Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier ~ November Book Club Online

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome.

November Book Club Online
 Beginning on Nov. 1

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

In Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier brings to our attention, two historical figures, telling their tale in two distinct voices. Mary Anning is the young one, the uneducated girl with the uncanny gift of finding fossils.  It is the older woman whose voice dominates the novel, another historical character, a middle-class spinster sent away by a married brother to live more cheaply in England's coastal village of Lyme Regis.  To Jane Austen's readers, she will sound familiar.  Both women played a key role in understanding the earth with their discoveries, though not without controversy, at a time when there was no place for women in science. This  is  the story of their friendship which allowed them to stand together and prevail as they challenged the thinking of the day.

DISCUSSION SCHEDULE:     November 1-8    Chapters 1-3    November 9-15    Chapters 4-5

SOME TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
 Chapters 1-3

1. The first sentence of the novel is, “Lightning has struck me all my life.” What did you expect after reading that? What does Mary mean?

2. What attracts Mary to fossil hunting? How is it different from Elizabeth’s motivation?

3. How would you characterize the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth—mother/daughter, sisters, or something else?

4. On page 39 Elizabeth says, “After little more than a year in Lyme I’d come to appreciate the freedom a spinster with no male relatives about could have there.” Why is that? What did “freedom” mean for a woman of the time? Who had more freedom—Elizabeth or Mary?

These are from Lit Lovers Online.

Related Links:
Comments from the Prediscussion of this novel ;   Video ~ Tracy Chevalier on Writing Remarkable Creatures; The Annings' House and Shop;

DLs: AdoAnnie,   BarbStAubrey,   Marcie,  JoanP

[ANNIE]

Welcome to our latest and greatest book discussion.  I have found this a most interesting title and story where our author deals with History and Herstory in a most unusual manner.  I thought the ladies were the "Remarkable Creatures" but of course, what they searched for were "Remarkable Creatures" also.

So, do you think the quote from Mary Annning is MYTH or TRUTH?  I did read that the lightening striking Mary story was a popular myth in Lyme Regis but I think it might be true.

What does it mean to "lead with one's eyes"?  or hands or feet???  This was Elizabeth's take on Mary Anning.

I did find a sketch of Mary Anning's home and workshop where she sold her 'curies' that is pretty nice-

The Annings' House and Shop

[JoanP]

"Lightning has struck me all my life.” What did you expect after reading that?

  Is it a quote from the the real Mary - or was it Tracy Chevalier's  Mary speaking?  She's done a fantastic job, mingling fact, fleshing out the characters. don't you think?  

 I can't get over how those Philpot sisters resemble Jane's Austen's Elliot sisters in Persuasion -  to a point.  We know Jane visited Lyme Regis before she wrote of the Elliot girls.  Did she (Jane A) actually meet Mary Anning when in Lyme?  We know she visited Mary A's father, the cabinetmaker on that visit.  Could she have met Elizabeth Philpot and her sisters too?
 What do you all think?  Are you enjoying this fictionalized account of an historical event?  

After reading the quote - “Lightning has struck me all my life,”  I expect that Mary means her life was not easy after the first strike.  Is Tracy Chevalier preparing us for controversy ahead?  Or some amazing force of nature, maybe?  Another lightning strike?  No really, I've read of people who have been struck by lightning several times...they seem to attract such strikes.

[BarbStAubrey]

I was caught by how young she and her sisters were to be considered old maids - looks like the younger sister kicked up her heals for a bit but did not play the game to nab a fellow for marriage. At least the brother allowed them to chose the town they would live - not as commercial as those on the west side of Britain nor very far north so that winter would be a handicap - and someplace like Bath would mean keeping up with the Jones' - I wonder what her older sister was able to grow in her garden by the sea.

[JoanP]

Wouldn't you love to spend a summer like that, Barb?  Moving from beach town to beach town to decide which "feels" like home? A great way to pick a retirement community, no?

[BarbStAubrey]

Never thought of that but you are right - what a perfect idea - almost like taking your kids from college to college so they can decide.

[salan]

Marking my spot.
Sally

[BarbStAubrey]

Tra la... Found what I was curious about - the cottage that Elizabeth and her sisters lived in - found this tid bit that set me on the correct course -

"Elizabeth Philpot and her sisters lived at Morley Cottage on Silver St. (now the Mariner’s Hotel)."

Voila the Mariner Hotel, home of the Philpot sisters

Here is one of the bedrooms.

[bellamarie]

Okay, so again, I feel like I am asking a silly question, but here it goes....Are the characters real life people, who lived back in this era, or are they characters TC has created?  I realize the places are real, such as the towns, buildings etc.  But why was I thinking TC created these characters from her own mind?  I also noticed how in one chapter Mary Anning is the narrator. speaking from the past, then you have Elizabeth as the narrator.  So in other words, this is a story that is set in the past, and they are telling it as they lived it.  Do you suppose it will bring us up to date, to where they will be in the immediate future?

Just a bit confused?

Thank you for the pictures, I always love visuals, to get me more acquainted, and helps personalize things.

Ciao for now~

[Steph]

Both women were real people.. but the author has mixed it up so closely.. I think that Elizabeth is by far the freer person in many ways. Mary is very far down the social scale and that makes her life harder.
There is always the worry about food, shelter.
I dont understand the leading thing.. with you eye or nose or some such.. Anyone getting me clear..

[JoanK]

The houses are interesting. There is a big social gulf between Mary and Elizabeth, but, to my untrained eye, the houses look similar.

Of course, Elizabeth and her sisters are "gentry" i.e. they have the status of the upper class, but not the money. Thus they must keep up a "genteel" way of life without the finances to support it. Their house was quite modest.

[ANNIE]

This hotel is Morley House?  Its too big by Elizabeth's description.  I am thinking that there has been more added on over the years.
Here's our author talking about the book and Lyme Regis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh4wz-trFxI

And TC at the Lyme Regis Museum:

http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/in-the-museum/tracy-chevalier

I also found a picture of Chesil Beach with a foot shown so that you can see how the beach looks.  Its much nicer than the Lyme Regis beach.  Not sure that anyone was fossil hunting when we were there. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Chesil_Stones_with_shoe_for_scale.JPG

[bookad]

yes I must say it is nice to have a visual to help center me; when my  mind does the visual often find my self left when confronting the 'real' down the road, so thank you Barb

interesting how the women actually Mary is 11 here and Elizabeth about 25, so youngster and young woman; though Mary seems older with all she has had to cope with in her life, father dying, helping financially to put food on the table; and then again Elizabeth seems older, not with any gaiety one might expect of a mid-twenties person, but then she and her sisters consider themselves poor on the comparison of their lives in London under their father....not sure what the life expectancy is here during this time of the Napoleon's wars

admire Elizabeth for having the initiative to say to herself 'must find something to do rather than sit around and mope and feel exiled and nothing to live for', and 'fossils' become her passion

bookad

[BarbStAubrey]

Anne it appears to me from the roof lines it is two buildings that are now attached making this hotel - they may have combined two houses is what I am thinking but it is the address given for the cottage - If it is two houses then the question which side was the Philpot cottage - looking closely the building on the left appears to have a plaque next to the door but with out finding the tax roles we can only guess if these were two buildings now one hotel. However, several sites give the address for Morley Cottage on Silver St. and say it is now the Mariner hotel. I just looked to be sure and in Lyme Regis or in the area there is no other Mariner Hotel nor is there another Silver St. with a hotel.

Since this story took place 200 years ago when Jane Austen was traveling to Lyme I can only imagine the city or town or village has grown with many changes and more houses. Reminds me of visiting a pre-revolutionary war church in New York City surrounded by towering office buildings and trying to imagine how it looked and its setting in the countryside during the seventeenth century.

[ANNIE]

Barb,  I think we are right about the building and you did say this is the right address.  Don't you like all these links that are available about fossil hunting.  They are right down to learning how to break a stone apart to look at an ammonite.  Amazing!
Mary Anning was just a young sprite when her father started her and her brother, Joseph learning to fossil hunt and identify.  He must have sensed that they north had the eye. 
Its hard to see how women were so dependent on the men in their lives to support them.  They took it for granted that the man would always be there.  Poor Molly Anning sure had a harsh bumping into reality when her husband died.  She seemed to be able to handle the business though.  What a surprise that is to Elizabeth Philpot.  Me,too!

[bellamarie]

What attracts Mary to fossil hunting? How is it different from Elizabeth’s motivation?

I get the sense, Mary is drawn to fossil hunting by nature, it is in her soul.  Whether it was the lightning striking her as a baby, or if it was her father, brother and mother raising her to look and appreciate fossils, she does it like we breathe each day.  Yes, it is a means to help with the income, but I feel she would do it even if she were not so poor.

Elizabeth has made fossil hunting a pastime, something she needs to fill her time, although she is very educated about fossils, and with her new friend Mary, she has someone who she can share this hobby with.  She is older than Mary, so she can help her with organizing and learning the proper names. Mary doing this all her years of life, can teach Mary what is and is not a fossil, and the best times, and places to find them.

Ciao for now~

[JoanP]

I agree about Morley cottage and how it became almost unrecognizable with the add-ons over the years.  In our own neighborhood, there are so many renovations to the older homes that we wish we had taken photos of the old houses before the work was done.  Have lived in the same house for 37 years and the changes in the neighborhood blot out memories of how they used to live. (our house still looks the same!)
 Did you catch Chevalier's  wry description of that little two-bedroom house?..."a ladies' home - the size of a lady's character and expectations."

[JoanP]

I didn't understand about leading with eyes, eyebrows, hands, either, Steph - although I do understand how some people are able to see things, notice things, better than others.  They seem to know where to look, or to focus.  Is that what we are to understand about Mary Anning?  

Chevalier picked up on her reputation in Lyme Regis as the "lightening girl."  The local lore had it that Mary was said to be brighter because of the lightning strike. I wonder if that was before or after her ability to find things was recognized?  Maybe the myth came about because Mary not only survived the lightning strike, but her brains were not addled, she was able to function as a normal person in spite of it.  Wasn't she a mere baby when struck?  How does one compare her intelligence before or after the strike?

I'm not sure she would have been into fossils had her father not taught her what to look for, Bella. The question is -  did Richard Anning value the fossils for anything more than the price they would bring from the fossil collectors?

[Steph]

Mary and her father seemed to have a passion, that also made money, since Mary had to sell the valuable fossils, but really wanted to keep and hold them.l Elizabeth as far as I can figure did not sell any of hers.. but then she was only interested in fish.. I really marvel as to the seamless merging of true and fiction in this book.

[PatH]

I agree that the whole Mariner Hotel is too big to be the Philpot's cottage.  I vote for the part on the right in the picture, because it has a room under the eaves.  

It...had a parlor, dining room, and kitchen on the ground floor, with two bedrooms above as well as a room in the eaves for our servant...

I wouldn't mind having that bedroom.  It has a wonderfully cosy look (probably really icy cold) and a great view, and since I'm pretty short, I wouldn't bang my head on the ceiling.

[bellamarie]

I think I get what Elizabeth means, when she says the different ways people lead, with different parts of their body.  I have a tendency to people watch. When I sit at say like a mall, and study people, I can see that some lead with their brows, when they have an emotion or thought, they don't necessarily express, but their brow goes up or down.  I see the reaction clearly in people's brows, or eyes, leg movement, nose, arms, etc. etc.  Someone who leads with their nose, now I think that could mean they are keen to the scents around them, or they could be a bit snooty.  Mouth could mean you see their reactions with how they move their mouth, and taste could factor in.  I so can see someone leading with their mouth, especially when they are nervous.  I see any part of the body could be recognized in how a person leads and perceives life.  Now a baby is so evident, because their natural reactions when stimulated is to use all parts of their body, eyes brighten up, mouth tries to form words, legs wriggle, arms flay, nose wrinkles, feet kick, brows frow, and oh their little hearts just bursts with joy! We always could tell how our little grand daughter was excited, before she ever expressed a sound, her little arms would extend, and her wrists would twist like little pinwheels. I know I lead with my eyes.  

People give more away with their body parts, in expressing their thoughts or feelings, than I think they realize.  I've watched shows that have experts who are body analysts, and they can tell a person's thoughts and feelings, through the way they hold or move their body parts.  Especially if they are not telling the truth, or are uncomfortable. They are able to distinguish a person who is a leader, follower, pacifier, shy, introvert, extrovert, submissive, etc., etc.  I love studying people, especially politicians, when they speak, because their body gives away more than their words.

PatH., I too, like the little bedroom.  I grew up in a house with slanted ceilings in our bedrooms, and they were small and cozy, and very cold.  

Ciao for now~

[bookad]

to me it sounded like an idyllic life, nice home, wonderful view, servant to do housework, wandering the beaches, and so on ...... for the ?? down and out London girls now in their new home village , ++ no husband demanding of attentions as Margaret would have been slated for had not her boyfriend been overwhelmed by 'her family' and background
bookad

[BarbStAubrey]

Actually when you think about it Mary had more responsibility for her life than Elizabeth - financial responsibilities forces Mary to be more pragmatic and more focused on skills that will earn her an income. Therefore her skill is developed finding what she can sell to tourists where Elizabeth can afford to keep her finds to display at home.

[BarbStAubrey]

ah which of the two houses - too bad there is no clear closeup - both houses seem to have been altered - the further away from London the less the house would resemble what we think of as early eighteenth century use of building techniques.

First there is no way anyone in this price range house could afford these massive windows like we see in the photo of the bedroom and the upper windows in the long house on the left. Both had to have been replaced along the way. Crown glass was just reaching the builders The expense of crown glass was beyond the reach of most, so casement windows with leaded glazing remained very common throughout the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth centuries. Leaded glass was heavy - the thickness of window frames was to support the thick and heavy glass; A typical window was divide into as many as sixteen panes in the upper sash and twenty in the lower. It was only well into the eighteenth century and late eighteenth century in areas further from London that windows were 6 pane over 6 pane which was the Georgian style.

I remember being fascinated by the thatch roofed homes during visits to England and looked it up to be sure - something about laws in the late 1700s about the construction of windows. Originally windows were framed on the outside of the house - look at your window and you can see a brick or outside edge of the house that stops and a recess accommodates the window that is flush with the inside walls - the wood box that the window frame is attached to is inside the wall of the house - this is called a concealed box - that way of constructing a window was mandated by law in England in 1774.

Clearly both houses have the window box exposed as if sitting on the stone rather than attached to some inner frame.

Earlier in 1709 there was a law that said, the box the window sat in, had to be inside by four inches rather than flush with the outside of the building. Both houses appear to have window casings either flush or outside the walls of the outside of the house.

The bigger house on the right may even have original windows in the upstairs attic room they do have 16 panes to a lower sash but that upper is difficult to see. If you look at the roof you can see the right house is deeper and a larger house where as, the older house that in its day was probably a thatch roofed house typical of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, would only be one room deep where as, the house on the right would have a ridge beam in the middle to accommodate the angle of that big roof - (a roof is all the beams and braces that hold the shingles that we see and call a roof) with rooms on either side of the ridge beam so at minimum it would be two rooms deep on the main level with no room running from front to back without extra interior beams that could accommodate a large opening with short walls.

We cannot see a loft bedroom in addition to the two upstairs bedrooms in the long house on the left but then there could be a loft near a chimney with a small window facing the side of the structure. Having been in a hotel in Rye that was more than one house added to another with all the ups and downs or crazy stairs it is difficult to determine from the outside the number or location of rooms. But it is clear the photo of the bedroom has modern windows and appears it must be facing the rear of a house - which building we do not know.

Here is a photo of a typical 2 bedroom seventeenth century cottage that even on this the windows were changed out to 6X6 pane sashes that would not have existed when the house was built.

[JoanK]

How interesting about the windows. I never would have thought about the glass being heavy.

I love the video of our author fossil hunting in Lyme (address repeated below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh4wz-trFxI

I went to the beach yesterday, as I do once a week. There were kids, picking up shells. I wonder if the urge to do that is universal?

I was picking up kelp. Southern California is one of only two (I believe) places on earth where kelp forests grow. In a minute, I had found five different species. But no fossils, that I know of (fossilized kelp?)

[ANNIE]

Were you collecting the kelp?  What do you use it for?  I never picked up any shells on Torrance Beach.  I don't remember ever seeing anything but sand on that beach and kelp.  Tee hee!

Barb, what interesting research on the cottages in the 1700's. 

I also did a little research on the population of Lyme Regis now and in 1821.  The early numbers were around 1000 people and in 2011, there were 4000 citizens.  This is not counting the tourists in the summer who rent beach houses for a week or two.  Its a popular little town.

The reason that I put up the picture of Chesil Beach is that is what it looks like now and its also a very popular place to spend time nearby in the summer.  Its also near Lyme Regis.



 

[salan]

The first time I was in England; I was surprised at the rocky beaches.  I was used to seeing sand, not rocks.  Wouldn't you find it hard to walk along those rocky beaches?  I know I would not attempt it now; but maybe I would have when I was younger and in better shape.  I am sorry that I was not aware of the fossils when we were in Lyme Regis.
Sally

[Steph]

I love the story, but have no desire to collect the fossils.. This leading with stuff still escapes me. But I do know that for our whole married life, my husband could be walking along and boom.. bend over and pick up a penny or dime.. etc. So I would guess he led with his eyes.

[ANNIE]

Salan,
Although we had a historian who guided our tours of SW England, I don't remember him mentioning the famous fossils of Lyme Regis when he took us there. And when I see these pictures of those beaches on the videos that we link to, I am put off by the roughness of them.  
When Mary agreed to follow Joseph down to the beach to see what he had found and it turned out to be the first icthiosaurus ever found, I was amazed.  Was she lucky that Elizabeth Philpot appeared and offered to find someone to dig it out and carry it to the Anning shop.  
That this discovery of ancient animals will change the way religion looks at the age of the world seems so strange to me.  I always thought that the finding of dinosaurs and ichthyosaurs had been happening for hundreds of years before the 180o's.  I didn't know that most people in the world at that time thought that the world was only 6000 years old.

Steph,  I think there are folks who are more aware of seeing things or they are always searching for strange findings on the ground.  I have a brother like that.
and his name is Joseph!

[bellamarie]

Sally,  "Wouldn't you find it hard to walk along those rocky beaches?"

It was very difficult for me, when I attempted to walk on a beach with my shoes on, at our famous Put in Bay, here in Ohio.  The rocks were so slippery, I could not find my footing. Thank goodness my hubby and a friend caught me before I went down.  They also almost lost their balance, due to the slippery rocks.  I tried walking barefoot, along the beach where the water was shallow, and it hurt my feet so much so, I could not continue to walk.  I can't imagine these ladies in their long puffy dresses and lady style shoes back in Lyme Regis walking along these rocks.  Not to mention when the tide comes in, the added difficulty, keeping your balance.

Ciao for now~  

[JoanP]

Do you remember how we wondered how the ladies in Persuasion were able to climb those rocks and walk the beaches of stones and pebbles of Lyme Regis?  What sort of footwear did they have?  

Did you notice Elizabeth Philpot's comment about that very thing? ".... the stoney beach was difficult to walk on in thin pumps"
Not only that, but the ladies walked on the beach in those long gowns - hats and bonnets, too.  So much for long, pleasant, leisurely walks on the shore.  What did you wear, Steph?

Here's a portrait of a somewhat older Mary, painted in 1842. How old would that make her at the time? Look at the cumbersome outfit!

1842, for exhibition at the Royal Academy, but rejected. The portrait includes the fossil cliffs of Lyme Bay in the background. Mary is pointing at an ammonite, with her companion Tray dutifully curled beside the ammonite protecting the find. The portrait eventually became the property of Joseph, Mary‟s brother, and in 1935, was presented to the Geology Department, British Museum, by Mary‟s great-great niece Annette Anning (1876-1938). The portrait is now in the Earth Sciences Library, British Museum of Natural History. A similar portrait in pastels by B.J.M. Donne, hangs in the entry hall of the Geological Society of London. Reproduced with the permission of the British Museum of Natural History (London).

[salan]

I noticed in the video of the author that she wore "wellies" (rubber boats) when she was walking on the beach.  When we stayed with friends in England; the hostess has a number of wellies by the back door.  Did they wear wellingtons back in the day of Mary Anning??  It was probably not accepted attire for ladies.
Sally

[BarbStAubrey]

With so many button hooks from the eighteen hundreds available at most antique stores and from what we can see in photos it appears the buttons shoe was worn for every day - sometimes the buttons were to the side and only later were shoe laces used - pumps as we know them were for dancing.

This is a nice collection of information about nineteenth century shoes from of course a Jane Austen site

http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/fashionable-shoes-of-the-18th-and-19th-century-and-how-they-were-made/

[PatH]

JoanP, when I looked here this afternoon, you had posted a link to an article that had the portrait of Mary Anning in it.  Now you have given us a picture of the portrait, without the link.  I'm going to re-post the link, because it's exactly the sort of information I was about to search for:

OOPS, SPOILER!  JoanP points out that if you don't know Mary Anning's history, this site may tell you more than you want to know about what's coming up.

http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=compass

The article itself is dry enough that probably only a paleontology nut like me would want to read it all (yes, I did, every word).  It's a justification for including Anning, as a representative of women, in the ritual of a no doubt tiresome geologic society.  But scroll down and look at the pictures.  After the portrait, there is a map of the location of Jurassic strata in England.  Lyme Regis is just on the edge of the bottom tip.  Then there are pictures of some of the important fossils, including the famed ichthyosaur, a commemorative plaque and stained glass windows, her tombstone, etc.

[bookad]

I was thinking of the cold blustery day that Ann and her brother went to the beach to see his 'find' taking the young baby......thought that was hard enough on the baby, but carrying the baby over rocks of the sort in the picture and then climbing the cliff or hill with baby in arm!!!!

I too was visualizing nice flat beaches with every so feet a line in the sand of tides accumulations including fossils.......

bookad

[PatH]

One of the important points buried in that text is that Anning had two strikes against her in being taken seriously.  Not only was she a woman, but she was lower class.  No one would think such a person could have any significant ideas in such a field, the hobby of educated gentlemen.

[PatH]

Bookad, I like to hope that the excursion didn't contribute to the baby's early death.  Given the high mortality rate of the children (only three of the nine or so survived) it didn't stand much chance anyway.

[marcie]

I love the descriptive writing in the book and the way that the author uses phrases such as "leads with her eyes (jaw, hands, etc)" to describe the characters. I've heard the phrase "lead with his chin" about something boxers should NOT do if they don't want to get knocked out but I'm thinking that Chevalier might have created the way she is using the phrase. I see it as the physical attribute that is most "active" on the person and the one that people would notice first.

Elizabeth thinks that you can't change the trait that you lead with. She would love to lead with her eyes, the way that Mary does. Perhaps there is a possibility that her relationship with Mary will allow her to change. There may be a hint of that, in the last sentence, when Elizabeth says: " I have longed to move from jaw to eye, but I have noticed that people do not change which feature they lead with, any more than they change in character. And so I am stuck with my strong jaw that puts people off, set in stone like the fossils I collect. Or so I have thought."

[Steph]

I walked on the beach in Nice.. It is grey stones and most people wear a type of water shoe, that seems to grip. I cannot imagine how they managed with all those clothes. Yes, I  really did wonder if Elizabeth really did come upon Mary and her brother and the huge discovery?? It is so hard to sort of the truth and fiction in the book. Does anyone know. It sounds as if she and Joseph were more likely to know the Daye family than Elizabeth.

[bellamarie]

4.  On page 39 Elizabeth says, “After little more than a year in Lyme I’d come to appreciate the freedom a spinster with no male relatives about could have there.” Why is that? What did “freedom” mean for a woman of the time? Who had more freedom—Elizabeth or Mary?

I think if the sisters were in the same town as their brother, there would be more restrictions of their comings and goings.  Their activity would be more about going to balls to escort their younger sister, who would be looking to find someone to marry, or simply doing the social expectations.  Being in Lyme without their brother, and really no other relatives to be obligated to, the girls can pretty much do as they please, as long as it's within the respectable realm.  I can't imagine three sisters having this kind of freedom back in their era, being common. These sisters remind me of Louisa May Alcott's, March sisters in Little Women.  The March sisters in Little Women were able to really have fun, going out and about with Lawry.  They did not have a male relative to restrict them either, their father was gone out of town throughout most of the story fighting in the war.  Elizabeth reminds me of Jo March, from Little Women, she was the more adventuresome one.  

Elizabeth, by far has more freedom than Mary, at this point in the book.  Mary has been expected to help with the store, with providing fossils for cash, to help provide for her family, and also had to take care of younger siblings, and from what it sounds like, the mother was having babies one after another.  Obviously once her father dies, there will be no more babies to care for, and from what I can conjecture, all her younger siblings have died off, so there is only Mary and Joseph left to provide.  Elizabeth pretty much has all the time in the day, to search the beaches for fossils.

Ciao for now~