Book Review: Chronicles of Avonlea
Nov. 20th, 2023 08:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerInitially I didn’t intend to include L. M. Montgomery’s short stories in my reading project. But then I realized that she only published two books of short stories in her lifetime, both of which are spin-offs of the Anne books… So I ended up adding Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea to my list.
Montgomery published Chronicles of Avonlea in 1912, midway through the six-year gap between Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island, and one imagines early Anne/Gilbert shippers gnashing their teeth at this collection of stories in which Anne matchmakes everyone except her still-Gilbert-less self.
Often Anne merely makes a cameo appearance, but in a couple of stories she is pivotal, including the first story of the collection: Theodora Dix has been waiting fifteen years for Ludovic Speed to propose, and Anne suggests hurrying his dilatory courtship by arranging a fake rival for him, which of course works like a charm.
In fact, many of the stories in the collection are about love deferred till middle age. As well as this extended courtship, there’s a story about an engaged couple who haven’t technically broken their engagement but also haven’t spoken for fifteen years as a result of a silly quarrel, plus two engagements that were broken in youth but are renewed years later, although one of them is nearly broken off again when Aunt Olivia decides that she’s too set in her old-maidish ways to get used to a man around the house. But she hears that her man is heading back to Manitoba, Olivia rushes to the railway station to fling herself into his arms.
As a result of a ludicrous series of events, confirmed man-hater Miss MacPherson finds herself trapped in the house of confirmed woman-hated Alexander Abraham Bennett for the term of a smallpox quarantine. (I offer this premise free for the taking to historical romance writers.) Of course, Miss MacPherson can’t bear Alexander Abraham’s pigsty of a house, so she ends up cleaning the whole thing from top to bottom and taking over the cooking, too. When she goes home, she finds it rather lonesome to cook for one… while Alexander Abraham realizes that he likes having a clean house and home-cooked meals. Reader, they marry.
Despite these heterosexual conclusions, both this and the story of Aunt Olivia offer an interesting suggestion of what queer lives might have looked like on PEI at this time. All these characters are accepted, though eccentric, members of the community, and the idea in particular that someone might be born an old maid - not because of ugliness, but as a matter of temperament - comes up more than once.
However, my favorite story is the tale of Old Lady Lloyd, a cranky old woman who lives alone in an isolated house, because in her pride she can’t bear anyone to know she has fallen on direst poverty. One day, she sees a girl walking in the woods, at which sigh “the Old Lady’s heart gave a great bound and began to beat as it had not beaten for years, while her breath came quickly and she trembled violently. Who—WHO could this girl be?”
The girl, Sylvia Gray, is the spitting image of the man the Old Lady once loved. Sylvia is, in fact, his daughter, and the Old Lady in sentimental homage begins to leave the girl a bouquet in the hollow of a certain tree each morning. Flowers give way to fresh-picked strawberries and blueberries; then, when the Old Lady happens to hear that Sylvia lacks a dress for a ball, she sells one of her few remaining precious heirlooms, just to buy her one.
And then the Old Lady hears that Sylvia might win a scholarship to study music in Europe - a scholarship given by the Old Lady’s hated cousin, whom she blames for her poverty, and has refused to speak to for many a year - she swallows her pride, and goes to ask him to give the scholarship to Sylvia.
But on her way home, the Old Lady gets soaked to the skin! She contracts a fever, and nearly dies, and confesses all in her delirium, which brings Sylvia rushing to her side! Sylvia has long suspected that the Old Lady was her benefactress, and now earnestly prays that she will live, because she intends “to stay in Spencervale for a whole year yet, just to be near you. And next year when I go to Europe—thanks to you, fairy godmother—I’ll write you every day. We are going to be the best of chums, and we are going to have a most beautiful year of comradeship!”
Montgomery published Chronicles of Avonlea in 1912, midway through the six-year gap between Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island, and one imagines early Anne/Gilbert shippers gnashing their teeth at this collection of stories in which Anne matchmakes everyone except her still-Gilbert-less self.
Often Anne merely makes a cameo appearance, but in a couple of stories she is pivotal, including the first story of the collection: Theodora Dix has been waiting fifteen years for Ludovic Speed to propose, and Anne suggests hurrying his dilatory courtship by arranging a fake rival for him, which of course works like a charm.
In fact, many of the stories in the collection are about love deferred till middle age. As well as this extended courtship, there’s a story about an engaged couple who haven’t technically broken their engagement but also haven’t spoken for fifteen years as a result of a silly quarrel, plus two engagements that were broken in youth but are renewed years later, although one of them is nearly broken off again when Aunt Olivia decides that she’s too set in her old-maidish ways to get used to a man around the house. But she hears that her man is heading back to Manitoba, Olivia rushes to the railway station to fling herself into his arms.
As a result of a ludicrous series of events, confirmed man-hater Miss MacPherson finds herself trapped in the house of confirmed woman-hated Alexander Abraham Bennett for the term of a smallpox quarantine. (I offer this premise free for the taking to historical romance writers.) Of course, Miss MacPherson can’t bear Alexander Abraham’s pigsty of a house, so she ends up cleaning the whole thing from top to bottom and taking over the cooking, too. When she goes home, she finds it rather lonesome to cook for one… while Alexander Abraham realizes that he likes having a clean house and home-cooked meals. Reader, they marry.
Despite these heterosexual conclusions, both this and the story of Aunt Olivia offer an interesting suggestion of what queer lives might have looked like on PEI at this time. All these characters are accepted, though eccentric, members of the community, and the idea in particular that someone might be born an old maid - not because of ugliness, but as a matter of temperament - comes up more than once.
However, my favorite story is the tale of Old Lady Lloyd, a cranky old woman who lives alone in an isolated house, because in her pride she can’t bear anyone to know she has fallen on direst poverty. One day, she sees a girl walking in the woods, at which sigh “the Old Lady’s heart gave a great bound and began to beat as it had not beaten for years, while her breath came quickly and she trembled violently. Who—WHO could this girl be?”
The girl, Sylvia Gray, is the spitting image of the man the Old Lady once loved. Sylvia is, in fact, his daughter, and the Old Lady in sentimental homage begins to leave the girl a bouquet in the hollow of a certain tree each morning. Flowers give way to fresh-picked strawberries and blueberries; then, when the Old Lady happens to hear that Sylvia lacks a dress for a ball, she sells one of her few remaining precious heirlooms, just to buy her one.
And then the Old Lady hears that Sylvia might win a scholarship to study music in Europe - a scholarship given by the Old Lady’s hated cousin, whom she blames for her poverty, and has refused to speak to for many a year - she swallows her pride, and goes to ask him to give the scholarship to Sylvia.
But on her way home, the Old Lady gets soaked to the skin! She contracts a fever, and nearly dies, and confesses all in her delirium, which brings Sylvia rushing to her side! Sylvia has long suspected that the Old Lady was her benefactress, and now earnestly prays that she will live, because she intends “to stay in Spencervale for a whole year yet, just to be near you. And next year when I go to Europe—thanks to you, fairy godmother—I’ll write you every day. We are going to be the best of chums, and we are going to have a most beautiful year of comradeship!”
no subject
Date: 2023-11-20 02:57 pm (UTC)This is a delightful review. I've enjoyed these so much.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-20 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-20 06:23 pm (UTC)confirmed man-hater Miss MacPherson finds herself trapped in the house of confirmed woman-hated Alexander Abraham Bennett for the term of a smallpox quarantine. (I offer this premise free for the taking to historical romance writers.)
Hee, I was thinking that'd be the perfect premise for a story where they end up becoming BFFs, possibly platonic partners, and are still absolutely not in love or attracted to each other any way other than platonically. :D But seriously, those do sound like interesting reflections on ideas about old maids and so on.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-20 06:46 pm (UTC)I suspect that the historical romance writer might wish to borrow the smallpox quarantine aspect and substitute in a different set of characters! Confirmed man-hater Miss MacPherson finds herself quarantined with the sweet new librarian, or Old Lady Lloyd, or someone of that nature. Miss MacPherson has never wanted a man, but might she want... a partnership of a different kind??
no subject
Date: 2023-11-21 05:30 pm (UTC)Ooh, I would totally read that, too :D
no subject
Date: 2023-11-20 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-20 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-21 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-21 03:45 pm (UTC)