Author Discussion: Lucy Maud Montgomery

[nocowardsoul]

Montgomery, who preferred to go by Maud, needs no introduction. Anne of Green Gables is one of the most famous works of Canadian literature. LMM wrote eight novels about Anne Shirley and her kids, ten other novels for kids and adults, and numerous short stories. Her journals have also been published.

Comments

[nocowardsoul]

I love LMM! I love her nature descriptions and her sense of humor and her skillful characterization. My favorite thing about the later-set books is the controversy over pajamas.

The AOGG movie with Megan Follows is excellent. I didn't care for the 2015 movie with Martin Sheen as Matthew. It makes Marilla less sympathetic when she takes Anne in for trial period. I haven't seen Anne with an E.

[sawthefaeriequeen]

I love her. She clearly did not have an easy life, yet she was able to spin all these stories that were beautiful and funny and spilling over with romantic prose but were also honest about the darkness and messiness of the world. I definitely responded more strongly to Emily's arc in "Emily's Quest" after I'd been diagnosed with depression myself.

Also it sort of blows my mind that "Rilla of Ingleside" even exists. She essentially mined her war journals for that book, so some of the events you're reading about, she actally wrote them in 'real time', while they had just freshly happened or were happening.

[nocowardsoul]

Yeah, Emily's Quest gets pretty bleak.

That's interesting to know about Rilla. I heard she grew more critical of the war in the years after.

[gourmandizingcats]

She's a favorite of mine. I have a very clear childhood memory of watching the 1985 AoGG miniseries while lying in a friend's bathtub waiting for a splinter to come out of my foot after a day on the playground, and I've adored the Anne series ever since.

I'm actually not familiar with the Emily books but I'm told they're great too. I love the moody and atmospheric and imaginative aspects of the Anne books so I think I'll probably enjoy Emily as well when I get around to giving them a read.

Another thing I love about LMM is her descriptions of weather and seasons. I live in New England myself and I've remarked a few times that, just as they say Edwardian Dublin could be rebuilt from the descriptions in Joyce, I think future geoengineers could restore Northeastern North America's pre-industrial seasonal patterns from the descriptions in LMM.

[nocowardsoul]

I'm fond of the Emily books. They have some complicated relationships in them.

I was a kid when I read AOGG and didn't see the miniseries until high school, so it was a bit jarring to me to hear them all say Av-on-lea when I always said A-von-lea.

[feather_ghyll]

Montgomery is a titan of children's books. I grew up on the Anne series, came to the Emily books later, and am still trying to read all of her novels (although I thought the second Hilary book was a low point.) As others have said, she writes about nature so beautfully and mixes the romantic, the absurdity of human foibles and the shades of darkness of life.

[nocowardsoul]

The funny thing about that second book is that it takes place in the future, so WWII would be happening, but it isn't.

[feather_ghyll]

I meant the 'Pat' books! I don't think I realised that issue with the timing.