturn mother-in-law , who does everything in her power to make her son-in-law paint and earn more and more as they are heavily indebted. Will she be willing to help Griet, though, when the girl is accused of stealing? The book ends with a twist and, although we will never know whether this story was true, we finish it being sure it was very well told.

What I liked:

I am sure the authoress has made a lot of research because all the facts concerning the life of Vermeer are in perfect accordance with all rare documents we currently have at our disposal. The plot is not very intricate but you soon find yourself glued to the book and compelled to finish. The mood of the masterpiece simply seeps through the pages and the fictional girl with a pearl earring is as likeable as her portrait. A very nice read!

What I didn’t like:

I wish this book were longer – some more descriptions of life in the 17^th century Delft (and of Griet’s family too) would please me very much. What happened to her brother? I hate the fact that we were told nothing about the fate of Frans.

The final verdict:

I definitely recommend this novel, although some other books of this author I didn't like that much.

ETA: I've forgotten to add: Griet is the Dutch version of Margaret which means "pearl"...