Love of Literature Review Series: Chronicles of Avonlea

I know I haven't been keeping up with my series of book reviews, but I mean to take it up once more since I have been doing a lot of reading recently. :)


I recently finished reading Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Of course anything Anne is amazing! :) I love Avonlea, and Prince Edward Island, and Anne Shirley, and Green Gables, and anything to do with any one of those subjects must be worth reading. Chronicles of Avonlea did not disappoint me.
It is a collection of short stories set in Avonlea amid familiar characters. I was greatly amused by many of the stories, including the one about the man-hating woman and woman-hating man who got quarantined together, poor Prissy Strong who had to be married through a window because her older sister had locked her up, the sweet, but sad tale of Little Joscelyn, and the stubborn romance of the Penhallow cousins.
At times I could tell that the author had plugged in a sentence or two about Anne Shirley merely to keep her in the stories. It was funny to hear what Avonlea by and large thought of her, but the descriptions generally had no effect on the story whatsoever, so they really were not necessary. The stories are full the familiar Avonlea names: Shaws, Sloanes, Wrights, Allens, Pyes. Even Mrs. Peter Blewitt makes an appearance, as shrewish as ever. Familiar places are referenced too with White Sands, Carmody, Avonlea, The North Shore, and the Lynde Farm, being mentioned.
This was a very good book for a person well-versed in the Anne books, and one I heartily recommend for anybody to read. I was actually surprised at the Christian flavor of the stories since I have read Montgomery's thoughts on religion and have not been at all impressed.

Characters: * * * * (4 stars- I would have liked to see more of Anne)
Plot: * * * * * (5 stars- The plot of each story was carefully thought out and executed, although she used the old-maid-marrying-at-forty plot too often)
Over All Rating: * * * * * (5 stars)
~Rachel

Anne of Green Gables - "The Highwayman"

Who can forget Anne Shirley's passionate recital of "The Highway Man" or "The Lady of Shallott"? Oftentimes, I step back, and think of what people did for fun before they had all this technology...the thought intrigues me, and I enjoy thinking of, and doing things that require no further technology than a book, and the brain God has given me. For a long time, my sisters and I would memorize a poem each week, and recite it at every tea-party with our Girl's Gazette. The exercise that it gave our brains was absolutely wonderful! Have we become so content with watching other people act things out for us on the screen that we cannot enjoy good literature, and use our imaginations to convey the wonder and excitement of it to others? In the book of "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne says at one point, "Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back?" It is so true...some poetry just captures your attention...I memorized"Barbara Frietchie" once, and still can quote many of those soaring lines...

"Up from the meadows rich with corn,

Clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand,

Green-walled by the hills of Maryland...

.....And the nobler nature within him stirred

To life at that woman's deed and word.

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head

Dies like a dog! March on!" he said."

Ahh...reading poetry and prose aloud is a great art. I clearly remember a scene in the 1995 Sense and Sensibility when Edward Ferrars is reading aloud to the Dashwoods with very little emotion. Marianne, exasperated, finally stands up, take the book and reads passionately: "Not LIGHT propitious SHONE!" with great dramatic flair. We all cannot have perfect reading aloud..and not everyone we'd wish to read aloud to would care to sit and listen! :) But I do challenge all you fellow writers to take a favorite book, find a sister who would listen, and try to read the book or poem aloud in a way that would do Anne Shirley credit. One of my favorite quotes from poetry is in Sir Walter Scott's "The Lady of The Lake" and depicts a Highland Chieftan's defiant quote at Fitz-James at a crucial moment in the story..

"These are Clan Alpine's warriors true

And Saxon- I am Rhoderick Dhu!"

Those words still give me Anne's crinkly feeling up my back! :) Maybe I just have an uncommon love of literature...it's possible! ;) But I do think that we all can determine to improve our reading-aloud. It is a skill not possessed by most people today, and one that is appreciated for it's very rarity when a solid reader is found. Do it for fun! Take a book out to the woods, stand there, and either read or quote the words with as much drama as you would like to use. You can always tone it down in public, but in the woods, who cares as long as you are having fun! :)

-Rachel