book about mary anning written by tracy chevalier

Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty and barely suppressed envy. Luckily Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly, intelligent Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who is also fossil-obsessed. Even nature is a threat, throwing bitter cold, storms, and landslips at her. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is soon reduced to a serving role, facing prejudice from the academic community, vicious gossip from neighbours, and the heartbreak of forbidden love.

When she uncovers unknown dinosaur fossils in the cliffs near her home, she sets the scientific world alight, challenging ideas about the world’s creation and stimulating debate over our origins. In the early nineteenth century, a windswept beach along the English coast brims with fossils for those with the eye…įrom the moment she’s struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is marked for greatness. Tracy Chevalier’s stunning novel of how one woman’s gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century.Ī revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset.įrom the author of At the Edge of the Orchard and Girl With a Pearl Earring comes this incredible story of two remarkable women and their voyage of discovery.‘It is a stunning story, compassionately reimagined’ Guardian Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man.

When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary learns that she has a unique gift: 'the eye' to spot ammonites and other fossils no one else can see. Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling novelist, a stunning historical novel that follows the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two extraordinary 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever.

Book about mary anning written by tracy chevalier