The Remarkable Tale of Mary Anning: An Analysis of Remarkable Creatures and its
Merit as Historical Fiction Novels can do more that simply tell stories. Novels can enhance or emphasize thoughts and ideas. They can excite a wide variety of emotions. They can be the product of imagination, or they can be influenced by historical fact. Whether or not the events in a novel are true is left entirely up to the author, but it is truly an incredible feat to take a piece of history and turn it into a work of fiction that is plausible and logical. For our Senior Seminar, we have studied the aspects of fiction that have a basis in historical fact. They do so by applying certain literary devices that are necessary to the historical fiction genre. The novel I chose to research and present on is entitled Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Last Runaway. This work of historical fiction tells the story of Mary Anning, one of the first recognized female paleontologists whose discoveries changed many views on the world and how it began. Remarkable Creatures is a biographical novel, as it concentrates on the experiences that Mary Anning had during her lifetime, the people she meets, and the incidents that occur in her life. This essay will evaluate Chevalier’s work on the basis of its merit as historical fiction. Remarkable Creatures belongs in this category because it Chevalier implements the critical terms of the genre in numerous and intricate ways. I will use reliable secondary sources and class readings to promote the value of the text as historical fiction, and to analyze not only the text, but also the entire genre that the text represents. I will first begin with a brief description of the literary devices that form the critical framework of the historical fiction genre and how they are used in Remarkable Creatures. The first two elements are accessibility and the familiar. These two terms have an intertwined relationship. The familiar is the element in fiction that coincides with our own experiences, or emotions, and thus is recognizable as a part of human life. It is what the reader connects with on a personal level. It establishes intimate connections with emotional ties that vary from person to person and draws us into the world of the novel. The familiar is applied to me as I read. I draw upon my fascination of fossils and the prehistoric eras of the world to make a personal connection with the novel. I once found a fossilized fish, just like Mary Anning. It is related to the accessibility of the novel, which is the sense that we are drawn into the world of the novel with emotional ties. The novel is accessible to me due to my personal connection with the main character. Even though I do not know much about the period in which Remarkable Creatures takes place, it is accessible and familiar to me because of my personal and emotional connections to it.
The following three literary devices are historicity, authenticity and the strange. The strange is the element in historical fiction that makes us believe that we have been transported to a new and unknown place. It is what excites us and brings out new thoughts because we have an intellectual basis with which to study. The strange is promoted by factual knowledge, rather than emotional appeal, and it is intensified by authenticity. The authenticity of the novel is not “real” in the sense that it is the tone of the novel. A novel is authentic when it is based on research and knowledge about the period, places, events, and people that the text represents. This is also where the historicity comes in. This fictional work has many foundations in historical fact. There are dozens of instances of authenticity in Remarkable Creatures. Mary Anning was a real person, and all of the dates listed in regards to her life are historically accurate. All of the cities mentioned in the novel and travelled to by the characters are geographically accurate, including the English cities of London, Brighton, and most importantly, Lyme Regis. The addition of Lyme Regis is crucial because it is where Mary Anning was born and raised, and where the novel is predominately set. One of the first things mentioned in the novel is that a war is going on. That war is the French Revolution. The war and the people it is associated with, including Napoleon, are mentioned have a large impact on the lives of the characters in the novel. By implementing all five of these devices, Tracy Chevalier authenticates Remarkable Creatures and goes a long way to support its position as a part of the historical fiction genre.
The final element of the historical fiction genre is the application of romance. Romance in this aspect is not the formulaic expression of emotional attraction between characters. It is applied when the inner thoughts of the characters are enhanced, and it engages in speculation regarding the emotion of characters that is absent in works of non-fiction. It is very effective in relaying the thoughts and feelings of historical characters. The author romanticizes the characters in an attempt to show the reader what the characters might have said and thought at the time. While it is not historical fact, it still draws in the reader and makes the characters relatable. For example, Tracy Chevalier speculates and gives Mary Anning a very sarcastic tone of voice when she speaks to other people. Chevalier also implies that Anning was a very passionate thinker when it came to searching for fossils, shown when Anning internally claims that fossil hunting “takes over, like a hunger, and nothing else matters but what you find,” and that “even when you find it, you still start looking again the next minute, because there might be something even better waiting” (60). Chevalier does not know exactly the words Anning spoke, how she thought, or even how she related to other people during her lifetime, but chooses to give her a specific personality, thus romanticizing her.
My research into Remarkable Creatures and its identification as a work of historical fiction began with the novel itself. The text mentions certain figures that, while not necessarily famous, are in fact real people who interacted with Mary Anning during her lifetime. The most important of these characters is Elizabeth Philpot, a close friend and confidant of Anning. Chevalier chooses to include Elizabeth Philpot in the narration of the story along with Anning. This blended narration between these two women exemplifies the romantic aspect of Remarkable Creatures by giving speculative insight into the relationship between them. According to Tracy Chevalier, “little is known about Elizabeth Philpot.” On her official web page, Chevalier gives a brief summary of Philpot’s life, claiming that “she was often mentioned in letters Mary Anning wrote.” I was initially concerned that Elizabeth Philpot was not as real as Chevalier claimed she was, since her available information on Philpot is lacking. In order to establish a historical background, I considered two of my secondary print sources. The first of which is The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, an encyclopedia of the scientific advances achieved by women, written by scientific historians Marilyn Ogilvie and Joy Harvey. According to this text, Philpot was indeed a British fossil collector who “kept up contacts with geologists such as William Buckland, Conybeare, and De la Beche, who used her collections” (Ogilvie and Harvey 1018). The second text is entitled The Fossil Hunter, by Shelley Emling. This book is a biography of Mary Anning’s life, citing specific and accurate events without the novelty or romanticism of Remarkable Creatures. Emling states that while Elizabeth Philpot was “nearly twenty years older than Mary, [she] often asked for her opinion and she forever encouraged the younger woman’s pursuits” (Emling 66). Both of these texts portray Elizabeth Philpot from a historical stance, and they go far to promote the authenticity of Remarkable Creatures by verifying both Philpot’s association with noted scientists and her relationship with Mary Anning.
When I first read through Remarkable Creatures, I was amused at the anecdotal and matter-of-fact tone of voice that Mary Anning speaks with in the novel as she reflects on certain instances that promote the strange. In regards to that promotion, D.W. Fenza says it best: “The historical novel enables us to exchange our busy, distracted places for a more coherent world” (Fenza 11). There are many claims that I thought surely had to be a part of Chevalier’s romanticizing. The very first line seems almost mythical, beginning the novel with an internal monologue from Anning as she states that “lightning has struck [her] all her life,” and that “just once it was real” (3). Not only is this statement immediately enticing, it is also completely factual. In British author Deborah Cadbury’s work entitled The Dinosaur Hunters, it is confirmed that Mary Anning indeed survived being struck by lightning. The Dinosaur Hunters is a work that chronicles the rise of paleontology and the notable achievements of those associated with it. Cadbury states that when Anning was “bathed in hot water, gradually she was revived to the joyful exclamations of the assembled crowd” (Cadbury 6). The miracles do not cease with Mary’s revival. In Remarkable Creatures, Mary is informed that she “was a quiet, sickly child before the storm, but after it [she] grew up lively and alert” (3). The fact that Anning was transformed by the lightning strike seems outrageous, but it is confirmed in The Fossil Hunter when Emling states that Anning “had been a dull child before but after this accident she became lively and intelligent” (Emling 16). These incredible occurrences serve to promote the strange in Remarkable Creatures, because not only do they instill a sense of mystery and the unknown, they also have a foundation in historical fact. The idea that the author has a privileged access to knowledge of the past is put forth by Andrew Beahrs, and it ties back to the necessity of the strange that is shown in Remarkable Creatures. Beahrs states that if a novel is “overly similar to the modern world, too immediately recognizable, the author’s essential aura of privileged access and knowledge dissolves” (Beahrs 5). In other words, Chevalier’s authority is solid because her writings about the past establish new and foreign bridges with which we can cross over into a new reality.
I will now explain the promotion of the familiar in Remarkable Creatures by discussing the aspects of the novel that may coincide with personal emotions, thus furthering the novel’s merit as a piece of historical fiction. The aspect of the familiar in a historical novel is easy to apply, but more difficult to generalize. While a historical novel should be recognizable as a part of human life, the particular part of life that is recognizable will vary from reader to reader. The familiarity must be made available to a sufficient amount of people in order to provide the framework for the genre. Andrew Beahrs has much to say in regards to familiarity in historical fiction. According to Beahrs, “if the constructed past is too alien, it will be without interest or relevance for a contemporary reader” (Beahrs 5). Religion is one of the more familiar and emotional connections that Remarkable Creatures creates with its audience. Religion is a very common part of human life. One of the most prevalent sources of debate in Remarkable Creatures is the spiritual implication of Mary Anning’s discoveries. A recurring theme in the novel is the refusal to accept change. This theme represents a feeling that many people have. People are scared to question their established beliefs, and the established belief during the time of Remarkable Creatures was that animals do not evolve or become altered in some way, and that it is against God’s will to question it. According to Philpot, people prefer to “hold on to their superstitions and leave the unanswerable questions to God’s will rather than find a reasonable explanation that might challenge previous thinking” (81). After Anning’s discovery of what would be known as the first Ichthyosaur ever uncovered, Elizabeth Philpot begins to have doubts regarding the standard belief that was held by the majority of churchgoers: “All you see about you is as God set out in the beginning. He did not create beasts and then get rid of them. That would suggest He had made a mistake, and of course God is all-knowing and incapable of error” (92). In Mary Anning: The Fossilist as Exegete, Reverend Thomas W. Goodhue, author of several texts on Mary Anning, analyzes how Anning views her discoveries as a form of exegesis, or interpretation of biblical text. Goodhue comments on the resistant religious people in Remarkable Creatures, and how scientific discoveries serve to further define beliefs, instead of proving them to be wrong. He claims that Anning’s work indeed questioned beliefs, but not in a way that causes the loss of faith. He discusses Anning’s “shift in her Christian denomination from dissent to the Established Church, providing further indication of her spiritual depth – a piety that furthered, rather than hindered, her scientific progress” (Goodhue 1). Tracy Chevalier establishes a familiarity with her audience when she includes the religious implications of Anning’s discoveries. We can relate to the novel in this aspect. When we are confronted with proof that our way of thinking is flawed, we resist the change, just like the churchgoers in the novel.
I will now draw upon another novel we have read to demonstrate the subgenre of historical fiction into which Remarkable Creatures falls. Remarkable Creatures is a biographical novel. This subgenre relies on romanticism and speculation to give an entertaining account of a person’s life. Certain aspects of the account may be fictionalized as to give it the form of a novel. The novel that we studied that fits into this subgenre is Life Mask, written by Emma Donoghue. Both Life Mask and Remarkable Creatures tell a fictionalized account of historical characters. In Life Mask, the characters are Anne Damer, a sculptor, and Eliza Farren, an actress. These two novels share many similarities. Both novels are set during the nineteenth century. They both feature female protagonists who are among the first recognized professional women in their respective fields. In Life Mask, it is mentioned that Anne Damer is “the first female ever to take up sculpture in a serious way” (Donoghue 12). Both novels feature a relationship between an older, world-wearier woman and a younger, more ambitious woman. These biographical novels focus heavily on romanticism. The authors speculate what the characters are saying to each other at any given time, as they have no way of knowing the literal dialogue, but they also give factual accounts of the world around the characters. Both Remarkable Creatures and Life Mask represent the biographical novel subset, and they exhibit the choices of the authors to give a fictionalized account of someone’s life.
I have discussed at great length the historical aspects of Remarkable Creatures that anchor the novel to the historical fiction genre. However, I believe the romantic aspect of historical fiction to be the most important in regards to the classification of the historical fiction genre. It is what sets the genre apart from nonfiction. Professor Jill Lepore claims, “the writer of romance is to be considered as the writer of real history” (Lepore 4). The romanticism in Remarkable Creatures is evident in the language and speech of the characters, their inner thoughts, and their interactions with those around them. I will now analyze certain personality traits of the characters that are almost certainly romanticized. The first of which is Mary Anning. It has been established that she was very passionate about fossils. However, her personality and thoughts shown in Remarkable Creatures are speculative. For example, in the very beginning of the novel, Mary claims that the “memory of that lightning still runs through [her] like a shiver” (3). This is plainly a romantic notion that Chevalier added for dramatic effect. Next, we have Elizabeth Philpot, whose life is already lacking in in-depth information. “I sometimes felt in those early years that I was waiting for her to grow up so that I could have the companionship I craved. In that, I was right” (33). Chevalier speculates this desire. We have no idea if that is how Philpot truly felt, but its inclusion is necessary for the critical framework of the drama.
In order for a piece of historical fiction to be authentic, the author must present factual knowledge about the subject. Tracy Chevalier is knowledgeable about the period and about Anning, shown by the countless instances of historical facts presented in the text. While Remarkable Creatures tells Mary Anning’s story through the lens of historical fiction, Anning’s scientific advancements are also well known in educated circles. The story of Mary Anning and her discoveries has been widely dispersed throughout the world of literature. As I researched Mary Anning’s achievements for my promotion of the authenticity of Remarkable Creatures, I came across a few things that are connected with Mary Anning took me by complete surprise. For example, everyone is aware of this popular tongue twister: She sells seashells on the seashore. 

The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure. For if she sells seashells on the sea-shore

Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
This brief word game, written by British songwriter Terry Sullivan in 1908, is actually attributed to Mary Anning and her penchant for doing exactly what the words say (Hess 9). Another example of the pervasion of Mary Anning appeared in one of our readings by literary critic David Lodge. Lodge’s definition for historical fiction is simple. He claims that historical fiction is the use of a novel “to evoke a sense of the past with convincing specificity…and in terms of culture, ideology, manners, and morals” (Lodge 131). In Lodge’s critical work The Art of Fiction, one of the chapters is entitled “A Sense of the Past.” It is a criticism of the historical novel called The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles. Mary Anning briefly appears as a character in this novel, as it takes place in Lyme Regis, the same town as in Remarkable Creatures. I read through The French Lieutenant’s Woman and found the mentioning of Mary Anning. It occurs in the eighth chapter. Charles, the protagonist of the novel, visits “the Old Fossil Shop, founded by the remarkable Mary Anning, a woman without formal education but with a genius for discovering good—and on many occasions then unclassified—specimens,” and he states that “she was the first person to see the bones of Ichthyosaurus platyodon; and one of the meanest disgraces of British paleontology is that although many scientists of the day gratefully used her finds to establish their own reputation, not one native type bears the specific anningii” (Fowles 54). The author, John Fowles, is attesting to Mary Anning’s scientific accomplishments and is upset that none of her discoveries are named after her. It appears that Tracy Chevalier is not the only author who believes Mary Anning to be “remarkable.” It goes along way towards the promotion of authenticity if the subject is mentioned and lauded in a completely separate piece of historical fiction. While these examples do not specifically serve to authenticate Remarkable Creatures, they do serve to verify Chevalier’s claim that Mary Anning’s accomplishments are indeed historic. Remarkable Creatures is a biographical novel and a work of historical fiction that tells the story of Mary Anning, one of the first women to be recognized in the field of paleontology. Tracy Chevalier writes not only to educate her readers on the accomplishments of an incredible woman, but also to give insight into what she thought, how she spoke, and how she interacted with those around her. This is the purpose of the historical novel. Writers in this genre establish a foundation in historical fact, and then engage in speculation beyond what would be allowed in works of nonfiction. Chevalier accomplishes this in Remarkable Creatures. Works of literature in this genre must delve into the emotions of these historical figures. Otherwise they are nothing more than simple works of nonfiction.

Works Cited
Beahrs, Andrew. "Making History: Establishing Authority in Period Fiction." The Writer's Chronicle 38, no. 1 (September, 2005): 34-40.
Cadbury, Deborah. The Dinosaur Hunters: A Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World. London: Fourth Estate, 2000. Print.
Chevalier, Tracy. "Historical Figures in Remarkable Creatures." Tracy Chevalier Official Site. N.p., 1 June 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Chevalier, Tracy. Remarkable Creatures. New York: Dutton, 2010. Print.
Donoghue, Emma. Life Mask. Orlando: Harcourt, 2004. Electronic.
Emling, Shelley. The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.
Fenza, D. W. “The Pleasures and Peculiar Status of the Historical Novel: The Voyages of Patrick O'Brian.” The Writer's Chronicle 36, no. 2 (October/November, 2003): 56-64.
Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant's Woman. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. Print.
Goodhue, T.W. "Mary Anning: The Fossilist as Exegete." Endeavour 29.1 (2005): 28-32. MEDLINE. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
Hess, Marianne. "Mary's Monster." Hopscotch 24.2 (2012): 24-26. Primary Search. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
Lepore, Jill. "Just the Facts, Ma'am." The New Yorker 24` Mar. 2008: 79-83. Web.
Lodge, David. "A Sense of the Past." The Art of Fiction. London: Vintage, 2011. N. pag. Print.
Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey., and Joy Dorothy. Harvey. The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Rich, Alex K. "Mary Anning." Biography Reference Bank. H.W. Wilson, 1 Jan. 2006. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.