Remarkable Creatures (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Mary Anning: One of the main characters in the book, Mary Anning is a fossil collector from a poor family. She is friends with Elizabeth Philpot.
• Elizabeth Philpot: The narrator and one of the main characters in the book, Elizabeth Philpot arrives in Lyme Regis with her two spinster sister from London. Elizaebeth likes to collect fossilized fish on the beachs in Lyme. She is friends with Mary Anning
• Molly Anning: Molly Anning is Mary Anning's mother. She is in charge of the money brought in by Mary's fossil finds.
• Colonel Birch: Colonel Birch, actually Lt. Colonel Birch uses Mary Anning to find fossils, ruining her reputation by not following appropriate protocol of the time, making her fall in love with him and not paying for the work she does.
• Margaret Philpot: Margaret is the sister of Elizabeth and Louise. Most social of the three, she likes to go to the Assembly Rooms in Lyme Regis where she dances and plays Whist.
• Louise Philpot: Louise Philpot is the oldest sister of the Philpots. She prefers to garden in Lyme Regis.
• John Philpot: Elizabeth Philpot's brother and benefactor for herself and the other unmarried sisters.
• William Lock aka Captain Cury: Fellow fossil hunter, rather unsavory fellow.
• Bessy: The Philpot sisters' servant.
• Lord Henry Hoste Henley: Disdained by Elizabeth Philpot and landowner of much of the land where fossils are mined. He is the epitome of a crass English Lord.
• Reverend Jones: Vicar of St. Michael's Church who believes in the literal interpretation of the Bible and against theory of evolution.
• Reverend William Buckland: Oxford geologist who accompanies Mary Anning on many of her fossil hunts.
• Fanny Miller: Three Cups' cook and occasional chaperone for Mary Anning and William Buckland
• Richard Anning: Mary and Joe's father, husband of Molly Anning. He got Mary started with collecting fossils.
• Joseph (Joe) Anning: Mary's brother who also helps collect fossils for the family business.

Quotes edit see section history

• “I have long noted that people tend to lead with one particular feature, a part of the face or body.”

  Elizabeth Philpot

• “Why would God make creatures that don't exist anymore?”

  Mary Anning

• “God in His infinite wisdom has peppered this world with mysteries for men to solve.”

  William Buckland

• “It seemed even he, who ate field mice and carried a bright blue sack and pissed in the sea, was uneasy about holding a girl in his arms.”

  Mary Anning

• “I did not have to listen any longer. Instead, I fainted.”

  Elizabeth Philpot

• “If the rocks were already created by God before the animals, how is it there are bodies in the rocks?”

  Elizabeth Philpot to Rev. Jones

• “I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil, a little jolt says," Yes, Mary Anning, you are different from all the rocks on the beach." That is why I'm a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning, and that difference, every day.”

  Mary Anning

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• Married women were set like jelly in a mold, whereas spinsters like me were formless and unpredictable.

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• She was like a fossil that’s been cleaned and set so everyone can see what it is.

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• It is not easy to let someone go, even when they have said unforgivable things to you.

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• That’s how fossil hunting is: It takes over, like a hunger, and nothing else matters but what you find. And even when you find it, you still start looking again the next minute, because there might be something even better waiting.

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• The chaos in the Annings’ workshop signaled to me something worse than poor housekeeping. Here was muddled thinking and moral disorder.

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• That is all she will get, I thought: a scrap of thanks crowded out by far more talk of glory for beast and man. Her name will never be recorded in scientific journals or books, but will be forgotten. So be it. A woman’s life is always a compromise.

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• I had discovered from conversations I’d had about fossils with the people of Lyme that few wanted to delve into unknown territory, preferring to hold on to their superstitions and leave unanswerable questions to God’s will rather than find a reasonable explanation that might challenge previous thinking. Hence they would rather call this animal a crocodile than consider the alternative: that it was the body of a creature that no longer existed in the world.

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• I’ve met plenty of others the same—frightened of what they don’t understand.

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• We had not meant our choice to cut us off from our past, but it did. We had only the present and the future to think of in Lyme.

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• I never like people who lead with their noses: They pull everything to the center of their faces, and I feel trapped by their concentration.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London: The Philpot Sisters begin their story in London
• Lyme Regis: Lyme Regis is the town the Philpot Sisters move to. It is also the home of Mary Anning

Organizations edit see section history

• Geological Society: The Geological Society (also known as The Geological Society of London) is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth". It is the oldest national geological society in the world.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• ammonite (ammo): The coiled, flat, chambered shell of any of various extinct mollusks of the class Cephalopoda found as fossils in Mesozoic formations.
• bezoar: A hard gastric or intestinal mass (Mary described it like a hair ball you'd find in the stomachs of goats)
• gryphaea (gryphie, Devil's toenails): Gryphaea obliquata (devil's toenails) is an extinct oyster known from the Dorset coast.
• Ichthyosaurus (ichie): A dolphin-like reptile from the late Jurassic period through the early Cretaceous period; it was not a dinosaur
• Plesiosaurus (plesie): A genus of fish-eating marine reptiles that lived during the early Jurassic period.
• crinoids: Sea Lilies the most ancient class of spiny-skinned animals, with fossil forms dating back to the Paleozoic with a plant-like appearance.
• brittle star: Brittle stars are close relatives of sea stars with a central body from which five snakelike arms protrude. The arms are highly flexible.
• pentacrinites: Pentacrinites is an extinct genus of crinoid that lived from the Middle Triassic to the Eocene of Asia, Europe, North America, and New Zealand. Their stems are pentagonal to star-shaped in cross-section and are the most commonly preserved parts. Pentacrinites are commonly found in the Pentacrinites Bed of the Early Jurassic of Lyme Regis, Dorset, England

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Remarkable Creatures: Someone in our book group noted that the "remarkable creatures" title not only applies to the fossils that Ezabeth and Mary found, but also to the two women themselves. Their journey at a time when women were not allowed to be academics is quite remarkable.

Errata edit see section history

On page 51, 1st paragraph, 2nd line, "fool's good" should be "fool's gold."

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Tracy Chevalier (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3553 H4367 R46
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Fine for adults or the more advanced readers among teens.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Women's Fiction › Friendship
• Books › Literature & Fiction › History & Criticism › European

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history