Status
Available
Publication
Skylark 1989-10-01 (1989), Edition: Bantam edition / November 1989, 199 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Juvenile Fiction. HTML: Travel to the tranquil seaside village of Avonlea in this charming collection of tales from acclaimed author L. M. Montgomery. From lighthearted stories about pampered pets and love triangles to more serious accounts of tragic loss, this varied volume is sure to please readers who fell in love with Chronicles of Avonlea or Montgomery's masterpiece, Anne of Green Gables..
User reviews
LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
Originally 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,
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...
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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...
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LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
Lest 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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member veracite
Awful 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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member NadineC.Keels
The 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
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!
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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!
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LibraryThing member wrightja2000
This 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
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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. 😢 Show Less
LibraryThing member coffeefairy
So this was a really odd mix of short stories. I say "odd" because I think I'm comparing it to "Anne of Green Gables," not even really meaning to. It's just that the "Anne" series is so iconic and such a big part of my reading life, that it's hard not to compare.
These short stories were sometimes
I listened to the audiobook so sometimes it felt like the stories ended quickly, but I think that's because I was listening.
My favorite stories were the one about the Persian cat, the ghostly appearance in the garden and what happens when an imaginary lover actually comes to town.
These short stories were sometimes
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laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes freakishly disturbing, and sometimes downright sorrowful.I listened to the audiobook so sometimes it felt like the stories ended quickly, but I think that's because I was listening.
My favorite stories were the one about the Persian cat, the ghostly appearance in the garden and what happens when an imaginary lover actually comes to town.
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
A childhood favourite
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1920
1998 (Nouvelle édition française, Presses de la Cité)
Physical description
199 p.; 6.94 inches
ISBN
0553213814 / 9780553213812