The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume V: 1935-1942

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery #5

by L.M. Montgomery, Mary Rubio (Editor), Elizabeth Waterston (Editor)

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), the author of the classic novel for children, Anne of Green Gables , kept extensive journals for most of her life, beginning them in 1889 when she was fourteen and continuing them until shortly before her death. The much anticipated final volume of The Selected
Journals of L. M. Montgomery caps the publication of the unique and powerfully told life-story of this gifted writer. Providing an intimate portrait of the last years of her life as well as a fascinating social history of life in a Toronto suburb, this final volume covers the years 1935 to 1942, the
year of Montgomery's death.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada, Biography, Classics, Biography Memoir, History, Journal

440 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Lucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author, best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908.

Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Nov. 30, 1874. She came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario, after her wedding with Rev. Ewen Macdonald on July 11, 1911. She had three children and wrote close to a dozen books while she was living in the Leaskdale Manse before the family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926. She died in Toronto April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.

Reviews

[Mireille Duval · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is hard to rate because although it is very interesting from an historical/literary point of view, it is a terrible read. LMM spends a lot of time telling us about her sleep and drug habits, eulogizing her cat, and being very cryptic about the sources of her despair. It's all very depressing - clearly her books were endlessly joyful, and she seemed to be able to mask her inner feelings in society, so the journals are relentlessly bleak as she uses them to purge the negative feelings. (It is weird that she kept secrets even from her journal, though. Apparently I have to read Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings to know what she was talking about, but after reading the five journals, I think I'll take a little break before reading the 600-page biography. Maybe for our next Island trip, when my daughters are hopefully as big Anne fans as I am!)

It's also a little weird because even if clearly she didn't have a happy life - Ewan's malady must have been truly terrible to bear -, it sometimes felt like she was making mountains out of things that were not that bad. I mean, clearly Chester was not a good guy, and that's hard for any mother, but that she could only "walk the floor" as her sons were taking exams seems a little excessive, and that her son's affair destroys her life is also a little much. But clearly she felt everything very strongly - the beauty of things, too, but that seemed gone after 1919 - and she was certainly clinically depressed, which doesn't help.

I can't help wondering what her life would have been like if she had stayed single in Prince Edward Island. She didn't seem to hate Ontario or anything, and she liked having small children, but, yeah.

The ending is a gut-punch.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about the journals of Maud Montgomery during a recent visit to the Anne of Green Gables sites at PEI. I thought the museum at her birthplace, the post office and even her aunt and uncle's house at Silver Bush had a lot of information about her life and events that inspired her stories. But it was also through this visit that her life was not as cheerful as I would have imagined. She was a gifted, intelligent, driven woman in a time when women had limited options. Although her beloved father supported her writing ambitions he lived across the country and died when she was only 26 leaving her without any family to support and cheer her on as she faced numerous rejections before Anne of Green Gables was finally published.

It would not have been my choice to start with the last of her journals but that is all that was available at my local library. Apparently the earlier ones are more cheerful but by this time in Maud's life her husband had been run out of his last church assignment, her cousin and best friend had died, both her sons were struggling getting through school and had messy personal lives and Maud sinks deeper into depression. The longest entries deal with the death of a favorite cat and a disagreement with her housekeeper.

Despite the continual gloom of her personal life, much of which is alluded to but too painful or embarrassing for her to put into writing, she seems to have been able to present a genial and engaging face socially and professionally and often writes about visits and outings with friends and speaking engagements.

She seems unduly affected by her sons' struggles in school. Chester was apparently had a brilliant legal mind but would rather party than study and he flunks a lot of exams, which along with a secret marriage and two children to a young woman Maud deemed unworthy caused her no end of pain and melancholy. She seemed like a helicopter mom back before the term was invented but she was definitely someone who was sensitive and observant and felt pain as keenly as joy.

What an amazing woman to have written so many books that continue to delight and speak to people over 100 years after their publication and while it is sad to learn she suffered so much from depression and with family issues her strength and humor do still come through in her last journal.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still deeply moving, but leaves many questions unanswered. There's a sudden stop of text from 1940-42, and then only a brief, heartbreaking final entry. I've read an article by the editors that was published recently, where they say her son Chester may have hidden or destroyed the final volumes because of the amount of misery he caused his mother. Wow. I guess that would be the Canadian version of Ted Hughes destroying Plath's last journals.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was the hardest to read by far. Much of the book is taken up with worries about her sons. This was very understandable particularly as regards Chester and his peccadilloes. She also suffers the death of her beloved cat, and she and her husband have ongoing physical and mental health issues. I nearly gave this only 2 stars, but things finally lightened up just before the journal ended. I was disappointed at first that there were no entries for the war years, but after the melancholic nature of the rest of this volume it actually came as something of a relief not to see her final descent into despair.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my, where to begin. I've been trying to write a review in my head for the past few days and I still can't get it right. I have now finished all 5 volumes of L.M. Montgomery's personal journals and while they get sadder with each passing volume, I really enjoyed reading them. So many of her books (especially the "Anne" series and Rilla of Ingleside in particular) have been such a big part of my life. I loved them as a young child and even now in my mid 30s I still pull them out and reread them frequently. They are timeless. I very much wish that L.M. Montgomery's life could have been happier. It is painful to read about her anxiety and depression (and that of her husband's struggles as well), and yet amazing that she was able to set it all aside and write such beautiful books that brought so much joy to thousands upon thousands of others. Writing was her escape, and that at least brought her some measure of contentment.

"In a 'fan' letter of today the writer said, 'It is a grand gift to be able to bring so much pleasure and happiness to so many people by your pen'!!!
Perhaps. It is odd to be able to give what one doesn't possess oneself. Yet let me be just. I have been, always, happy in my work - happy while writing those books." (LMM 1938)


"I had another letter today from a woman who had just read 'Windy Poplars'. She said in conclusion 'Thank you for the simple charm of people, humor and quaintness - for a wisp of fairyland - for the scarlet, purple and blue!'
When dreariness and fear threaten to overwhelm me I shall remember this letter and say to myself 'Take heart my child. As long as you can bring a little delight or comfort into the lives of others life is worth living. And there are countless lives waiting for you yet in the years of eternity and in stars yet unborn.'" (LMM 1938)


She certainly succeeded in bringing delight and comfort to the world, and I for one am very grateful.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

As astute a writer as Lucy Maud was she had to be conscious of withholding a lot of information while writing her journals. of course she knew they would be published so it follows that we get in this volume a lot of information about what was going on but not what she was truly thinking. Nothing at all about her bitterness of being caught in a loveless marriage and saddled with a husband who was no help at all in her life. As a parent I know the agonizing one does over one's children and her thoughts about Chester are not included.
one has to do a lot of reading between the lines about the things that filled her with such despair. there's little doubt in my mind that her physical and mental breakdown was partly due to repression.

I am however, enjoying this book because I lived very near the Manse in Norval, Ontario and had a studio in Glen Williams so I can relate to all the events, names and buildings she speaks about.

There is a beautiful garden in her honor beside the Norval school and it's on the bank of the west credit river where you can go down the steps into the gully which is a nature reserve..a quick hide-a-way on the edge of a busy city.

[Ruth]

What a slog. By the time L.M. Montgomery reached the last few years of her life, her journal had been reduced to a diary of her sleep and drug habits. I missed the witty observations from earlier journals (e.g., her observation that one of her houseguests "never says anything interesting -- not even by accident"). Instead of wit, we have a 15-page reminiscence about Good Luck the cat and pages and pages of her complaints about a transgression by her son that is apparently too horrible to describe in the journal (I was never clear about whether the transgression was the affair with Ida Birrell; she intimates that the affair is not the whole story). The end of the journal feels very abrupt. Did she have another nervous breakdown? I don't think I could have left this volume unread after reading the other four volumes, but I can't say that I enjoyed it.

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the final journal of LM Montgomery's life. It spans the final 7 years which were without a doubt the most hard for Maud to live. The sad thing is that all of the stories of what went wrong in her final years isn't touched on much - if at all - and it leaves you as a reader wondering what happened. You have to read between the lines or research out her life story to find out what is really going on in this final book. This is a sad final chapter in this amazing writers life but it is still a good book. I think all fans should read this but should read "The Gift of Wings" first to have an idea of what is going on at least for this final journal.

[Cari Skuse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the final of the Volumes of Journals. Very sad to read and sometimes very hard to read.

For those who want to know more about the behind story of what was not written in black and white (like Chester) please read L.M. Montgomery -The Gift of Wings Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings .
While it does not totally answer all the questions, it does fill in a lot of the blanks.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading "The Gift of Wings" by Mary Henley Rubio earlier this fall -- probably the definitive biography of L.M. Montgomery -- I dove into two other Montgomery-related books that had also been languishing in my gargantuan to-read pile.

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume V: 1935-1942 as edited by Mary Rubio & Elizabeth Waterston, is the final volume of Montgomery's journals written before her death in April 1942, and the one volume that I hadn't read previously.

In some ways, I wish I had read this before tackling "The Gift of Wings," just to round things out (also, that's the order in which the books were published). On the other hand, Montgomery self-edited her journals, and barely wrote a thing during the last two years of her life. She is not always specific about what is happening, making sometimes cryptic references to certain people and events. In that respect, it was helpful to have read Rubio's book first, as she fills in some of the critical blanks and sheds new light on Montgomery's journal entries. (I did have to go back to "The Gift of Wings" at certain points while reading the journals to remind myself what the heck she meant.)

As much as I love Montgomery, and as fascinating as it is to get a glimpse into her personal thoughts and feelings (however guarded), I have to admit, this is not a happy or cheerful book, and in some respects it was probably the hardest volume of the journals to get through. As it begins, Montgomery and her family had just moved from Norval, where her husband had lost his job as Presbyterian minister, to retire in Toronto. While Montgomery mourned the loss of her home in Norval, where she had led a mostly happy life, she begins on a hopeful note: her lovely new Tudor-style home in the suburb of Swansea was the first she had ever owned, and she was now closer to the intellectual and social circles of Toronto she desperately wanted to be part of.

But her husband's mental and physical health continued to deteriorate; and she obsessed over her two sons -- their educations and love lives in particular. (Who said helicopter parenting is a 21st century phenomenon??) Her oldest son, Chester, proved to be a huge disappointment to her, getting kicked out of engineering school, barely squeaking through law school, knocking up a girl from Norval, secretly marrying her -- and then running around with other women (and that's just for starters...!). Her younger son, Stuart, was in many respects the "golden boy" of the family, but Montgomery frets over his studies as well, and especially over his ongoing friendship with a Norval girl she deems highly unsuitable.

It is difficult -- and, yes, sometimes a bit monotonous -- to follow as Montgomery tries desperately to keep up appearances and hold everything together, spirals into depression, ceases writing her journal all together -- and then dies at the far too young age of 67. The final entry is heartbreaking in its brevity and despair. If you are a big Montgomery fan, though, and have read the other journals, you will need to read this to complete the full picture of this amazing author's life.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was much harder to read than the previous 4. Not because she was any less of a writer, but just because her life had clearly become so much harder. It is apparent that she is struggling with very severe depression for much of the last few years of her life, and it seems it is likely she ended up ending her own life. There is a lot that is interesting here but I wouldn't recommend it if reading about a lot of depression is hard for you.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sad end of LM Montgomery's life. She's vague about several things, especially regarding her son Chester, who was cheating on his wife and doing all kinds of terrible things, so you really have to read Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings to figure out what she was talking about.

[Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was obviously an incredibly hard read. The end was really emotional and left me feeling the loss of Maud as if it happened yesterday. I will now be reading The Gift of Wings by Mary Rubio to understand more of the context which was missing. Ugh I don't know what else to write as it feels futile to say it hurts.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

How very sad. I knew that Maud‘s life did not end well, but to read it in living color and see her fade away was heartbreaking. But I thoroughly enjoyed knowing what was going on at the time she was writing Jane of Lantern Hill and Anne of Ingleside. I read those books alongside the journal entries and loved the added dimension it brought.

[M.E. Hembroff]

This book gives you an insight to the life the author lived. Loved it.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frankly, the book was too sad and tragic to finish. Late in her life, it was such hopeless bleak despair! This quote, rumored to be a suicide note left on Maud's bedside table, tells you nearly all you need to know about this book [source:

"This copy is unfinished and never will be. It is in a terrible state because I made it when I had begun to suffer my terrible breakdown of 1940. It must end here. If any publishers wish to publish extracts from it under the terms of my will they must stop here. The tenth volume can never be copied and must not be made public during my lifetime. Parts of it are too terrible and would hurt people. I have lost my mind by spells and I do not dare think what I may do in those spells. May God forgive me and I hope everyone else will forgive me even if they cannot understand. My position is too awful to endure and nobody realizes it. What an end to a life in which I tried always to do my best."

I feel for her, truly - she was so anxiety-ridden and depressed, it's amazing she was still able to work. She got worried to the point of sleeplessness. It's no news that her husband's mental issues gave her legitimate cause to worry for years. I couldn't bear reading through it and seeing if he was going to have another attack of religious melancholia which threw her into the depths of despair again. I could just strangle her eldest son Chester. I can't imagine she had any peace for the rest of her life after what I read at the start of this volume, and having skipped to the end to see she made no entries at all for a couple years and the last entry she made was so extremely heavyhearted. Poor poor Maud.

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how I manage to keep powering through books that I'm not, according to my "currently reading" list, officially reading. As with the other volumes of the journals, I found this extremely interesting, but lord was it ever hard to read at times. This particular volume wasn't so much interesting in the details: although it (finally!) delved into some of her thoughts and impressions while writing her books (a total contrast from earlier volumes where she almost never mentioned her fiction), it was mostly about her nervous complaints, her sleep habits, her various medications, the death of her favorite cat, and her problems with her husband's mental illness and her eldest son's infidelity to his wife. Where it was interesting was in the total shocking contrast between the joy of her fiction and the complete lack of it in her personal life, as well as between her gift for maintaining a sense of humor through adversity in her fictional characters and her complete inability to do so through her own adversity. Granted, I know from experience how people turn to journals in difficult times and how likely they are to therefore become a parade of woes, but she was also so clearly writing and preparing her journals for posterity that it makes me wonder about the lack of balance.

Either way, these journals are a worthwhile read. I'll never stop finding her fascinating.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is the last volume in L.M. Montgomery’s journals. She started writing them when she was about 14 years old, and continued throughout most of her life. In volume 5, she and her husband Ewan, a minister, have moved into Toronto; he is no longer preaching. Their sons, Chester and Stuart are going to law school and medical school, respectively. Maud spends a lot of her time worrying about Ewan, who is often very depressed, and Chester, who managed to get himself into all kinds of trouble. Maud herself is often depressed. It’s an interesting look at the life of probably one of the most famous Canadian authors, told in her own words. Her fans would never have known it, but she was not a very happy woman.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last volume of L.M. Montgomery's selected journals. It is very well written and you can hear her voice come through reminiscent of the Anne books. I liked that about it. But overall, it is a very sad book. She suffered a LOT in her later years and was very depressed and melancholy. It depressed me to read it. In the last entry of her journal she even states that she would like to end her life she is so miserable. I would like to read the earlier volumes to get an idea of what her earlier life was like.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sad end to an amazing woman's life. I've read all of LMM's journals now and I actually struggled through this one at times. She suffered such horrible depression and mental anguish in the last years of her life that it was hard to read her entries. But the look at this creative, intelligent woman's life during the Great Depression and through the start of WWII was fascinating. I am not surprised about the recent revelation that she took her own life, especially after reading her final journal, but it is very sad.

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last of LMM's journals. I find them absolutely fascinating to read! It's really interesting to get to know the person behind the books. Sure, one doesn't get an honest picture of a person through a journal that's mostly used to complain in, but it still teaches me a lot about her life. I really enjoyed it.

[Mitzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading all the previous journals, Maud feels like a friend, and to see her hurt so much is enough to make you miserable. Not a happy read for the most part (though I did find myself cheering when she finally started to feel better after her son's affair), but just as fascinating as all her other journals. The abrupt ending is like a punch in the stomach.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

hard to get ahold of- snippets of her life from one of my favourite writers... writeresses?

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

so sad

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the saddest book I've ever read, particularly because it's true.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

One wonders... if prozac had only been available.

[Mitzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sad, sad end to this amazing woman's story...