I Love Lucy - redux

Back in 2006 I posted about my love for Lucy Maud Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables, and one of Canada's most famous writers.  I also posted around the same time of tracking down some of this author's journals in a book shop in Toronto, where the assistant with whom I had the misfortune to deal, looked blank when I mentioned LM Montgomery and said 'Who's she?' After discovering that this moron had no knowledge of Canada's other great writer (I am sure there are more, all Canadians forgive me here), Margaret Atwood, I left the shop and decided to spend my dollars elsewhere. 

I have been informed that this link does not work and as I have had extreme difficulty in retrieving this post, for some weird reason, I have now republished it - see above!

The reason I am writing about LMM once more is that a member of an on line reading group sent us all a link from a newspaper article in which it appears that an unpublished book, dealing with the adult Anne and her family, is going to appear later on in the year.  This has really made me feel excited and it goes onto the top of my wish list straight away.  Check out the link HERE.

Another member of my group who is also a lover of LMM has been reading this author's journals and it would appear that the joyous character that is Anne is the opposite of Lucy Maud who seems to have suffered from depression all her life, had an unhappy marriage and may have committed suicide, though this is unclear.   The huge success of Anne meant that she had to keep writing these books to feed the hunger from her reading public and, as with another famous women writer, Frances Hodgson Burnett who was in much the same position, she had to write to support her family.  FHB also suffered from exhaustion and stress because of her responsibilities to her public and her husband and children.  It would seem that both these indomitable women had a lot in common.  Nowadays it is called Having it All and does not seem to have become any easier.

I have had LMM's first two volumes of her journal sitting on my shelves for some time, those books you save for reading later on when you have time, that you will get round to sooner or later and this sudden flurry of emails and links has made me take down Volume 1 and start to read it.  I am now totally hooked as the 'voice' in these early diary entries, made when Lucy Maud Montgomery was only 14, is that of Anne or Emily of New Moon.  Think of Anne's delight at the beauty of Prince Edward Island when Matthew collects her at the station and takes her to Green Gables and then read this entry of 1892:

"this morning I took a walk through the woods down to the spring, the loveliest spot.  The calm, fresh loveliness of hte woods seemed to enter into my very spirit with voiceless harmony - the harmony of clear blue skies, mossy trees and gleaming snow.  Standing there beneath that endless blue dome, I felt as if all the world had a claim to my love....I put my arm around a lichened old spruce and laid my cheek against its rough side - it seemed like a friend"

Lucy Maud lived with her grandparents as her mother had died and her father married again and was living in Canada.  The stern rather harsh atmosphere in which she lives is mirrored in the Emily stories, the visit to her father from who she was separated for five years is used in Jane of Lantern Hill, her stepmother who used her as a maid of all work and disliked her is part of the story of her childhood that Anne tells Marilla when she arrives at Green Gables.  All this and I am not yet one third through the first volume.... I am enthralled and will soon have to make sure I have Volume 3 ready as I only have the first two at the moment.

On the surface of it, LM Montgomery's books are for children and, perhaps, teenagers though I find it hard to believe that any sophisticated teen in 2009 would find them of interest, but my feeling is that these stories are for adults.  We may have a heroine in young Anne and in Emily, but we follow them as they grow up and have careers as well as marrying and becoming parents, and their struggles, heart ache and worry is as true now as it was then. Nothing changes.   While I love the Anne books, I am enormously fond of some of the 'stand alone' stories, Jane of Lantern HIll which I have already mentioned, and Kilmeny of the Orchard but my favourite is the Blue Castle, the story of a plain, virginal woman ignored and despised by her family, who ups and marries a disreputable lay about with a terrible reputation and breaks free of her chains.   This particular title had been out of print for years and years and possibly forgotten by nearly everyone, when Colleen McCullough author of The Thorn Birds, penned a novel the Ladies of Missilonghi and lifted the entire plot and pages of dialogue from this magnus opus and used it herself.  She had reckoned without the hawk eyes of the Montgomery Estate however, and I gather had to fork out rather a lot of money when she was taken to court and charged with plagiarism. 

Prince Edward Island is on my list of places to go before I die, but not sure if I will ever make it.  I daresay it is probably full of Green Gable Cafes and shops selling Marilla's Preserves, but surely the countryside and the sea shore will still be as beautiful as described.  Haworth is full of Bronte tea shops and Emily curry houses, but get out on the moors and all that slips into the background, so as with Yorkshire so with PEI. I hope.....

 

Comments

[Lisa W]

We are fortunate to be a few hours drive from PEI, and in fact will be spending a week in a cottage there later this summer. I also love the stories of the spunky red haired girl, and I have been thinking I should reread Anne of Green Gables before we go. (First, I will have to read Henrietta`s War, which is next in my reading cue!) While PEI certainly does have it`s share of Green Gables tourist attractions (some of them quite good), for me it is really the ``Gentle Island``, and I feel myself exhale when I set foot on it`s red soil.

[Elaine Simpson-Long]

Oh Lisa, you are making me feel quite jealous. Please do email me offblog and let me know about it. And any photos would be lovely too.

[Nan]

Elaine, whatever it takes and whatever it costs, you should try to go. It may be the most wonderful place on earth. Our family went to PEI three summers for a week each time, and rented a house in different areas. The beauty is like no other. We walked incredible beaches and there was no one else around. There is such a feeling of space and air and sky. Then there are the farms. Then there is the music - almost anywhere you go there is music. It reminds me of what people say about Doolin, County Clare, Ireland. You may go here and see lots of pictures:

http://www.tourismpei.com/index.php3

[Geraldine Hogg]

My interest was aroused by the thought of a "new" L M Montgomery title. I did a bit more research after reading the link that you gave, and discovered that part of the manuscript had been published under the title of "The Road to Yesterday". I have a copy of "The Road to Yesterday", but I'll be adding "Quoting the Blythes" to my LMM shelf, as there is this previously unpublished material.

http://www.tickledorange.com/LMM/RoadtoYesterday.html

[Nicola]

I've been trying to get hold of a copy of The Blue Castle for years. Seems to be constantly out of print. A good title for Persephone to re-issue perhaps.

[Elaine Simpson-Long]

Geraldine - ah I had not realised this so thanks for the tip off as I own a copy of The Road to Yesterday but I shall still check this out.

Nicola - there are copies available from Alibris and other booksites and not too expensive. I stumbled across my copy years ago in one of these remaindered bookshops that pop up every now and then. There it was alongside Jane of Lantern Hill and Magic for Marigold, none of which I knew about and I fell upon them with shrieks of delight as you can imagine!

I am half way through Volume one of her journals and the similarity to Anne's life is really striking. Odd how I have had these for years and am only now reding them, sometimes a book has to wait until the reader is ready and now is the time.

[bruessel]

I'm afraid the link to your earlier post doesn't work - it takes me to the same article as the link further down the page.

[Elaine Simpson-Long]

Breussel - thanks for letting me know this. I have had the devil of a job tracking and linking this post, not quite sure why so in the end have reposted it above!

[Jenny]

Shocking about Colleen McCullough! Thanks for all these titles. I will certainly look out for them.