Kindred Spirits: The works of LM Montgomery

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The only problem I had with Rilla was when little Bruce Meredith drowned his kitten so God would send Jem back from the war. I HATE that part.

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Oh Guinastasia, I agree. When I first read that scene I was probably 11, and so in love with the books it didn't really register. Then several years later, rereading it, it took me aback.
And Montgomery absolutely was an animal lover (especially cats/kittens), so I don't know what she was thinking when she wrote that scene. But maybe that's how religion really was presented to kids in those days.

[franticjoy]

Resurrecting this thread because LMM is my favorite author and I'm always dying to talk about her and her work.

guinastasia said:

The only problem I had with Rilla was when little Bruce Meredith drowned his kitten so God would send Jem back from the war. I HATE that part.

I always cry when I read that part, more even than when Walter dies. I was just rereading Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat (not my favorites, but I still love her descriptions, and I like Pat's younger sister Rae), and there's a scene wherein Pat and Suzanne Kirk are spending the night in what they think is an abandoned house because it's raining too hard to get home, and the owner of the house wakes up the next morning and talks to them when they start cooking breakfast. He tells them that he's not much of a cook, and when he's hungry...he FRIES UP A KITTEN. Suzanne and Pat just laugh at him in secret, instead of throwing the mother of all fits. WTF? For a kitty-cat lover, LMM has an interesting way of expressing it.

Hmm. I've just remembered another reason I'm not a huge fan of Anne's: she doesn't like cats.

[linared]

Oh, a LM Montergomery thread. I love this book and I think I have read almost all of them, I've never tracked down Jane of Latern Hill. And I've never read her journals, they sound too depressing.

I just re-read Emily for the first time in over a year, and I really still love her WAY more than Anne... especially later Anne. No way would Emily ever become Mrs. Doctor Blythe!

I've read that LM Montergomery wrote the Anne's books out of order and that she became throughly sick of Anne but couldn't stop writing about her because she was such a favorite character. The fifth through seventh books always annoyned me. Anne becomes so boring and complacent. I always wanted more Emily books so I could read about her famous career as a writer. And more about Teddy too. For me, Teddy and Emily was always the ideal romantic relationship, which probably says a lot about me.

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The first couple of volumes of her journal are really very interesting, and make you feel like you are really getting to know LMM--she seems much like the characters in one of her books, only grittier and less dreamy. It's only the last couple of volumes that are depressing.

[franticjoy]

linared said:

Oh, a LM Montergomery thread. I love this book and I think I have read almost all of them, I've never tracked down Jane of Lantern Hill.

I like Jane more as I get older, for some reason. She's not a particularly charming or exciting character, but I love her growth from a stuttering, awkward girl under her bitchy grandmother's thumb to a confident, happy person when she goes to stay with her dad.

I always wanted more Emily books so I could read about her famous career as a writer. And more about Teddy too. For me, Teddy and Emily was always the ideal romantic relationship, which probably says a lot about me.

I still mostly see Teddy and Emily's relationship as the ultimate in romance, probably because it's so silent yet passionate. The last few times I've read Emily's Quest, though, I've gotten so annoyed with both of them for not just talking to each other like normal human beings. I know it would have been out of character, but still.

I would have liked to see their married life, as well. It seems that as soon as the couple got engaged, LMM lost interest in them. The Blue Castle is the only book wherein she writes about married life, other than the Anne series- and she seems not to have enjoyed writing about her married life much, as you mentioned. One of the few criticisms I have about her books is that several of them end very abruptly with an engagement, and the line she liked so much she used it in like four different books or stories- "the low laugh of a girl being held prisoner by her lover".

[linared]

While, Teddy and Emily's story was the most romantic to me, Barney is my favorite male character. He is the only male character that is really described. I want to find the real life Barney (but with a better name).

I still remember how sad I was when I read LM's biography and found it how unhappy her life was. There worst part of it, I always thought, was that her husband never bothered to read her work. It wasn't important to him.

[Auroranorth]

franticjoy said:

linared said:

Oh, a LM Montergomery thread. I love this book and I think I have read almost all of them, I've never tracked down Jane of Lantern Hill.

I like Jane more as I get older, for some reason. She's not a particularly charming or exciting character, but I love her growth from a stuttering, awkward girl under her bitchy grandmother's thumb to a confident, happy person when she goes to stay with her dad.

Jane is one of my favorites because she discovers her talent and it's not ruling the world, but running a household. It's nice to see an ordinary talent recognized.

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I loved Jane. I think of it as a very 'gentle' book - nothing much really happens, exactly, but Jane really grows and changes. The way Montgomery wrote about her life on PEI made everything - even washing dishes - sound like so much fun! And when she stands up to her grandmother it always makes me want to stand up and cheer.

Her parents were nitwits, though.

Emily's always been my favourite. That's a great trilogy.

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linared said:

I want to find the real life Barney (but with a better name).

I essentially wrote the exact same thing in my journal when I was around sixteen or seventeen. And yeah, Barney is a decidedly unsexy name.

I still remember how sad I was when I read LM's biography and found it how unhappy her life was. There worst part of it, I always thought, was that her husband never bothered to read her work. It wasn't important to him.

I watched a documentary about Lucy (I think it was on CBC?) and I remember feeling so rotten and devastated when I found out that she grew to hate writing about Anne as the series drew to a close. I think that's why Anne loses so much of her identity and just sort of morphs into the doctor's wife and nothing else. The books are still great, but it's evident that Montgomery lost her passion for the character.
I hated her husband for his apathy towards her work because I've always suspected his "indiffirence" was more of a deliberate jab to hurt her.