I'd categorize Kilmeny as "completists only." It's a short story padded out to novella length with nature descriptions, and it shows. The main character, Eric, is not very likable, and comes off as more than a bit of a creep. Kilmeny herself is a curio for Mary Sue connoisseurs, but not much of a character. She's inhumanly beautiful, mysteriously mute, and plays the violin. We're told she engages in long, witty conversations with the aid of a slate, but we are not made privy to the wit. Oh, and she thinks she's ugly, because she's never seen a mirror! Also, there's an Italian orphan boy whom everyone predicts will turn bad because of his swarthy Mediterranean blood, and then he does. >:(
Basically it's a magazine potboiler, only with more words. There's a very slight, melodramatic short-story plot and all the usual humor and observational small-town and character stuff is missing in action. A Montgomery scholar could probably write a paper making it interesting, but I don't think there's any way to make it a good book.
It is really short, though! And some people do like it. But it's not a typical Montgomery book at all, in the sense that everything people usually like most about Montgomery is not there. Except nature descriptions! There are plenty of those. But even the nature descriptions don't have the same heart-piercing nostalgic effect they do in Anne et al., because the characterization in Kilmeny is so different (so much poorer, imo).
I am crossing my fingers that you will like poor Pat! I think her friend Jingle is my favorite of LMM's Sensitive Boychildren, even if things go a little haywire in the end. They have this really understated, delicate friendship in Pat of Silver Bush.
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Date: 2015-10-29 08:53 pm (UTC)Basically it's a magazine potboiler, only with more words. There's a very slight, melodramatic short-story plot and all the usual humor and observational small-town and character stuff is missing in action. A Montgomery scholar could probably write a paper making it interesting, but I don't think there's any way to make it a good book.
It is really short, though! And some people do like it. But it's not a typical Montgomery book at all, in the sense that everything people usually like most about Montgomery is not there. Except nature descriptions! There are plenty of those. But even the nature descriptions don't have the same heart-piercing nostalgic effect they do in Anne et al., because the characterization in Kilmeny is so different (so much poorer, imo).
I am crossing my fingers that you will like poor Pat! I think her friend Jingle is my favorite of LMM's Sensitive Boychildren, even if things go a little haywire in the end. They have this really understated, delicate friendship in Pat of Silver Bush.