Kilmeny of the Orchard

by L.M. Montgomery

A sweet and moving romance from the author of the beloved Anne of Green Gables series!

Eric Marshall, recent college graduate, has the world at his feet. He’s handsome, popular, wealthy, and surprisingly, single. Living the bachelor lifestyle with his widowed father, he’s never given much thought to romance. When an old school friend asks Eric to substitute teach for him on Prince Edward Island while he recuperates from an illness, Eric thinks, why not? He’s got some time to kill before diving into the family business with his father, and the rustic island may be a good diversion for him.

Eric falls into the easy routine of island life, and his status as eligible bachelor endears him to the locals. Eric is still not thinking of romance, but he’s about to find it in a most unexpected place…

Kilmeny Gordon is sweet and smart and beautiful, perfect in every way but one: she can’t speak. She’s been sheltered all her life due to her disability and the scandal surrounding her birth. She wiles away her hours helping her aunt and uncle on the farm and playing her violin in her favorite secluded spot. When Eric stumbles into her hidden orchard, he brings a whole new world with him, and a friendship that both frightens her and thrills her. As the summer days grow longer and their friendship blossoms, sweet, silent Kilmeny, with her sunny enthusiasm and haunting music, manages to do what neither the co-eds of Queenslea College nor the village lasses of Lindsay have been able to do—capture Eric’s heart.

But Kilmeny knows he’ll soon have to go back to his life on the mainland, a world of business meetings and parties and prejudicial people—a world in which she’ll hold him back and never fit in. None of that matters to Eric, but how can he get her to accept that she’s the only woman he’ll ever love, when she is convinced that the only way to love him is to let him go?

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Canada, Historical

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

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

[Nikola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Październik 2020: 3/5
Maj 2024: 4/5

[kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

While teaching at PEI, Eric Marshall sees the ~glorious Kilmeny Gordon in an old orchard. And because she's fair of face, he decides to fall in love with her because he could—AND I QUOTE—'never care for an ugly woman'. HOLD YOUR APPLAUSE TILL THE END PLEASE. So then he helps Kilmeny 'become a woman'—I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO MAKE THIS SOUND BETTER I'M SORRY—and proposes except Kilmeny won't have him because she's unable to speak.

CUE RACISM AND THE DEUS EX MACHINA OF YOUR GODDAMNED DREAMS.

1. MONTGOMERY WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS.

2. This is seriously such a disaster of a book. It's got such a silly, simple little plot with a hero who's a shallow fool and a heroine who's so innocent and beautiful and pure that it's gross and a romance that is absolutely DISGUSTING—

3. —A MOMENT FOR ME RANT ABOUT THAT ROMANCE BECAUSE WHAT. THE. EVER. LIVING. SHIT WAS THAT? Eric's internal monologue about Kilmeny is the most horrifying innocent-fetishizing bullshit I've read in a while. He THRILLS at her naïtivity. At one point he flat out rejects a plan to send Kilmeny to school because—I QUOTE AGAIN—"I can't see why she can't learn all she needs to learn after she is married to me, just as well as before." UM MAYBE BECAUSE SHE SHOULDN'T BE 'TRAINED' BY YOU YOU GODDAMNED CREEP.

WHAT THE FUUUUU—

THIS IS SO MESSED UP. LOVE IS NOT ABOUT LIMITING YOUR PARTNER, OR CONTROLLING YOUR PARTNER, OR SHAPING THEM INTO YOUR IDEAL. IT SHOULD EXIST BECAUSE OF YOUR PARTNER, JUST AS THEY ARE. lksdjflkdj

The whole thing was so horrifying. HE'S JUST SO HAPPY TO HAVE FOUND SOMEONE 'UNTOUCHED' AND 'UNTAINTED' BY THE WORLD AROUND HER!!! VOM.

2. —so this thing is really, really not great. SO NOT GREAT.

4. THE STAR IS SOLELY FOR THE SCENERY I STG.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a perfect Sunday-afternoon read. I really enjoyed the escapist quality of it...a fairy-tale type romance, with a brave hero and a beautiful heroine. And of course I loved that Kilmeny is such a talented violinist!

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Now I do feel a trifle guilty considering only a one star rating for L.M. Montgomery's Kilmeny of the Orchard (as from how much I have actually enjoyed this slight and rather overwrought 1910 romance novella I should probably be rating it with a low two stars, as there have indeed and certainly been a few descriptions of especially the Prince Edward Island countryside that have been magical and descriptively delightful). However and yes very much personally, I absolutely cannot really justify having in recent months given the author's Rilla of Ingleside but one star because I absolutely despise the Blythe family housekeeper Susan Baker's unapologetic (and never even remotely in my opinion criticised by L.M. Montgomery) horrid and propagandistic although of course also historically accurate for time and place anti German sentiment (and this albeit that Rilla of Ingleside is actually penned in a generally evocatively readable and emotionally approachable, heartbreaking manner) and then rate her Kilmeny of the Orchard with two stars even though it most definitely is (in my humble opinion) both not in any fashion as flowingly rendered writing style wise as Rilla of Ingleside and certainly also contains considerably more annoying cultural and ethnic stereotypes.

For truly (and yes I do say this with very much offended vehemence), I absolutely cannot fathom and believe the sheer amount of the latter (the stereotypical assumptions) that Kilmeny of the Orchard contains within its pages. And while perhaps the most obvious of these depictions (at least for my 20th and 21st century sentiments) is that Italian born Neil Gordon (an adopted son) must of course by his very nature and his genetics, his ethnicity be volatile, unbridled and thus inherently dangerous (that he basically is Eric Marshall's main and a dangerous rival for Kilmeny's love first and foremost because of his Italian background), and well, if that were indeed the only stereotype presented by L.M. Montgomery, perhaps Kilmeny of the Orchard could still be somewhat salvageable to and for me (as perhaps a very grudging low three star ranking). But aside from the Neil Gordon as a dangerous (and genetically bred in the bone) explosive Italian representation, there is also and concurrently a total plethora of both hidden and not so hidden sexism contained in Kilmeny of the Orchard and that entire concept of Kilmeny basically only accepting Eric Marshall's love once she has overcome her muteness (which very event also feels rather too cinematic and fairytale like for my reading tastes) really does make me rather majorly cringe, not to mention that the depiction of Kilmeny's lack of speaking ability as being somehow a justified punishment for her late mother's stubbornness, for her mother not forgiving her husband regarding his inadvertent bigamy, that probably and in retrospect angers me even considerably more so than even the Neil Gordon scenario does, for if there is one attitude and sentiment that I have NEVER been able to stomach and accept, it is that horrible and viciously vile "Biblical" dictum that the sins of the father (and in Kilmeny of the Orchard of course the sins of the mother) shall be visited (and rightfully so it seems) on the children.

Combined with a writing style that often feels both overly maudlin and on the surface, as well as rather cobbled together from bits and pieces (although yes indeed with a few small instances of Prince Edward Island landscape description brilliance), Kilmeny of the Orchard is definitely amongst the absolute worst offerings from L.M. Montgomery's pen I have read to date (and a book to read one time, but never ever again and no, I only really do recommend Kilmeny of the Orchard for serious L.M. Montgomery completists).

[Clare Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book is so unassuming, sitting on my shelf, with its battered corners. It is so very well-loved. As an adult, I realize all its faults, and I don't recognize it as one of Montgomery's best--but that's part of why I like it. I bought it when I was probably eleven or so and put it away for a while, and then it became one of my favorite stories. It feels like a story that an author wants to write simply to please herself, a pretty little thing like a soap bubble. It's simple and elegant and beautiful.

[Yasamanv · Rating 4 out of 5]

مثل بقیه کتاب های مونتگمری قشنگ و شیرین بود 💜🌿

[°•.Melina°•. · Rating 5 out of 5]

من نمیتونم یه مونتگمری پنج ندم. کتابای مونتگمری برای من فقط کتاب نیستن فقط داستان نیستن. من باهاشون از ۱۳ سالگی بزرگ شدم، و این چهارمین تابستونیه که هر سال یکی از رمان‌هاشو تو سفر خوندم و این برام شده یجور رسمِ قلبی، از اون "خاطرات کتابی" ای که به بچه‌ها و نوه‌هات در آینده تعریف میکنی.
"آره عزیزدلم هر سال که می‌رفتیم اونجا من یکی از کتابای مومتگمری رو برمیداشتم میخوندم و میونِ انتظارها و پیک‌نیک‌ها و طبیعت‌گردی‌هام میخوندمشون و به طرز غریبی توصیف‌ها و جملاتش با اون دوره از زندگیم تناسب داشت. من لابلای این کتاب‌ها عاشق شدم و عاشق موندم. و از یه جایی به بعد فقط به این فکر میکردم که حتی اگر روزی کتاب‌های مونتکمری به ته رسید، کاش عشقم، اون سفر و اون آرامش و جوونی‌ای که حس میکردم تمومی نداشته باشه."

هیچی برای من قصر آبی نمیشه اما این یکی بااینکه از همشون کوتاه تر بود، چنان ردی رو قلب آدم میذاره که انگار ۳۰۰ صفحه کتاب خوندی و نمیتونم بگم چقدر هربار با قلمِ این زن و عقلش و خلاقیتش و احساساتش و جادویی که پراکنده میکنه تو جزیره‌ی پرنس ادوازرد، از ته دل آرزو میکنم اگر اون دنیایی وجود داشته باشه حتما برم و یه بغل طولانی بکنمش. مرسی. که تو تمام خاطراتِ تابستونی‌ِ نوجوونیام وجود داشتی. تا ابد به دوباره خوندنشون ادامه میدم.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really short, and hence, this review will probably be short.

First, L.M. Montgomery was not at her best in this novella. This had none of the almost unconscious charm of the famed Anne of Green Gables or even The Blue Castle (which was slightly shallow, yes, but still charming). Perhaps it's because neither Anne nor Valancy, the heroines of those stories, were particularly pretty. But they were witty and intelligent and their peculiarities and absurdities made them strangely lovable and maybe even captivating.

Kilmeny, on the other hand, is "extraordinarily beautiful." And that's about all she has going for her. She can't speak, for no apparent reason, and what is supposed to come off as "childlike innocence" ended up just seeming fake and starchy. She's been kept away from the outside world and has never looked in a mirror so she thinks she's ugly.

Eric, the main character, annoyed me far more than Kilmeny ever could. His thoughts on how perfect and beautiful Kilmeny was got long and tedious. We get it, she's beautiful. I wanted to box his ears when he said "I'm sure I could never care for an ugly woman." I mean, seriously? How incredibly shallow. And of course he's terribly good looking and all the girls are after him, but he doesn't care for any of them because Kilmeny is so much prettier than they are.

For some reason these characters just didn't click with me and seemed to lack depth. When I read on the back cover that Eric had to surmount great obstacles to win Kilmeny's love, I thought it would be a lot more exciting than it was. It wasn't.

I give this book three stars because there are some lovely descriptive passages. And it could've been a really cute, fluffy story, but there was too much doting over the heroine by the hero, and it just came over as cheesy and melodramatic.

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

L. M. Montgomery wrote Kilmeny when she was a teenager, this was her first attempt at writing so it comes off a little more childish than her other books. You can see her romantic soul in everything she writes :)
Also, Valancy in The Blue Castle, Kilmeny... such beautiful names I have in my list for potential daughters in the future! Valancy remains my favorite ever though.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

5+ stars (6/10 hearts). I know this book isn’t for everyone. But it just happens to be a niched book that I really, really love.

Beautiful, springtime Prince Edward Island, Canada—absolutely a magical place at any time, but especially in Spring. A tiny little village, surrounded by woods and water, and full of old-fashioned, kindly, simple people. A quaint orchard in full bloom. A peerlessly beautiful young girl, fresh and innocent and a wonderful violinist. A passionate young man lacking only love. It seems all perfection… yet an old and terrible sin keeps them apart.

This little romance is a beautiful tale of love slowly evolving. Although at first glance Kilmeny & Eric’s love story seems based on looks, it quickly proves to be character. She finds him a man to trust in and depend upon, and he finds her a woman to care for him and cherish him. They are well suited in tastes and ideas, and would make an ideal couple. It is not Kilmeny’s looks or Eric’s that win everything for them, but their characters.

Eric is a loveable hero, strong and gentle, humble, full of genuine desire to do right, and immediately setting out to rectify his mistakes. Kilmeny is exquisitely perfect in everything—looks and manner and character and gifts—yet she is satisfying rather than frustrating. Her perfection is something to enjoy, not envy. We close the book and smile, glad that everything worked out and she has her perfect life to live.

The other characters in this book are all as vibrant as Montgomery’s generally are. Garrulous Robert & sweet Mrs. Williamson; humorous, sharp David; testy, kindly Mr. Marshall; sober, passionate Thomas & strong, submissive Janet; wild Neil; and all the other minor characters, humorous or pathetic.

The writing style of this book is Montgomery at her tenderest and most whimsical. In this story, I believe Montgomery indulged her love of the Anne Shirley type of “romanticism.” It is all so perfect, and yet it is not sickening. Montgomery’s words have a vigour and spice that tempers the story’s cloying apple-blossom sweetness.

It is hard to discuss plot without giving too much away. There is passion and grief; wickedness and love; steadfast right-doing and faulty impulsiveness. The story shows how much one person’s passion and wrongdoing can impact many, and for long years. It teaches the danger of shunning and mistreating a person for his past, heritage, or race. It explores the wonder of true love and how much it is willing to cover, and how little everything else counts against it. We slip from a busy, exhausted life into a world of love and beauty and sweetness, and we are beguiled into hoping that someday we, too, shall have a glimpse of this world. And unlikely as this story is, whose to say it could not occur? It could happen, and therein lies half its charm.

Content: A man believing his wife is dead marries another woman and discovers his first wife is still alive; the second woman is “called a very hard name she doesn’t deserve” from her father because of it. A young man is distrusted for his foreign extraction, and because of it attempts murder & a woman is unable to speak, which is considered an “affliction” by many and “fixed” at the end of the story. Recommended ages 18+

A Favourite Quote: “And mind you don’t get into any mischief, young sir.”
“Not much likelihood of that in a place like Lindsay, I fancy,” laughed Eric.
“Probably the devil finds as much mischief for idle hands in Lindsay as anywhere else. The worst tragedy I ever heard of happened on a backwoods farm, fifteen miles from a railroad and five from a store.”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: The sunshine of a day in early spring, honey pale and honey sweet, was showering over the red brick buildings of Queenslea College and the grounds about them, throwing through the bare, budding maples and elms, delicate, evasive etchings of gold and brown on the paths, and coaxing into life the daffodils that were peering greenly and perkily up under the windows of the co-eds’ dressing-room. A young April wind, as fresh and sweet as if it had been blowing over the fields of memory instead of through dingy streets, was purring in the tree-tops and whipping the loose tendrils of the ivy network which covered the front of the main building. It was a wind that sang of many things, but what it sang to each listener was only what was in that listener’s heart.
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “And why in the name of all that’s provoking should she be so frightened at the mere sight of me? I have never thought I was a particularly hideous person, but certainly this adventure has not increased my vanity to any perceptible extent.”

[book.olandia · Rating 3 out of 5]

ale świetnie było wrócić do pióra Montgomery, ogromnie za nim tęskniłam!
naiwna historia, ale naprawdę dobrze się jej słuchało🫶🏻
mój zarzut kieruje do tłumaczenia, w pewnych momentach niestety niektóre zwroty naprawdę źle wybrzmiewały://

[Elaina · Rating 5 out of 5]

~4.5 stars~

It was pretty short and I thought it was cute! Not my favorite L.M. Montgomery book, but it's nice for a light, quick read :) Don't want to say too much about it because then I feel like you won't have much to read about since it's only 134 pages XD I think it would be better to just read it without knowing anything if you usually enjoy Montgomery's books.

[Melika Biblio · Rating 4 out of 5]

یکی دیگه از کتابای مونتگمری که روون و شیرین و کوتاه بود که قابلیت یه روزه تموم شدن داره!

خیلی خوشگل بود 🥹

نکشی ما رو با شخصیت‌پردازیات مونتگمری جان

چطور اینقدر شاعرانه فضاسازی میکنه که ادم نه تنها حوصله‌ش سر نمیره بلکه ارزو میکنه کاش خودشم اونجا بود و اون فضا رو به چشم میدید و طوری تمام شخصیتاش مجزا از هم دیگه اینقدر واقعی شخصیت‌پردازی میشن که من دیگ نمیتونمش!

[Shiva Mr · Rating 1 out of 5]

از ضعیف ترین کارهای لوسی هست.
فقط تعریف های لوسی از طبیعت، درختان و گل ها خواندنی بود.

[Rachel Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

This has got to be Montgomery's worst book. By far.

A young man of staggering perfection takes over a teaching position for a few months, and discovers a beautiful mute girl, Kilmeny, and a Italian gypsy named Neil. Even worse than it sounds. The prose is stilted and overwritten, Italians are lusty bundles of untamed passion, and the story is sappy. But don't take my word for it: meet Kilmeny:

"Her face was oval, marked in every cameo-like line and feature with that expression of absolute, flawless purity, found in the angels and Madonnas of old paintings, a purity that held in it no faintest strain of earthliness. Her head was bare, and her thick, jet-black hair was parted above her forehead and hung in two heavy lustrous braids over her shoulders. Her eyes were of such a blue as Eric had never seen in eyes before, the tint of the sea in the still, calm light that follows after a fine sunset; they were as luminous as the stars that came out over Lindsay Harbour in the afterglow, and were fringed about with very long, soot-black lashes, and arched over by most delicately pencilled dark eyebrows. Her skin was as fine and purely tinted as the heart of a white rose. The collarless dress of pale blue print she wore revealed her smooth, slender throat; her sleeves were rolled up above her elbows and the hand which guided the bow of her violin was perhaps the most beautiful thing about her, perfect in shape and texture, firm and white, with rosy-nailed taper fingers. One long, drooping plume of lilac blossom lightly touched her hair and cast a wavering shadow over the flower-like face beneath it."

I wouldn't have even finished this if I hadn't been stuck in a doctor's office. Read it online, if you wish: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wome...

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eric Marshall agrees to substitute teach a school in a small Prince Edward Island village. He stumbles across an abandoned orchard and meets the beautiful Kilmeny, who is mute and plays the violin beautifully. Eric begins to fall in love, but gradually he discovers Kilmeny’s tragic past.


This is one of my top favorites of this author’s works! So bewitchingly lovely! Every time I reread this book I am swept away in the enchantment of the orchard and the innocence of first love.

I really love Kilmeny’s character! She is sheltered and naïve, but she’s very intelligent and even wise in her own way.

The only sour note in the book is the little bit of prejudice against an Italian character who is “lowborn“. If it was necessary to have a villain in the story, I’m not sure why it was necessary for him to be Italian. It seems out of place with the rest of the story, and with the rest of this authors books.

I really love the beautiful writing style that describes the loveliness of the orchard, the flower blossoms, and the sweetness in the wind. It would be easy to fall in love surrounded by the beauties of nature in a lovely orchard like that.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never particularly liked this story, one of Montgomery's "adult" romances, with an unbelievable array of offensive stereotypes and casual sexism - the hotheaded Italian (the ethnicity you're born with being inescapable despite your upbringing) who is "foreign" and for whom equal treatment is spoiling him, the literally silent heroine, mute but unbelievably beautiful who is immediately recognizable as ideal and sweet by anyone who sees her, the wealthy young man who falls head over heels for a mute young woman with some overtones of pedophilia, sins that stain the child of a pregnant woman, disabled people giving up their One True Love so as not to burden, etc. This time I liked it even less, read by Grace Conlin for Blackstone Audio with several bobbled words (although the in-print editions of this are notoriously rife with misprints, it might not be the reader.). Two stars for what is essentially a turn-of-the-century potboiler novella by an author who went on to do better.

[Haniyh Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

قلم مونتگمری عزیزم که تا ساعت ۳ صبح بیدار نگهت میداره تا غرق در حس خوب کتابشو بخونی:)
این کتاب برای من تماما عشق بود، اینکه عشق از چه چیزهای کوچیکی میتونه شکل بگیره و اونقدر بزرگ بشه که به خاطرش معجزه رخ بده:)
که عشق چقدر میتونه پاک و مقدس و شیوا باشه :)
کیلمنی بانوی باغ برای من یه یه سرگذشت بود،سرگذشت زنی که به خاطر اعتقادات بی جا و شاید خرافات دیگران تا یه سن زیادی از لذت‌های زندگی محروم شده بود :)
زنی که به خاطر خودخواهی بقیه به تاراج رفته بود و باید نجات پیدا میکرد:)
قلم مونتگمری بی نهایت قلبمو لمس میکنه :)

[Sherwood Smith]

A friend gave me this book years and years ago--I think it's a first edition. On Anne Osterlund's recco, I took it down to look at it.

I can see why many love it still--the true star of the book is the scenery, rather than the characters. The way that Montgomery writes about nature shifts you to liminal space, within a heartbeat of the numinous.

The reason, though, that I hadn't reread it in all these years was because the basic plot feels like a short story stretched out into a novel. That, and the two central characters are. . . problematical. I am not fond of the Wounded Animal hero or heroine, and Kilmeny is the apotheosis of the Wounded Animal--blind, beautiful, and utterly perfect, right down to her amazing violin talent. The schoolteacher who comes to town and falls in love with her at first sight just wants to look at her, because she's so perfect--and all the town immediately falls in love with him because of his heroic good looks.

It's a comfort book--perfect for that dreamy thirteen year old in your life--and perfect for you if you really need a quiet novel at sustained pace set in the glories of nature.

[Azra · Rating 3 out of 5]

اولین ریویو مال منه که😂😄
مونتگمری با این‌که یه سری الگو رو خیلی تو داستاناش تکرار می‌کنه اما همیشه می‌تونه تفاوت‌های فاحشی ایجاد کنه که حوصلهٔ آدم بابت حدس‌زدن ادامهٔ داستاناش سر نره. این کتاب هم به‌نظرم به‌اندازهٔ قبلی‌ها قوی نبود ولی جالب و متفاوت بود و خب این‌که مونتگمری همیشه یه تفریح شیرین بین کتاب‌خوندن و حتی زندگی‌کردنه و من همیشه ازش لذت می‌برم و عاشق قلم عاشقانه‌اشم.
با این‌که اندازهٔ قبلی‌ها دوستش نداشتم اما توصیه به نخوندن نمی‌کنم چون هر چی باشه نویسندهٔ مورد علاقه‌مه و اون احساس قشنگ این آدم هنوز بین کلماتش موج می‌زنه.
چیزی که تو عشق و عاشقی‌های قدیمی آزارم می‌ده، عشقِ صرفا جسمانی بدون توجه به روح آدماست که تازگی هر نوع داستان و فیلمی رو با این مضمون برام غیر قابل تحمل و باور کرده و خب این موضوع تو این داستان مونتگمری، بر خلاف آنچه پیش از این ازش دیده بودم، خیلی پررنگ بود و شاید یکی از دلایل ارتباط‌نگرفتن من با این داستان هم همین بود که اتفاقا شاید به دل دیگران بشینه.

[Medisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

داستان زیبا، کوتاه و دلنشینی بود فقط ای کاش بهار می‌خوندمش

[Mairita (Marii grāmatplaukts) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5. Saldi, jauki, nereāli, bet tik patīkami un viegli klausīties. Montgomerijas darbi vienmēr sniedz komfortu. Stāstā ir pagātnes traģēdija, kas apgrūtina tagadni, bet viss, protams, beidzas laimīgi. Atliek vien maigi nopūsties, ka tas bija cits gadsimts, citi tikumi un citi likumi.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

"More than ever at that instant did she long for speech - speech that would conceal and protect where dangerous silence might betray."
― Kilmeny of the Orchard

Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910, Grosset and Dunlap) by L. M. Montgomery, is a sweet romance set in an unspecified year on Prince Edward Island. This book is not part of a series, unlike most of Lucy Maud's novels. Montgomery published many short stories before her first novel was published, and it appears that Kilmeny of the Orchard was published after Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea . I wanted to read Kilmeny because I enjoyed it as a teen, and as a deaf person, I find the world of audiobooks to be most accessible with books I've read before. Which I am totally OK with, because it's so hard for me to justify choosing a reread when there are so many lovely new-to-me books to try!

Rating: 5 stars

The heroine: Kilmeny Gordon is a gorgeous young lady, mute but not deaf, who plays the violin exquisitely. I remembered this story very well even though it had been many years since I last read it. I'm sure it largely has to do with Kilmeny being mute. I enjoy (clean/chaste) stories about deaf and/or mute characters. (Recommendations are always welcome!)

The hero: Eric Marshall is teaching the local school, taking the place of his ill friend as a favor. He happens upon Kilmeny playing her violin in the woods, and becomes fascinated by her.

Christian elements: God and church are occasionally mentioned in passing - in a positive or matter-of-fact way.

Is it clean/chaste? Yes! Everything written by Ms. Montgomery is. There is a "stain" on Kilmeny's birth, however.

What I liked: This is a feel-good simple tale with a happily-ever-after. It makes my heart happy.

What I didn't like:

*This is actually NOT a personal dislike, but for being published (and as far as I can find, also written) after the first two Anne books, in comparison, Kilmeny is not as complex/developed. Personally, I find beauty in the simplicity of the tale and don't feel compelled to reduce my rating, but I could see how this could disappoint some readers.

*There is a hint of prejudice. One of the characters is Italian. In Anne of Green Gables, there is a hint of prejudice toward an Italian peddler. But considering the period in which it was written, I don't feel the need to reduce my star rating.

Audio book: Unfortunately, it's been too loo long since I read this one to be able to comment on the narrator. Bummer!

***********

The bottom line: I'd recommend this book as an introduction to romance for tweens or teens, or for adults who would enjoy a simple romance. The next book I read by L. M. Montgomery might be Anne of Windy Poplars.

6/26/19 update: minor edits

[Reyhaneh.r · Rating 4 out of 5]

واقعا چگونه قلم یک نفر می‌تواند اینقدر دلنشین باشد؟ مانند یک قطعه موسیقی بود(:
پنج‌شنبه ۲۹ شهریور ۱۴۰۳🎻

[Magdalena · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5⭐

Miałam pewne oczekiwania co do tej historii, ale niestety się zawiodłam. Mimo iż w prozie Montgomery jest klimat nie do podrobienia, to tutaj nic mnie nie zachwyciło - była przewidywalna, a bohaterowie dość naiwni i nieco wyidealizowani. Ale zdaje sobie sprawę, że to książka dla młodszego czytelnika, w dodatku taka, która powstała ponad 100 lat temu - i była to trzecia książka Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Mimo wszystko czytało się ją całkiem przyjemnie - raczej nie będę o niej myśleć czy do niej wracać, ale cieszę się, że mam ją na półce. I jestem o krok bliżej rereadu całej Ani z Zielonego Wzgórza.

[Yasamin Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

خیلیا نوشتن که خب به اندازه بقیه کارهاش قوی نبوده،ولی بنظرم دقیقا مثل قبلیا دلنشین بود
اریک و کیلمنی عزیزم(:
کیلمنی معصوم و پاک
و اریک جذاب و خوش قلب
پلات های داستان هم واقعا خوب بودن.
در کل،یه داستان کوتاه شسته رفته و دلنشین بود.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was sweet - a bit cheesy a times and also had a few instances of backward thinking when it comes to "foreigners" and some unrealistic ideas about beauty. All in all though, it was an easy read with a fairy tale quality to it. Although I've only read the first Anne book and enjoyed it much more (I know, I'm behind!), I'd say it's worth the read if you enjoy LLM's stories.

[Reyhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

دوست داشتمش توی فصل بهار تجربه جالبی بود🕊

[Chautona Havig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in the style of the Anne books, The Last Castle, and books by Gene Stratton-Porter, Kilmeny of the Orchard shows a romanticized ideal of men, women, love, and even romance itself, much in keeping with the style of the era.
Some might consider Kilmeny a bit too "perfect." Actually, the argument could even be valid of Eric. But I see flaws in both of them that made their idealized story palatable and even enjoyable, despite a few faults.

Trying to read books through the lens of the time in which they were written without expecting the author to hold modern sensibilities is harder with some books than with others. When I can see the reason for bias or prejudice, while I may not agree with it, I can accept it as the ignorance of the time.

In Kilmeny of the Orchard, the prejudice against an Italian simply because he was BORN to an Italian mother really rankled, but considering that the author worked to dispute the idea of the sins of a mother being visited on her child as a curse, one can only hope that in a longer version of the book or that in some other book, that silly bias against an entire ethnic group would at least show a shift--either by demonstrating that the man became as he was because they treated him as if he would or by showing someone else who did not hold the same sin patterns just because that person belonged to that ethnic group.

Recommended for lovers of L.M. Montgomery, Gene Stratton-Porter, and others of that romanticized era. Not recommended for folks who expect those in the past to hold our modern views of ideas. You'll be disappointed.

[Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

After two books of Montgomery I have understood why she is known as one of the best authors of children's books. Despite the fact, that I have read The Blue Castle and Kilmeny of the Orchard which are rather romances for adults or young adults (there aren't children's books) I saw how great she could describe world of a small community. I regret that Kilmeny of the Orchard is so short, because there wasn't more space for the secondary characters.

Next, the love story is so sweet. The main idea is really good. I wish it was longer, more complicated but on the other hand, I think it is a core of the concept: a charming simple love story. And it is. It is a great novel for a pleasant Sunday afternoon.