...there lived a little girl in Kansas. This little girl read fairy tales and pioneer stories, Nancy Drew mysteries and American Girl books with gusto. She read short books and short stories in big books. All the best books were reread during the summer vacation, with library reading programs redeeming this enthusiasm with more books to keep. A grandmother in New Jersey sent books every Christmas and birthday - and one year, she sent the first three Anne books. The rest of the series was quickly added to the collection, and over the next few years the other novels and short story collections by L.M. Montgomery joined them.
Lord, I don't even know when I got them. It seems like Anne, Emily, Pat, Jane, Marigold, Gay, Rilla, and Valancy have always been a part of my life. When I was younger, through my teenage years, I reread them all every year. When I started university studies, academic articles and other dry materials took their place. But I always carried them with me - first to undergraduate, then to graduate school 1700 miles away.
Studying, writing, and reading other types of literature, history, and scientific articles led me to think more about Montgomery's books. I know only as much as the Wikipedia article. Shameful. At any rate, I started to get curious about what wasn't in the books - and what was, as my education progressed and questioning everything became the rule.
This blog serves to pose questions, discuss my favorite bits, and just gab about the books and short stories. Except the ones I don't own.
My collection currently includes:
Novels
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
Emily of New Moon
Emily Climbs
Emily's Quest
Pat of Silver Bush
Mistress Pat
Magic for Marigold
The Blue Castle
Jane of Lantern Hill
A Tangled Web
Kilmeny of the Orchard
Short story collections
Chronicles of Avonlea
Further Chronicles of Avonlea
The Road to Yesterday
The Doctor's Sweetheart
Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans
Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea
Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side
After Many Days: Tales of Time Passed
Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement
At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales
Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence
What's missing and why? The Golden Road, The Story Girl, The Blythes are Quoted, and a holiday short story collection. I first heard the story of... Sara and her cousins, when I picked up the short novelizations of the television series. I saw some episodes of the series, but there was no cable tv at my house so viewings were sporadic. Somehow, those short stories have left a bad taste in my mouth. I did get The Golden Road one year - and I'm sorry to say I returned it. The second book in a duology doesn't interest me much if I don't have the first one, and The Story Girl was never available at the small bookstore in my town. I have no excuses now. The internet and eBay make them easy to get, and frankly I haven't even read them all the way through - how can I say I don't like them? Same excuses apply for Blythes and the holiday book - I must take myself to eBay and get them. But not just any edition, if I can help it. I'm a bit proudish of my book shelf; I really, really like the editions Bantam issued in the 80s and early 90s. The soft pastels and dreamy covers of the heroines are lovely and look very appealing lined up on my bookshelf.
That's a bit of my background. I hope to post as frequently as the spirit moves me, as an outlet for my musings.
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