The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery

“The Story Girl” was L.M. Montgomery’s personal favorite among the books she had finished by the end of her residence at Prince Edward Island, according to her autobiography, “The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career”.

Set in the sleepy rural town of Carlisle, this is the story of a group of children who spend an unforgettable summer together. It is told through the eyes of Beverley King, who is reminiscing about his boyhood memories of the Story Girl and all the good times the children had together while listening to her stories.

Many of the stories were actual occurrences that had been rumored throughout the town of Cavendish, Lucy Maud’s early residence, and a certain fringe character named Peg Bowen, a mentally unstable woman whom all the children were afraid of, is the one real live person that Montgomery transplanted into her books.

I read a review on Amazon in which the reader wondered if The Story Girl was actually the young Lucy Maud. I doubt it, for while Sara Stanley, a.k.a. The Story Girl, was an excellent verbal storyteller, her written stories fell absolutely flat.

One could certainly find one’s young self in at least of the diverse lot of children who cast their lots together that summer. There is the beautiful Felicity, who knows how to cook lovely things but wishes she could be as interesting as The Story Girl. In turn, The Story Girl wishes she could do something useful, but fails every time she tries to bake. Cecily is all-around sweet and well-wishing. Sara Ray is dull but a good and loyal friend. Peter, the hired boy, seems to have much promise as a leader. Felix is chubby and sensitive. And Beverley does not tell much about himself – but he is an insightful story-teller with a great memory and a well-kept journal.

The tales are quite diverse in range: funny, sad, wild, scary. What they have in common is that they all have a captive audience when told by Sara Stanley. One could read the book for the little stories alone. But there is a larger story throughout, one of the personal growth of all the children. They learn about the importance of forgiveness, the silliness of grudges, the lost days given to fear. They also learn that pickles and milk might bring on enviably wild dreams, but are also quite poisonous to the stomach when taken together.

The story is timeless as a tale of the importance of stories in general, to bringing friends and family together. This book is well-suited to being read aloud to your children, given for their personal reading, or read by adults for pleasure.

The Alpine Path by L.M. Montgomery

Alongside my daughters, I have been losing myself in the timeless stories woven by L. M. Montgomery for months now. After reading about Anne’s motherhood years, including the sad story of a son lost to war, I began to wonder how autobiographical Lucy Maud’s stories really were.

When I found that Montgomery had written her own story of her career, originally published in installments in a magazine in 1917, I just had to have it. I got my copy of “The Alpine Path: The Story of my Career” from Amazon and devoured it immediately.

I had just finished reading the Emily series and found that much of what she wrote about her own childhood had been expressed through the Emily character – much more so than in the Anne series. Anne was imaginative and dreamy, and also had some success in publishing stories while she was young, but she gave that all up when she became a mother. Emily was a born writer to the core, and delayed marriage did not keep her from being happy because she found complete fulfillment in her writing. Emily often wrote in her journal about climbing “the alpine path” to success in her writing career.

“To write has always been my central purpose around which every effort and hope and ambition of my life has grouped itself,” Montgomery writes.

Writers have always been told to “write what you know”, and Lucy Maud found that writing in the setting of Prince Edward Island, with characters that naturally sprung up out of the environment in which she grew up, came naturally to her. Many of the actual anecdotes were actually true, and were used most often in her favorite work, “The Story Girl”.

But the characters were always created purely in her own mind, with the exception of a woman who appears on the fringes throughout “The Story Girl”. “Any artist knows that to paint exactly from life is to give a false impression of the subject. Study from life he must. . .making use of the real to perfect the ideal. But the ideal, his ideal must be behind and beyond it all. The write must create his characters, or they will not be life-like.”

Early in her career, she made inroads by sending poetry to literary magazines. Only ten percent of what she sent were published. At this time, she writes, “I never expect to be famous. I merely want to have a recognized placed among good workers in my chosen profession. That, I honestly believe, is happiness, and the harder to win the sweeter and more lasting when won.”

Montgomery wrote “Anne of Green Gables” chapter by chapter, in time carved away from busy days at work as an editor. It was rejected by publishers several times, and the author was astonished by its worldwide success. At the time of its acceptance, she writes, “I wrote it for love, not money, but very often such books are the most successful, just as everything in the world that is born of true love has life in it, as nothing constructed for mercenary ends can ever have.”

As importance as her work was to her, how modest she was about the quality of her writing! “Not a great book, but mine, mine, mine, something which I had created,” she writes when she receives her first copy of “Anne”.

The last few chapters cover some of Montgomery’s travels with her husband. Not much is revealed about their courtship or marriage, and the book leaves open a whole lifetime to be explored. The author was to write many more books after this mid-career autobiography.

This book offers great insight as to the workings of a great author’s mind as she is just beginning to taste the success of the fruits of her labor. It is a must for every aspiring writer’s bookshelf, or that of anyone who just cannot get enough of the stories by L.M. Montgomery.

Anne’s House of Dreams

L.M. Montgomery opens Anne’s House of Dreams with the all preparations, both emotional and practical, for Anne’s marriage to Gilbert. He finds a small white house for them by the seaside, which is a little out of the way from his patients. It has all the elements of her house of dreams, but it was to be called that for yet another reason.

Can I tell you how many times I cried while reading this book? I lost count but I can tally the reasons why. First, the words describing the view of the sea at Four Winds Harbour were so hauntingly beautiful. Second, the tragic character of the spellbinding Leslie Moore as she was introduced was so compelling. Third, the beauty of Anne’s “dream” as her little one grew within her, and the neighbors who lovingly crocheted a layette for the baby.

Fourth, the heartbreak of Anne after the death of her newborn baby girl, who only lived an hour: I was thankful that I had been forewarned by brief mention in Anne of Ingleside, as I have been reading the books I missed in the series out of order; and that I knew she would have six beautiful babies in succession afterwards. Still, I was caught off-guard. I decided I could not put the book down until the book had come to a happy conclusion, which you can always expect from a story by L.M. Montgomery.

A friendship blossomed between Anne and Leslie, who ultimately found the love she so deserved. Jem was born. And Gilbert and Leslie left their House of Dreams to purchase the large house in the Glen that would later come to be known as Ingleside. How difficult it was to leave their little house! The home was to fall into good hands, however, and the book ended in the most uplifting way.

I can only regret that I did not read this book as a young girl. I would highly recommend it for girls and women of all ages and stocks of life.

Anne of Ingleside

Anne of Green Gables, hailed by Mark Twain as the most lovable childhood character to be dreamed up in his time, is the one I most empathized with as a child, and carried with me into my adulthood. I am not completely sure whether or not I actually read the entire series, however. I remember getting bored by the love letters that went back and forth between Anne and Gilbert, and perhaps skipped over one or two titles in favor of the more exciting childhood escapades of Anne's children in Rainbow Valley.

Inspired by a post in Faith and Family on re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery, I went to my daughter’s bedroom where there are two copies of the series. One is the one that my mother purchased for me when I was her age. The other is the one I purchased for her, having misplaced some of the volumes of my own series. The essayist had suggested that one could get the most out of Anne’s character by reading about her at the stage in which one is in herself. So I picked up Anne of Ingleside, which is about Anne as a mother of six, married fifteen years like me. I chose the older copy because I liked the artwork better, and appreciate the feel of a well-loved paperback whose pages are in constant danger of falling out. I also did not want to risk damaging my daughter’s untouched volume while we were poolside.

Anne has a lovely visit at Green Gables, while Susan is at home crocheting “mysterious booties”. I just love how her pregnancy is veiled in secrecy, in comparison with today’s irreverent celebrity “baby bump” shots. When she returns to Ingleside, the kids wonder why they are being sent away, one by one, to various relatives. Her poetic son Walter sneaks back home after his hostess’ children tease him that his mother is dying. Each of the children has some kind of escapade similar to one we all have experienced as children, but told in the most sympathetic and charming way. The story ends on their wedding anniversary, which Anne believes Gilbert has forgotten, imagining herself for a few whole hours to be a withering and unloved middle-aged woman. But of course she is not, and the joy of hearing those simple and tender words “I love you” transform her back into her Anne-ness.

Filled with wonderful descriptions of the natural beauty of Canada’s landscape and weather, this is a great read for August. Personally, following my own wedding anniversary and coming up on my next birthday, the timing could not have been better. I find it very fitting that my two-hundredth milestone post should be devoted to such a great author, and one I hope to emulate. Thank you, L.M. Montgomery, for your beautiful and unforgettable stories.