The Complete Pat of Silver Bush Series: Pat of Silver Bush + Mistress Pat

by L.M. Montgomery

This carefully crafted “The Complete Pat of Silver Bush Pat of Silver Bush + Mistress Pat” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Pat of Silver Bush (1933) is a novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, noted for her Anne of Green Gables series. It portrays a girl named Patricia Gardiner, who hates changes of any kind and loves her home, Silver Bush, more than anything else in the world. She is very devoted to her her father and mother, her brothers Joe and Sid, and her sisters Winnie and Rachel. The book begins when Pat is 7 years old and ends when she is 18. This book has a sequel, Mistress Pat (1935), which describes Patricia Gardiner's life in her twenties and early thirties, during which she remained single and took care of her beloved home, Silver Bush. Pat hated changes as much as ever, and found in Silver Bush a refuge where she was shielded from them, but changes happened nevertheless. In the course of eleven years, new servants, new neighbors and new lovers came and went, her brothers and sisters all got married, and life at Silver Bush was no longer as pleasant as before, but Pat clung to her love of it desperately. It was only in the face of horrible disasters that Pat found where her heart belonged for the rest of her life. Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 – 1942), was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays.

Genres: Classics, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Childrens

673 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 4, 2013

About the author

Lucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author whose novels, stories, essays and poems made her one of the most widely read writers in Canadian literary history. Publishing under the name L. M. Montgomery, she achieved international recognition with the novel Anne of Green Gables, released in 1908, which quickly became a bestseller and introduced readers to the imaginative orphan Anne Shirley. The success of the book transformed Montgomery from a schoolteacher and magazine contributor into a celebrated literary figure whose work reached audiences far beyond Canada. Raised on Prince Edward Island, she drew deeply on its landscapes, rural communities, and storytelling traditions, turning the island into the setting for many of her novels. The popularity of Anne of Green Gables led to numerous sequels, including Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island, establishing a beloved series that followed Anne from childhood to adulthood. Montgomery continued to write steadily throughout her life, producing twenty novels and more than a thousand short stories poems and essays. Her fiction often centered on young women, personal growth, and the emotional ties between people and place, combining gentle humor with reflections on memory, imagination, and belonging. Although she enjoyed enormous popularity, Montgomery also faced personal difficulties, including long periods of depression and the strain of caring for her husband, a Presbyterian minister who struggled with mental illness. Writing became both a profession and a refuge, allowing her to transform memories of childhood and observation of everyday life into vivid storytelling. In addition to the Anne series, she created other notable works, including the Emily novels and several stand alone stories that explored identity, creativity, and attachment to home. Her books were translated widely and attracted devoted readers around the world, helping shape the international image of Prince Edward Island as a place of pastoral beauty and warm community life. Scholars later studied her extensive journals letters and manuscripts, which revealed the complex inner life behind the cheerful tone of many of her books. By the time of her death in 1942, Montgomery had become one of the most successful and influential authors in Canadian literature. Her stories about imagination, resilience, and the search for belonging continue to inspire readers of all ages, and Anne Shirley remains one of the most recognizable characters in children's fiction. Through generations of readers, Montgomery's work has encouraged appreciation for storytelling, nature, and the emotional richness of ordinary life. Her legacy also includes a vast body of diaries and correspondence that document the challenges faced by a professional woman writer in the early twentieth century. Institutions such as the L. M. Montgomery Institute have continued to examine her influence on literature culture and tourism, particularly on Prince Edward Island, where sites associated with her fiction attract visitors from many countries. Adaptations of Anne of Green Gables for film, television, and theatre have introduced new audiences to her stories, ensuring that her characters remain part of global popular culture. Though critical opinion once dismissed her as merely a writer for children, later scholarship recognized the depth of her themes and the enduring craft of her storytelling. Today she is remembered as a central figure in Canadian literature whose imaginative vision gave voice to the beauty of rural life while celebrating the hopes of young dreamers who search for belonging.

Reviews

[Sora O'Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially loved Pat of Silver Bush. I am a huge Lucy Maud Montgomery fan and last summer visited Prince Edward Island for the first time, which enabled me, so to speak, to put a face to the name. Pat of Silver Bush is just a fascinating book, beautifully written, with exquisitely drawn characters who come to life and leap off the page into your heart. The two-book series is a hymn to home. Pat's love of home and aversion to change rule her life. Friends and beaus come and go and change inevitably happens. Perhaps a situation like Pat's cannot exist in our day and age, but it is easy to slip into Montgomery's 1933 world, draw a chair up by the stove, a cat onto your lap, and enter in completely.

I was particularly taken with one motif that permeates the books: twilight, otherwise known as "the dim." Montgomery writes a great deal about the landscape and the lighting and twilight, evening or morning, comes in for a lot of attention. It is something I personally experienced while living in Ireland, and is a time of day worthy of much consideration. That magical time that separates day and night, and exists actually twice a day, having its twin between night and morning, if we are fortunately enough to be up early to experience it. The French call it "l'heure bleu." Some call it "lighting up time," and I personally have very fond memories of a friend in Ireland whom I seem to recall always in her twilight kitchen, enjoying the dim peaceful hour with a cup of tea and a chat, without feeling the necessity to switch on the light.

Montgomery's books are like a time capsule. Open them up and step into a different time and place. A welcome respite from our own.

[Meridian Conk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pat is the oddest of Montgomery's child heroines. She is not as brilliant as Anne or Emily, nor as exciting as the Story Girl, nor does she have as many adventures as Marigold. In the end all Pat can do is "love too hard". Pat, being a home-body, conducts the majority of her adventures in the loving shadow of Silver Bush. With Judy spinning tales, the house to take care of, and the neighbor boy Jingle to keep her company, Pat is a happy child. Pat of Silver Bush is a domestic tale, but it still very sweet and satisfying.

Mistress Pat lacks some of the magic of discovery that made Pat of Silver Bush so delightful, but it is still a serviceable tale. The addition of Tillytuck creates a good addition to Judy's tales, but the romance lacks spark. Jingle is gone for the majority for the book, and the story suffers for it. The conclusion is acceptable, but the first of the duo is by far the better story.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

Change is inevitable. Love is enduring. Homes and houses have the ability to talk and have a life of their own. Montgomery brings the people, the land and the house to life.

[Meeeriams Fleep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit more childish than Anne of Gables and Emily of New Moon, but was a sad and nostalgic read. Always, Montgomery's witty, wonderful mind comes through and shines.

[Abigail Moreshead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pat of Silver Bush- 4 stars
Mistress Pat- 5 stars

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entirely new to me, and I enjoyed it very much (I think you have to consider this as a single story, because a lot from the first book turns out to be important in the second). Excellent plot, you know how it's going to end but can't see how on earth it will get there (which is how I felt about Emily) - and goodness but it's a twisty turny route.

The central characters - Pat, Judy, Rae, Hilary - are well-drawn, the others somewhat shadowy, so that Pat's grief when people leave (when she's a child, at any rate) is a little puzzling. But I shared her grief over the departures (and arrivals) as an adult - prepare to shed tears.

Not as romantic as Anne nor as striking as Emily, Pat may become my favourite of LMM's heroines, although I would prefer to read a version with subtitles for Judy's dialogue.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have just been enjoying an L.M.Montgomery marathon and these two books were almost the end of it. Just finished "The Blue Castle" and have still got "Kilmenny of the Orchard" to go. Sadly, I have to say that while I have totally loved all the other books, "Mistress Pat" did not quite live up to the standard. For some reason, Montgomery let it drag on too long. Each chapter was entitled by a year and by the tenth year I was really ready to wrap it up Instead it went on for two more years and the actions, while necessary, could have definitely been completed earlier.

Well, that's all I'm going to say about that.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many don't like the Pat books. I love the Anne and Emily series Anne first then Emily and then Pat. I love the Pat books, I very much relate to her more than to Anne or Emily. She detests change and loves her home. She is lovable as much as Anne and Emily, but she lacks ambition but to stay home which there is nothing wrong with that. I think this book is a gem among L.M''s works and should be more recognized among her works.

[Penny Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heavenly

It took a little bit to get started, but after that I loved this series. Sweet and beautiful! It lingered in my mind all day and it was a joy to know I had it to look forward to reading each night.