Further Chronicles of Avonlea
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Reviews for Further Chronicles of Avonlea
5 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This collection of stories is a bit darker than most other LLM story collections but many of the stories still have happy-ish endings. The final story, Tannis of the Flats, makes me sick though. Some of LLM's characters make racist remarks but it usually feels like it's just a characteristic of that specific character (being that the characters are usually the ones who stuffy or stuck up cranks and not the nice characters) and not the attitude of the author. But Tannis is told in first person by an unknown character so the racist comments, of which there are many, come across very personal and are not easily dismissed. 😢
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Originally published in 1920, Further Chronicles of Avonlea was the second collection of short stories by L.M. Montgomery, the author of such beloved children's classics as Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon. It is my understanding that Montgomery never gave her permission for this project, and successfully sued her publisher - who culled these selections from those rejected during the editing of the 1912 Chronicles of Avonlea. In light of that fact, I sometimes wonder if she would have chosen to suppress some of these tales. Of course, that is most likely wishful thinking on my part...The truth is, I have always felt that Further Chronicles of Avonlea shows L.M. Montgomery at her best, which is very good indeed; and her worst, which - as a devoted admirer of her work - I'm sorry to say, is simply atrocious. This collection contains one of my all-time favorite short-stories by Montgomery: the somewhat moralistic, but deeply moving The Brother Who Failed. Sadly, it also contains the repugnant Tannis of the Flats, a story whose matter-of-fact racism makes we wish I could expunge it from my memory. In between these two covers, the reader will encounter:Aunt Cynthia's Persian Cat, in which a young woman's courtship is brought to a conclusion by a troublesome cat left in her care...The Materialization of Cecil, in which lonely spinster Charlotte Holmes invents a long-ago suitor for herself, in order to avoid the pity of the young women in her sewing circle, only to have the mythical Cecil Fenwick appear for real in Avonlea. This story, like others here and in , was used (in an altered form) in the television show The Road to Avonlea.Her Father's Daughter, in which young Rachel Spencer, about to be married, insists that her long estranged father must be present at her wedding, setting off a chain of events that reconciles her bitterly separated parents...Jane's Baby, in which two estranged sisters, both widows, fight over their cousin Jane's baby...The Dream-Child, an eerie tale in which a bereaved mother comes to believe that her dead child is calling to her from the sea...The Brother Who Failed, in which the Monroe clan gathers for a family reunion, and honors the quiet Robert for his many acts of kindness and wisdom...The Return of Hester, in which the eponymous Hester returns from the dead, to undo the harm she had done in life, by forbidding her younger sister's marriage...The Little Brown Book of Miss Emily, in which Anne Shirley and Diana Barry (of Anne of Green Gables fame), read the diary of an old maid, and gain an appreciation for the romantic sorrow of her youth...Sara's Way, in which the stubborn Sara Andrews refuses to marry the worthy Lige Baxter, until misfortune brings him low...The Son of His Mother, in which near tragedy teaches a fiercely devoted mother to share her son's love...The Education of Betty, in which a man takes a hand in raising his best friend's child, eventually falling in love with her...In Her Selfless Mood, in which the unloved Eunice Carr sacrifices everything for her scapegrace brother...The Conscience Case of David Bell, in which a church elder finds himself unable to testify at a revival meeting, until he makes a public confession of his transgression...Only a Common Fellow, in which a seemingly vulgar young man rises to the height of self-sacrifice and nobility, when the long-missing true love of the woman he himself adores, returns unexpectedly...And finally, the terrible Tannis of the Flats, in which a love-triangle involving an exiled Englishman and a mixed-blood Native Canadian woman leads to tragedy... When I think of this last selection, I often wonder how it is that a woman with such an intimate understanding of human nature, such a perceptive appreciation for questions of morality, and such an eye for beauty, could have failed to perceive the ignorance and stupidity, the sheer immorality, and the downright ugliness of racism. But then, I suppose we are all products of our time, and our humanity goes hand-in-hand with our inhumanity. A difficult idea to accept, when it comes to a much-beloved author, but there you have it: Montgomery too had feet of clay...
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The back cover of my copy of Further Chronicles describes them as "Tales for Cozy Evenings," and Montgomery's unfailingly beautiful descriptions of nature make them just that: nothing matter-of-fact, overdone, or disposable about them. The enjoyable pictures Montgomery paints appeal to me like actual characters.Aunt Cynthia's Persian Cat: "Ismay, the house is on fire!" I laughed aloud for a good minute or two.In Her Selfless Mood: in a word, tragic.Tannis of the Flats: it was...interesting to see the subject of race so addressed in the Chronicles. The most interesting story of them all to me, I think, for different reasons. And that's all I'll say about that.The Little Brown Book of Miss Emily: what a TREAT to read a story told by Anne Shirley in first person!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lest one think Ms. Montgomery only wrote Pollyannish tales where everything comes right in the end, a reading of such tales as "In Her Selfless Mood" or "Tannis of the Flats" will quickly cure that misapprehension. Though there are tales of romance gone right and some humor as well, there is more tragedy in these tales than in the first "Chronicles of Avonlea" collection. Like many good short stories, there are some good "twists in the tale" and a knack for capturing personalities.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A childhood favourite
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Awful attitudes are so fore-fronted in this book, so much so that nostalgia can't save it. Sacrifice lauded above all common sense, women are bitter and/or tragic old maids without a man, and the overt racism, which in a lot of Montgomery is by omission as she much prefers to write about her white main characters, is the core of one story about - you guessed it - one woman's redemption through sacrifice and another's long, lonely man-less life.
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Further Chronicles of Avonlea - L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
Project Gutenberg's Further Chronicles of Avonlea, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Further Chronicles of Avonlea
Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Posting Date: June 24, 2012 [EBook #5340] Release Date: March, 2004 First Posted: July 2, 2002 [Last updated: March 10, 2013]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FURTHER CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA ***
Produced by Leslee Suttee, Mary Mark Ockerbloom, Ben Crowder
FURTHER CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA
Which have to do with many personalities and events in and about
Avonlea, the Home of the Heroine of Green Gables, including tales
of Aunt Cynthia, The Materializing of Cecil, David Spencer's
Daughter, Jane's Baby, The Failure of Robert Monroe, The Return
of Hester, The Little Brown Book of Miss Emily, Sara's Way, The
Son of Thyra Carewe, The Education of Betty, The Selflessness of
Eunice Carr, The Dream-Child, The Conscience Case of David Bell,
Only a Common Fellow, and finally the story of Tannis of the
Flats.
All related by
L. M. MONTGOMERY
Author of Anne of Green Gables,
Anne of Avonlea,
"Anne of the
Island,
Chronicles of Avonlea,
Kilmeny of the Orchard," etc.
INTRODUCTION
It is no exaggeration to say that what Longfellow did for Acadia, Miss Montgomery has done for Prince Edward Island. More than a million readers, young people as well as their parents and uncles and aunts, possess in the picture-galleries of their memories the exquisite landscapes of Avonlea, limned with as poetic a pencil as Longfellow wielded when he told the ever-moving story of Grand Pre.
Only genius of the first water has the ability to conjure up such a character as Anne Shirley, the heroine of Miss Montgomery's first novel, Anne of Green Gables,
and to surround her with people so distinctive, so real, so true to psychology. Anne is as lovable a child as lives in all fiction. Natasha in Count Tolstoi's great novel, War and Peace,
dances into our ken, with something of the same buoyancy and naturalness; but into what a commonplace young woman she develops! Anne, whether as the gay little orphan in her conquest of the master and mistress of Green Gables, or as the maturing and self-forgetful maiden of Avonlea, keeps up to concert-pitch in her charm and her winsomeness. There is nothing in her to disappoint hope or imagination.
Part of the power of Miss Montgomery—and the largest part—is due to her skill in compounding humor and pathos. The humor is honest and golden; it never wearies the reader; the pathos is never sentimentalized, never degenerates into bathos, is never morbid. This combination holds throughout all her works, longer or shorter, and is particularly manifest in the present collection of fifteen short stories, which, together with those in the first volume of the Chronicles of Avonlea, present a series of piquant and fascinating pictures of life in Prince Edward Island.
The humor is shown not only in the presentation of quaint and unique characters, but also in the words which fall from their mouths. Aunt Cynthia always gave you the impression of a full-rigged ship coming gallantly on before a favorable wind;
no further description is needed—only one such personage could be found in Avonlea. You would recognize her at sight. Ismay Meade's disposition is summed up when we are told that she is good at having presentiments—after things happen.
What cleverer embodiment of innate obstinacy than in Isabella Spencer—a wisp of a woman who looked as if a breath would sway her but was so set in her ways that a tornado would hardly have caused her to swerve an inch from her chosen path;
or than in Mrs. Eben Andrews (in Sara's Way
) who looked like a woman whose opinions were always very decided and warranted to wear!
This gift of characterization in a few words is lavished also on material objects, as, for instance; what more is needed to describe the forlornness of the home from which Anne was rescued than the statement that even the trees around it looked like orphans
?
The poetic touch, too, never fails in the right place and is never too frequently introduced in her descriptions. They throw a glamor over that Northern land which otherwise you might imagine as rather cold and barren. What charming Springs they must have there! One sees all the fruit-trees clad in bridal garments of pink and white; and what a translucent sky smiles down on the ponds and the reaches of bay and cove!
The Eastern sky was a great arc of crystal, smitten through with auroral crimsonings.
She was as slim and lithe as a young white-stemmed birch-tree; her hair was like a soft dusky cloud, and her eyes were as blue as Avonlea Harbor in a fair twilight, when all the sky is a-bloom over it.
Sentiment with a humorous touch to it prevails in the first two stories of the present book. The one relates to the disappearance of a valuable white Persian cat with a blue spot in its tail. Fatima
is like the apple of her eye to the rich old aunt who leaves her with two nieces, with a stern injunction not to let her out of the house. Of course both Sue and Ismay detest cats; Ismay hates them, Sue loathes them; but Aunt Cynthia's favor is worth preserving. You become as much interested in Fatima's fate as if she were your own pet, and the climax is no less unexpected than it is natural, especially when it is made also the last act of a pretty comedy of love.
Miss Montgomery delights in depicting the romantic episodes hidden in the hearts of elderly spinsters as, for instance, in the case of Charlotte Holmes, whose maid Nancy would have sent for the doctor and subjected her to a porous plaster while waiting for him, had she known that up stairs there was a note-book full of original poems. Rather than bear the stigma of never having had a love-affair, this sentimental lady invents one to tell her mocking young friends. The dramatic and unexpected denouement is delightful fun.
Another note-book reveals a deeper romance in the case of Miss Emily; this is related by Anne of Green Gables, who once or twice flashes across the scene, though for the most part her friends and neighbors at White Sands or Newbridge or Grafton as well as at Avonlea are the persons involved.
In one story, the last, Tannis of the Flats,
the secret of Elinor Blair's spinsterhood is revealed in an episode which carries the reader from Avonlea to Saskatchewan and shows the unselfish devotion of a half-breed Indian girl. The story is both poignant and dramatic. Its one touch of humor is where Jerome Carey curses his fate in being compelled to live in that desolate land in the picturesque language permissible in the far Northwest.
Self-sacrifice, as the real basis of happiness, is a favorite theme in Miss Montgomery's fiction. It is raised to the nth power in the story entitled, In Her Selfless Mood,
where an ugly, misshapen girl devotes her life and renounces marriage for the sake of looking after her weak and selfish half-brother. The same spirit is found in Only a Common Fellow,
who is haloed with a certain splendor by renouncing the girl he was to marry in favor of his old rival, supposed to have been killed in France, but happily delivered from that tragic fate.
Miss Montgomery loves to introduce a little child or a baby as a solvent of old feuds or domestic quarrels. In The Dream Child,
a foundling boy, drifting in through a storm in a dory, saves a heart-broken mother from insanity. In Jane's Baby,
a baby-cousin brings reconciliation between the two sisters, Rosetta and Carlotta, who had not spoken for twenty years because the slack-twisted
Jacob married the younger of the two.
Happiness generally lights up the end of her stories, however tragic they may set out to be. In The Son of His Mother,
Thyra is a stern woman, as immovable as a stone image.
She had only one son, whom she worshipped; she never wanted a daughter, but she pitied and despised all sonless women.
She demanded absolute obedience from Chester—not only obedience, but also utter affection, and she hated his dog because the boy loved him: She could not share her love even with a dumb brute.
When Chester falls in love, she is relentless toward the beautiful young girl and forces Chester to give her up. But a terrible sorrow brings the old woman and the young girl into sympathy, and unspeakable joy is born of the trial.
Happiness also comes to The Brother who Failed.
The Monroes had all been successful in the eyes of the world except Robert: one is a millionaire, another a college president, another a famous singer. Robert overhears the old aunt, Isabel, call him a total failure, but, at the family dinner, one after another stands up and tells how Robert's quiet influence and unselfish aid had started them in their brilliant careers, and the old aunt, wiping the tears from her eyes, exclaims: I guess there's a kind of failure that's the best success.
In one story there is an element of the supernatural, when Hester, the hard older sister, comes between Margaret and her lover and, dying, makes her promise never to become Hugh Blair's wife, but she comes back and unites them. In this, Margaret, just like the delightful Anne, lives up to the dictum that nothing matters in all God's universe except love.
The story of the revival at Avonlea has also a good moral.
There is something in these continued Chronicles of Avonlea, like the delicate art which has made Cranford
a classic: the characters are so homely and homelike and yet tinged with beautiful romance! You feel that you are made familiar with a real town and its real inhabitants; you learn to love them and sympathize with them. Further Chronicles of Avonlea is a book to read; and to know.
NATHAN HASKELL DOLE.
CONTENTS
I. Aunt Cynthia's Persian Cat
II. The Materializing of Cecil
III. Her Father's Daughter
IV. Jane's Baby
V. The Dream-Child
VI. The Brother Who Failed
VII. The Return of Hester
VIII. The Little Brown Book of Miss Emily
IX. Sara's Way
X. The Son of His Mother
XI. The Education of Betty
XII. In Her Selfless Mood
XIII. The Conscience Case of David Bell
XIV. Only a Common Fellow
XV. Tannis of the Flats
FURTHER CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA
I. AUNT CYNTHIA'S PERSIAN CAT
Max always blesses the animal when it is referred to; and I don't deny that things have worked together for good after all. But when I think of the anguish of mind which Ismay and I underwent on account of that abominable cat, it is not a blessing that arises uppermost in my thoughts.
I never was fond of cats, although I admit they are well enough in their place, and I can worry along comfortably with a nice, matronly old tabby who can take care of herself and be of some use in the world. As for Ismay, she hates cats and always did.
But Aunt Cynthia, who adored them, never could bring herself to understand that any one could possibly dislike them. She firmly believed that Ismay and I really liked cats deep down in our hearts, but that, owing to some perverse twist in our moral natures, we would not own up to it, but willfully persisted in declaring we didn't.
Of all cats I loathed that white Persian cat of Aunt Cynthia's. And, indeed, as we always suspected and finally proved, Aunt herself looked upon the creature with more pride than affection. She would have taken ten times the comfort in a good, common puss that she did in that spoiled beauty. But a Persian cat with a recorded pedigree and a market value of one hundred dollars tickled Aunt Cynthia's pride of possession to such an extent that she deluded herself into believing that the animal was really the apple of her eye.
It had been presented to her when a kitten by a missionary nephew who had brought it all the way home from Persia; and for the next three years Aunt Cynthia's household existed to wait on that cat, hand and foot. It was snow-white, with a bluish-gray spot on the tip of its tail; and it was blue-eyed and deaf and delicate. Aunt Cynthia was always worrying lest it should take cold and die. Ismay and I used to wish that it would—we were so tired of hearing about it and its whims. But we did not say so to Aunt Cynthia. She would probably never have spoken to us again and there was no wisdom in offending Aunt Cynthia. When you have an unencumbered aunt, with a fat bank account, it is just as well to keep on good terms with her, if you can. Besides, we really liked Aunt Cynthia very much—at times. Aunt Cynthia was one of those rather exasperating people who nag at and find fault with you until you think you are justified in hating them, and who then turn round and do something so really nice and kind for you that you feel as if you were compelled to love them dutifully instead.
So we listened meekly when she discoursed on Fatima—the cat's name was Fatima—and, if it was wicked of us to wish for the latter's decease, we were well punished for it later on.
One day, in November, Aunt Cynthia came sailing out to Spencervale. She really came in a phaeton, drawn by a fat gray pony, but somehow Aunt Cynthia always gave you the impression of a full rigged ship coming gallantly on before a favorable wind.
That was a Jonah day for us all through. Everything had gone wrong. Ismay had spilled grease on her velvet coat, and the fit of the new blouse I was making was hopelessly askew, and the kitchen stove smoked and the bread was sour. Moreover, Huldah Jane Keyson, our tried and trusty old family nurse and cook and general boss,
had what she called the realagy
in her shoulder; and, though Huldah Jane is as good an old creature as ever lived, when she has the realagy
other people who are in the house want to get out of it and, if they can't, feel about as comfortable as St. Lawrence on his gridiron.
And on top of this came Aunt Cynthia's call and request.
Dear me,
said Aunt Cynthia, sniffing, "don't I smell smoke?
You girls must manage your range very badly. Mine never smokes.
But it is no more than one might expect when two girls try to
keep house without a man about the place."
We get along very well without a man about the place,
I said loftily. Max hadn't been in for four whole days and, though nobody wanted to see him particularly, I couldn't help wondering why. Men are nuisances.
I dare say you would like to pretend you think so,
said Aunt Cynthia, aggravatingly. But no woman ever does really think so, you know. I imagine that pretty Anne Shirley, who is visiting Ella Kimball, doesn't. I saw her and Dr. Irving out walking this afternoon, looking very well satisfied with themselves. If you dilly-dally much longer, Sue, you will let Max slip through your fingers yet.
That was a tactful thing to say to ME, who had refused Max Irving so often that I had lost count. I was furious, and so I smiled most sweetly on my maddening aunt.
Dear Aunt, how amusing of you,
I said, smoothly. You talk as if I wanted Max.
So you do,
said Aunt Cynthia.
If so, why should I have refused him time and again?
I asked, smilingly. Right well Aunt Cynthia knew I had. Max always told her.
Goodness alone knows why,
said Aunt Cynthia, but you may do it once too often and find yourself taken at your word. There is something very fascinating about this Anne Shirley.
Indeed there is,
I assented. She has the loveliest eyes I ever saw. She would be just the wife for Max, and I hope he will marry her.
Humph,
said Aunt Cynthia. Well, I won't entice you into telling any more fibs. And I didn't drive out here to-day in all this wind to talk sense into you concerning Max. I'm going to Halifax for two months and I want you to take charge of Fatima for me, while I am away.
Fatima!
I exclaimed.
Yes. I don't dare to trust her with the servants. Mind you always warm her milk before you give it to her, and don't on any account let her run out of doors.
I looked at Ismay and Ismay looked at me. We knew we were in for it. To refuse would mortally offend Aunt Cynthia. Besides, if I betrayed any unwillingness, Aunt Cynthia would be sure to put it down to grumpiness over what she had said about Max, and rub it in for years. But I ventured to ask, What if anything happens to her while you are away?
It is to prevent that, I'm leaving her with you,
said Aunt Cynthia. You simply must not let anything happen to her. It will do you good to have a little responsibility. And you will have a chance to find out what an adorable creature Fatima really is. Well, that is all settled. I'll send Fatima out to-morrow.
You can take care of that horrid Fatima beast yourself,
said Ismay, when the door closed behind Aunt Cynthia. I won't touch her with a yard-stick. You had no business to say we'd take her.
Did I say we would take her?
I demanded, crossly. Aunt Cynthia took our consent for granted. And you know, as well as I do, we couldn't have refused. So what is the use of being grouchy?
If anything happens to her Aunt Cynthia will hold us responsible,
said Ismay darkly.
Do you think Anne Shirley is really engaged to Gilbert Blythe?
I asked curiously.
I've heard that she was,
said Ismay, absently. Does she eat anything but milk? Will it do to give her mice?
Oh, I guess so. But do you think Max has really fallen in love with her?
I dare say. What a relief it will be for you if he has.
Oh, of course,
I said, frostily. "Anne Shirley or Anne Anybody Else, is perfectly welcome to Max if she wants him. I certainly do not. Ismay Meade, if that stove doesn't stop smoking I shall fly into bits. This is a detestable day. I hate that creature!"
Oh, you shouldn't talk like that, when you don't even know her,
protested Ismay. Every one says Anne Shirley is lovely—
I was talking about Fatima,
I cried in a rage.
Oh!
said Ismay.
Ismay is stupid at times. I thought the way she said Oh
was inexcusably stupid.
Fatima arrived the next day. Max brought her out in a covered basket, lined with padded crimson satin. Max likes cats and Aunt Cynthia. He explained how we were to treat Fatima and when Ismay had gone out of the room—Ismay always went out of the room when she knew I particularly wanted her to remain—he proposed to me again. Of course I said no, as usual, but I was rather pleased. Max had been proposing to me about every two months for two years. Sometimes, as in this case, he went three months, and then I always wondered why. I concluded that he could not be really interested in Anne Shirley, and I was relieved. I didn't want to marry Max but it was pleasant and convenient to have him around, and we would miss him dreadfully if any other girl snapped him up. He was so useful and always willing to do anything for us—nail a shingle on the roof, drive us to town, put down carpets—in short, a very present help in all our troubles.
So I just beamed on him when I said no. Max began counting on his fingers. When he got as far as eight he shook his head and began over again.
What is it?
I asked.
I'm trying to count up how many times I have proposed to you,
he said. But I can't remember whether I asked you to marry me that day we dug up the garden or not. If I did it makes—
No, you didn't,
I interrupted.
Well, that makes it eleven,
said Max reflectively. Pretty near the limit, isn't it? My manly pride will not allow me to propose to the same girl more than twelve times. So the next time will be the last, Sue darling.
Oh,
I said, a trifle flatly. I forgot to resent his calling me darling. I wondered if things wouldn't be rather dull when Max gave up proposing to me. It was the only excitement I had. But of course it would be best—and he couldn't go on at it forever, so, by the way of gracefully dismissing the subject, I asked him what Miss Shirley was like.
Very sweet girl,
said Max. You know I always admired those gray-eyed girls with that splendid Titian hair.
I am dark, with brown eyes. Just then I detested Max. I got up and said I was going to get some milk for Fatima.
I found Ismay in a rage in the kitchen. She had been up in the garret, and a mouse had run across her foot. Mice always get on Ismay's nerves.
We need a cat badly enough,
she fumed, "but not a useless, pampered