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This is the delightful fictionalization of the story of two women, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, who contributed to the science of paleontology. Chevalier gracefully ties in the status of women in early 19th century England and the class rigidity of the time. She also through various characters brings in the difficulty that the slow realization that animals had existed and gone extinct, and the the world had not been created 6000 years ago just as it is now.
It was fun to read this after Th ...more
It was fun to read this after Th ...more
Mary Anning was a fossil-finder par excellent. In the early 1800s she brought many bones to light, but because of her gender AND her social class in England, she was unable to really study them in a scientific way--or even to be properly credited for her finds.
Elizabeth Philpot was a middle-class woman of her times, but with an uncommon interest in searching for fossil fishes. She and Mary became unlikely friends.
Chevalier has written a fictionalized account of the beginning of this remarkable f ...more
Elizabeth Philpot was a middle-class woman of her times, but with an uncommon interest in searching for fossil fishes. She and Mary became unlikely friends.
Chevalier has written a fictionalized account of the beginning of this remarkable f ...more
Not Chevalier's best, but still an interesting account of two women who hunt fossils along the beaches of 19th century England. The novel is told alternatively from the perspective on each woman, which makes it seem rather stilted. Still, there was a lot of information about the early days of piecing together the fossil record, and the anxiety that the new information caused in some sections of polite society.
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I've really enjoyed the previous 2 Chevalier's I've read. Whilst I've mostly enjoyed this one, there was just a distinct lack of sparkle in this one though I would still have enjoyed it but for one incident which I thought was unnecessary. It just felt so incongruent to the overall tone of the novel plus I lost my respect for that character at that stage... Rant(view spoiler)
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Nov 16, 2009
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