Chevalier's newest is a flat historical whose familiar themes of gender inequality, class warfare and social power often overwhelm the story. Tart-tongued spinster Elizabeth Philpot meets young Mary Anning after moving from London to the coastal town of Lyme Regis. The two quickly form an unlikely friendship based on their mutual interest in finding fossils, which provides the central narrative as working-class Mary emerges from childhood to become a famous fossil hunter, with her friend and protector Elizabeth to defend her against the men who try to take credit for Mary's finds. Their friendship, however, is tested when Colonel Birch comes to Lyme to ask for Mary's help in hunting fossils and the two spinsters compete for his attention. While Chevalier's exploration of the plight of Victorian-era women is admirable, Elizabeth's fixation on her status as an unmarried woman living in a gossipy small town becomes monotonous, and Chevalier slows the story by dryly explaining the relative importance of different fossils. Chevalier's attempt to imagine the lives of these real historical figures makes them seem less remarkable than they are.
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Tracy Chevalier es autora de once novelas, entre ellas La joven de la perla (Duomo ediciones), un bestseller internacional que ha vendido más de cinco millones de ejemplares, se ha traducido a 45 idiomas, y se ha llevado al cine, al teatro y a la ópera. Sus siguientes novelas han sido aclamadas por la crítica y se han convertido en un éxito comercial. Duomo ha publicado: La voz de los árboles, Las mujeres de Winchester y Las huellas de la vida. Nacida en Washington DC, se trasladó al Reino Unido en 1986, donde vive con su marido en Londres.