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L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals #1
The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900
The first edition of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery was published in the 1980s, with fifty percent of the material removed to save space, as well as to reflect a quaint, marketable vision of small-town Canada. The editors were instructed to excise anything that was not upbeat or did not "move the story along." The resulting account of Montgomery's youthful life in Prince Edward Island depicts a fun-loving, simple country girl. The unabridged journal, however, reveals something quite different.
We now know that Montgomery was anything but simple. She was often anxious, bitter, dark, and political, although always able to see herself and her surroundings with a deep ironic - and often comical - twist. The unabridged version shows her using writing as a means of managing her own mood swings, as well as her increasing dependency on journal keeping, and her ambition as a writer. She was also exceedingly interested in men. We see here a more developed portrait of what she herself described as a "very uncomfortable blend" between "the passionate Montgomery blood and the Puritan Macneill conscience." Full details describe the impassioned events during which she describes becoming a "new creature," "born of sorrow ... and hopeless longing."
In addition, this unedited account is a striking visual record, containing 226 of her own photographs placed as she placed them in her journals, as well as newspaper clippings, postcards, and professional portraits, all with her own original captions. New notes and a new introduction give key context to the history, the people, and the culture in the text. A new preface by Michael Bliss draws some unexpected connections.
Available for the first time in paperback, the full PEI journals tells a fascinating tale of a young woman coming of age in a bygone rural Canada, a tale far thornier and far more compelling than the first selected edition could disclose.
We now know that Montgomery was anything but simple. She was often anxious, bitter, dark, and political, although always able to see herself and her surroundings with a deep ironic - and often comical - twist. The unabridged version shows her using writing as a means of managing her own mood swings, as well as her increasing dependency on journal keeping, and her ambition as a writer. She was also exceedingly interested in men. We see here a more developed portrait of what she herself described as a "very uncomfortable blend" between "the passionate Montgomery blood and the Puritan Macneill conscience." Full details describe the impassioned events during which she describes becoming a "new creature," "born of sorrow ... and hopeless longing."
In addition, this unedited account is a striking visual record, containing 226 of her own photographs placed as she placed them in her journals, as well as newspaper clippings, postcards, and professional portraits, all with her own original captions. New notes and a new introduction give key context to the history, the people, and the culture in the text. A new preface by Michael Bliss draws some unexpected connections.
Available for the first time in paperback, the full PEI journals tells a fascinating tale of a young woman coming of age in a bygone rural Canada, a tale far thornier and far more compelling than the first selected edition could disclose.
496 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 2012
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410 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 31, 2024
When I read the first volume L.M. Montgomery's selected journals in 2010 (The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. 1: 1889-1910 to show the exact title), I found it both refreshing and also enlighteningly intriguing that Montgomery's autobiographical narrative voice quite strongly and delightfully reveals (and yes, even when Maud was a teenager, for in 1889 when she she started her journal she was but fifteen years old) a person both passionate and also at times tortured (and as such afflicted with problematic mental health issues as well as rather feeling restricted, tied down and hobbled by the societal and gender restrictions of 19th century Canada and in particular of rural Prince Edward Island of course), with L.M. Montgomery, with Maud showing herself as someone who could be not only effusive and gregarious (intent on having good times, on making friends, on enjoying life) but also at times being quite mean-spirited and spiteful (read sharp-tongued) and while rejecting many of the basics of Christian dogma still often clinging to and finding solace in the traditions of the Presbyterian church.
But yes, when I found out, when I became aware of the fact that the selected journals of L.M. Montgomery are not only just selected so to speak but have in fact been shortened and condensed by editors Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston (and seemingly as was demanded and insisted on by Oxford University Press) by almost fifty per cent, I did indeed feel textually more than a trifle cheated and hugely annoyed that the abridgements are so very massive and in many ways even rather all encompassing (for come on, a fifty percent redaction is pretty well major by any and all stretches of the imagination). And while I do in fact own ALL of the selected journals of L.M. Montgomery, I am certainly now much more interested in primarily if not even solely perusing the complete journals (the first of which, The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 was published in 2012 and that to date, the complete journals until 1933 seem to have been published, and indeed, I do hope that L.M. Montgomery's journals from 1933 until 1942 will also be published in their entirety). For nothing against the selected journals in and of themselves, but The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 and the remaining complete and unabridged journals will of course and obviously grant readers a much more complete and thorough picture of L.M. Montgomery and how she saw and perceived herself, her work and her life than the selected (and much shortened) journals every will be able to do.
Now with regard to the actual contents of The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900, yes, both The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 and The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. 1: 1889-1910 I have found a fun and delightfully engaging reading experience (and that in many ways, even with the abridgements encountered in the selected journals, both Montgomery's complete and selected journals read generally speaking rather similarly and also thus give me a closely related vision of Lucy Maud Montgomery the person as well, except that the complete journals certainly do show much more obviously and strongly how depressed and unhappy Maud often was and that even as a teenager she not only was encountering some major mental health crises but was also quite interested in men on a physical level and thus obviously possessed a very strong libido and one that as such also often clashed with 19th century gender roles and what was expected of middle class Presbyterian women).
But what actually has for me been the most obvious difference between The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. 1: 1889-1910 and The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 (and also the main reason why the latter is to and for me totally and utterly superior in every way to the former) is that in The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 Montgomery's interactions with the natural world (including several mentions of Lover's Lane), her reflections on novels and sermons are shown (and that I really and truly do not at all understand why Oxford University Press would make Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston remove ALL of this in the selected journals and that Rubio and Hillman Waterston would equally agree and do so).
And finally, I also do want to (and actually need to) mention that there is for The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 an actual publisher's note provided with the warning that attitudes towards Canada's First Nations have changed, are rather different and more positive today (well, at least one hopes this to be the case, although in my opinion, that is kind of wishful thinking at best, sigh), and that readers of The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 might thus well come across and encounter some pretty well problematic and derogatory terms and remarks emanating from L.M. Montgomery's pen. And yes, I kind of already expected that this would be the case for The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 before I even started my perusal, as particularly in her shorter fiction, Montgomery certainly does at times show rather horrid and painful to read racial intolerance towards Native Canadians (and it is in my opinion a very positive thing indeed that Oxford University Press has mentioned potential racial intolerance as a caveat for The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 but has also decided to keep L.M. Montgomery's journals totally complete, totally intact and to also therefore include any and all details and attitudes that today might and often even should be considered derogatory, offensive and dated).
But yes, when I found out, when I became aware of the fact that the selected journals of L.M. Montgomery are not only just selected so to speak but have in fact been shortened and condensed by editors Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston (and seemingly as was demanded and insisted on by Oxford University Press) by almost fifty per cent, I did indeed feel textually more than a trifle cheated and hugely annoyed that the abridgements are so very massive and in many ways even rather all encompassing (for come on, a fifty percent redaction is pretty well major by any and all stretches of the imagination). And while I do in fact own ALL of the selected journals of L.M. Montgomery, I am certainly now much more interested in primarily if not even solely perusing the complete journals (the first of which, The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 was published in 2012 and that to date, the complete journals until 1933 seem to have been published, and indeed, I do hope that L.M. Montgomery's journals from 1933 until 1942 will also be published in their entirety). For nothing against the selected journals in and of themselves, but The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 and the remaining complete and unabridged journals will of course and obviously grant readers a much more complete and thorough picture of L.M. Montgomery and how she saw and perceived herself, her work and her life than the selected (and much shortened) journals every will be able to do.
Now with regard to the actual contents of The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900, yes, both The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 and The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. 1: 1889-1910 I have found a fun and delightfully engaging reading experience (and that in many ways, even with the abridgements encountered in the selected journals, both Montgomery's complete and selected journals read generally speaking rather similarly and also thus give me a closely related vision of Lucy Maud Montgomery the person as well, except that the complete journals certainly do show much more obviously and strongly how depressed and unhappy Maud often was and that even as a teenager she not only was encountering some major mental health crises but was also quite interested in men on a physical level and thus obviously possessed a very strong libido and one that as such also often clashed with 19th century gender roles and what was expected of middle class Presbyterian women).
But what actually has for me been the most obvious difference between The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. 1: 1889-1910 and The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 (and also the main reason why the latter is to and for me totally and utterly superior in every way to the former) is that in The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 Montgomery's interactions with the natural world (including several mentions of Lover's Lane), her reflections on novels and sermons are shown (and that I really and truly do not at all understand why Oxford University Press would make Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston remove ALL of this in the selected journals and that Rubio and Hillman Waterston would equally agree and do so).
And finally, I also do want to (and actually need to) mention that there is for The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 an actual publisher's note provided with the warning that attitudes towards Canada's First Nations have changed, are rather different and more positive today (well, at least one hopes this to be the case, although in my opinion, that is kind of wishful thinking at best, sigh), and that readers of The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 might thus well come across and encounter some pretty well problematic and derogatory terms and remarks emanating from L.M. Montgomery's pen. And yes, I kind of already expected that this would be the case for The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 before I even started my perusal, as particularly in her shorter fiction, Montgomery certainly does at times show rather horrid and painful to read racial intolerance towards Native Canadians (and it is in my opinion a very positive thing indeed that Oxford University Press has mentioned potential racial intolerance as a caveat for The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900 but has also decided to keep L.M. Montgomery's journals totally complete, totally intact and to also therefore include any and all details and attitudes that today might and often even should be considered derogatory, offensive and dated).
August 7, 2020
I liked this. Took me over two weeks to read it, which is quite unusual for me considering I usually finish a book in one or two days but as this was journal entries and mentioned a lot of names, locations and events I found myself needing to put it down and pick it up in order to stay refreshed and not go bug eyed crazy trying to keep track of anyone.
If you are a fan of ANY of Maud's writings, you would enjoy this glimpse into her private life - the good, bad and ugly. Spanning 11 years, she goes from almost fifteen to twenty-six years old - a big growth especially from teenager to a young women. Her earlier entries are full of friends, events, romance, etc while the last few years of the journal show the melancholy and depression that she would carry for the rest of her life. I liked that Maud really enjoyed people, especially boys. She was such good chums with boys and generally liked them but rarely wanted to pursue a romance with them and could never understand why so many of her boy friends ended up liking her. In one journal entry she says she can tell a friend is starting to show "sentimental nonsense" to her and she gets annoyed because she had never given him indication otherwise. I laughed because that could had been the entry from any teenager's journal from any year or country.
Some of the events that happened to her as a child she weaves into her stories later on which I thought was pretty cool.For instance she and her childhood playmates also scared themselves silly due to their own vivid imaginations in the Haunted Woods (AoGG) and they also thought they saw a ghost in the orchard dyke when in fact it was her grandmother kneeling down to retrieve something with a white cloth over her shoulder (RV). I enjoyed those entries because I really felt like she put herself and the people she knew into her stories. Also she gets quite a few of her stories published during her early twenties. It was thrilling reading each time she said that she received a check for this story and for that one. Especially because at sixteen/seventeen she wonders (and writes) if she will ever do anything with her stories!
The set up of the journals are beautiful. The editors did a great job of adding pictures to enhance what Maud is writing about as well as adding footnotes to the bottom of the pages to expand on someone/something she mentioned. For instance she mentions Frank Robertson and the footnote says "a sixteen-year-old boy, living with his widowed father and six siblings". Or she will mention games, slang, books etc. and the footnotes will explain them because it has been over 100 years since she lived and those things are not well known anymore. I really liked that a lot - the footnotes and pictures. It helped show the world that Maud lived in and make her life come alive.
As she gets older her writing gets less frequent but more juicy (gossipy? real? ....more interesting I suppose would be the better term). She writes about her relationships with men and bares her soul which left me really enthralled because yes, that is what you do as a twenty two year old. You make stupid decisions when it comes to the opposite sex and I completely felt for Maud as she wrote, "I knew that I did not love him but I thought I could. I had never really loved anyone although I have had several violent fancies that did not last very long." <------That could have been me at one point in my own twenties writing those lines.
So pick this up if you are interested in getting to know this author better. It will be worth your time. I know I will be reading the next set of journals.
If you are a fan of ANY of Maud's writings, you would enjoy this glimpse into her private life - the good, bad and ugly. Spanning 11 years, she goes from almost fifteen to twenty-six years old - a big growth especially from teenager to a young women. Her earlier entries are full of friends, events, romance, etc while the last few years of the journal show the melancholy and depression that she would carry for the rest of her life. I liked that Maud really enjoyed people, especially boys. She was such good chums with boys and generally liked them but rarely wanted to pursue a romance with them and could never understand why so many of her boy friends ended up liking her. In one journal entry she says she can tell a friend is starting to show "sentimental nonsense" to her and she gets annoyed because she had never given him indication otherwise. I laughed because that could had been the entry from any teenager's journal from any year or country.
Some of the events that happened to her as a child she weaves into her stories later on which I thought was pretty cool.For instance she and her childhood playmates also scared themselves silly due to their own vivid imaginations in the Haunted Woods (AoGG) and they also thought they saw a ghost in the orchard dyke when in fact it was her grandmother kneeling down to retrieve something with a white cloth over her shoulder (RV). I enjoyed those entries because I really felt like she put herself and the people she knew into her stories. Also she gets quite a few of her stories published during her early twenties. It was thrilling reading each time she said that she received a check for this story and for that one. Especially because at sixteen/seventeen she wonders (and writes) if she will ever do anything with her stories!
The set up of the journals are beautiful. The editors did a great job of adding pictures to enhance what Maud is writing about as well as adding footnotes to the bottom of the pages to expand on someone/something she mentioned. For instance she mentions Frank Robertson and the footnote says "a sixteen-year-old boy, living with his widowed father and six siblings". Or she will mention games, slang, books etc. and the footnotes will explain them because it has been over 100 years since she lived and those things are not well known anymore. I really liked that a lot - the footnotes and pictures. It helped show the world that Maud lived in and make her life come alive.
As she gets older her writing gets less frequent but more juicy (gossipy? real? ....more interesting I suppose would be the better term). She writes about her relationships with men and bares her soul which left me really enthralled because yes, that is what you do as a twenty two year old. You make stupid decisions when it comes to the opposite sex and I completely felt for Maud as she wrote, "I knew that I did not love him but I thought I could. I had never really loved anyone although I have had several violent fancies that did not last very long." <------That could have been me at one point in my own twenties writing those lines.
So pick this up if you are interested in getting to know this author better. It will be worth your time. I know I will be reading the next set of journals.
October 15, 2016
Reading Montgomery's journals was interesting and eye-opening. Some incidents can be found in her books, others were rather shocking.
Had I not read an extract about her relationship with Herman Leard in the Lucy Maud Montgomery Album before, I would have been flabbergasted, considering the time and place Montgomery lived.
As this volume spans 11 years, we can see Montgomery and her writing style grow and mature as she experiences joy and pain and phrases universal feelings, that are relatable more than 100 years later.
Had I not read an extract about her relationship with Herman Leard in the Lucy Maud Montgomery Album before, I would have been flabbergasted, considering the time and place Montgomery lived.
As this volume spans 11 years, we can see Montgomery and her writing style grow and mature as she experiences joy and pain and phrases universal feelings, that are relatable more than 100 years later.
July 2, 2025
It feels ridiculous to give a star rating to someone's personal diary - but truly I could not love this more.
And who knew that genteel young women from the late 1800s liked to party so much?! LMM was constantly up until the early hours having 'rackets' (fun times with friends involving games, fat chats, and occasionally sleigh rides) - a word I will be bringing back into the vernacular.
And who knew that genteel young women from the late 1800s liked to party so much?! LMM was constantly up until the early hours having 'rackets' (fun times with friends involving games, fat chats, and occasionally sleigh rides) - a word I will be bringing back into the vernacular.
October 4, 2012
I have been a huge fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery ever since I fell in love with Anne of Green Gables when I was 5 years old. Despite reading all of her works (The Blue Castle is my favorite) I never really read up much on Maud herself until after I visited Prince Edward Island in 2006. I saw so many quotes and things about her everywhere I went that I decided to read her journals and picked up the first at the bookstore on the site where her home used to be. I really enjoyed the journals and eventually read all of them but I always was sad when I saw the dreaded ... as things would just seem... off sometimes in those entries. I had, at the time, believed though that things were edited out for monotony.
This year I find that they are re-releasing the first journal with ALL entries present and I quickly preordered my copy from Amazon. It took a while for a copy to find its way to me but I was glad when it finally did and I jumped right in. I immediately liked how much better the new version is formatted - with all of the pictures within the texts and the footnotes at the bottom of each page rather than at the back of the book.
The journal itself is hard to describe. I remember when reading the journals originally, I thought that it was odd how Maud went from this happy go lucky girl to this somber, sad woman as the years went on. However, now with all of the entries put back in, one can see that she was always a bit moody and prone to the blues from an early age. While her blues seem to have been more prevalent as the years went on, it's not something that stared with her marriage, it was with her long before that. I also liked being able to read more of her verbose entries about the landscapes.
I feel after reading this journal in full I have a better understanding of who Maud was and I like her a lot more. I'm very glad they decided to redo these and hope that there is more to come!
This year I find that they are re-releasing the first journal with ALL entries present and I quickly preordered my copy from Amazon. It took a while for a copy to find its way to me but I was glad when it finally did and I jumped right in. I immediately liked how much better the new version is formatted - with all of the pictures within the texts and the footnotes at the bottom of each page rather than at the back of the book.
The journal itself is hard to describe. I remember when reading the journals originally, I thought that it was odd how Maud went from this happy go lucky girl to this somber, sad woman as the years went on. However, now with all of the entries put back in, one can see that she was always a bit moody and prone to the blues from an early age. While her blues seem to have been more prevalent as the years went on, it's not something that stared with her marriage, it was with her long before that. I also liked being able to read more of her verbose entries about the landscapes.
I feel after reading this journal in full I have a better understanding of who Maud was and I like her a lot more. I'm very glad they decided to redo these and hope that there is more to come!
March 8, 2017
This is most interesting to fans of LMM but I think anyone interested in the time period, in journals, or in women's history would enjoy this. It got quite depressing at times but overall it's a remarkable record of her life.
April 3, 2020
I own and have read the Selected Journals of LM Montgomery several times. They do not compare to the the Complete Journals. It reads like a story instead of jumping around and I can't wait to get the rest of the set.
August 20, 2019
I read the selected journals years ago, and enjoyed this version much more. It's nice to see LM as a whole person, not just the filtered pieces chosen by an editor. She definitely had her flaws and dark moments, making her much more relatable.
December 15, 2017
I grew up reading all of Maud's work and didn't get interested in her personally until I was older, but I'm so glad I took the time to look into the woman behind the classic heroines of Emily and Anne amongst so many others. Her personal writing is vivid and flows easily off the page. Sometimes I found myself wondering why I was reading another person's journals when nothing really happens in them, but then when I stopped and thought about it, Maud had chronicled so much of what she did and all the stages of her life that it certainly did read like a novel rather than a real life woman's personal thoughts and feelings. I highly, HIGHLY recommend for anyone who finds a little piece of themselves in Anne Shirley of Emily Byrd Starr.
March 27, 2015
These journals are a fascinating account of Lucy Maud Montgomery's life as well as life in Canada at that time. What she doesn't say is as interesting as what she does include in her journals. Follow those journals with Mary Rubio's "The Gift of Wings"..who has extensively edited Montgomery's journals
through interviews with friends, relatives and colleagues and has revealed surprising truths about Canada's "Anne" icon.
through interviews with friends, relatives and colleagues and has revealed surprising truths about Canada's "Anne" icon.
October 30, 2019
This was a real treat, to read the journals of L.M. Montgomery. I have read many of her books, and have appreciated them all. Her journal is a true reflection of who she was, and I could often find events that were similar to what I have seen in her books. This journal covered only 11 years, so I am looking forward to reading the next "installment"!
December 22, 2024
I have read all of the volumes of the Selected Journals of LM Montgomery. Those volumes did not include all of the material in Montgomery's journals. Much of the darker material was excluded. These newer editions include everything, and they do shed more light on this fascinating woman.
One thing which stood out to me was Montgomery's snobbery. She was definitely raised with a distinct class consciousness. Her affair with Herman Leard caused her agony and grief because as she says more than once, he was not worthy of her. She was a woman who liked good books, good conversation, and had little patience for those who did not appreciate them. She was critical of those unlike her.
There were also quite a few instances of the evident racism she had while living in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She had Métis classmates and she was definitely a girl of her class and race because she did not have anything good to say about them or any other Indigenous person. I understand why the selected journals would have excluded those comments. But, I would rather know about all of a person. She was not perfect.
Also in this edition, it is quite apparent she suffered from a lot of unresolved trauma from having lost her mother as a child and then having her father move away from her. She seldom goes into detail about her grandparents, but it is clear she did not feel nurtured and loved by them. There was such an underlying sadness about her, despite the fact that it is clear she loved to have a good time. She only records memorable events in her journals, and on those occasions when she has had a good time, she records it, often using the phrase, "I had a jolly time." She was full of life, but her circumstances did not necessarily assist in that. It is clear she was a charming girl, because she has quite a few young men interested in her.
And then there is the reality that Montgomery re-copied her journals years after, and there is the possibility that she edited them further. She has a very admiring view of her father, but one wonders why he did not want her to stay living with him. She did not like his wife, but aside from her year living with him, she never really mentions him again until he dies in 1900. Still, I love to hear her write about her life. At the end of this volume, I loved how she soothed her loneliness with reading:
One thing which stood out to me was Montgomery's snobbery. She was definitely raised with a distinct class consciousness. Her affair with Herman Leard caused her agony and grief because as she says more than once, he was not worthy of her. She was a woman who liked good books, good conversation, and had little patience for those who did not appreciate them. She was critical of those unlike her.
There were also quite a few instances of the evident racism she had while living in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She had Métis classmates and she was definitely a girl of her class and race because she did not have anything good to say about them or any other Indigenous person. I understand why the selected journals would have excluded those comments. But, I would rather know about all of a person. She was not perfect.
Also in this edition, it is quite apparent she suffered from a lot of unresolved trauma from having lost her mother as a child and then having her father move away from her. She seldom goes into detail about her grandparents, but it is clear she did not feel nurtured and loved by them. There was such an underlying sadness about her, despite the fact that it is clear she loved to have a good time. She only records memorable events in her journals, and on those occasions when she has had a good time, she records it, often using the phrase, "I had a jolly time." She was full of life, but her circumstances did not necessarily assist in that. It is clear she was a charming girl, because she has quite a few young men interested in her.
And then there is the reality that Montgomery re-copied her journals years after, and there is the possibility that she edited them further. She has a very admiring view of her father, but one wonders why he did not want her to stay living with him. She did not like his wife, but aside from her year living with him, she never really mentions him again until he dies in 1900. Still, I love to hear her write about her life. At the end of this volume, I loved how she soothed her loneliness with reading:
Oh, books, books, what worlds of pleasure you open! What freedom you offer prisoners! How do people live who have never read or want to read? I cannot understand them -- but I pity them.
July 31, 2024
LMM has this incredible ability to describe nature even outside of her novels. After reading the first part of her journals, I can see some of the inspiration for Anne coming through. I felt so sorry for her but also related to her on multiple levels.
May 14, 2024
As I get ready for a trip to P.E.I. this summer, I decided to read some of L. M. Montgomery's journals and this is the first edition detailing her school years and her teaching career. She was a very productive writer detailing her life and thoughts, but the one thing I registered the most in her journals was her love of nature and her ability to create very detailed and descriptive writing that I remember from the Anne of Green Gables books as well.
October 8, 2022
L.M. Montgomery simply sparkles in her journals, from girlhood to young adulthood. There are plenty of parallels between her personal life and the one she penned for Anne Shirley. A resilient woman with ambition to be a successful writer, determination to overcome hardships, and a desire to love and be loved. An outstanding book!
August 3, 2019
How has it taken me so long to read Montgomery's journals?! It's such an interesting look into her life and the influences on her fiction. It even reads like some of her novels (particularly the Emily books, to no surprise). I loved it and can't wait to read more.
June 4, 2021
Interesting. One can see how well she writes in her journalling. But this got pretty boring after a while.
July 1, 2024
A fascinating insight into many aspects of L M Montgomery's life.
March 18, 2024
Bravo to Oxford University Press for publishing these journals in full! Montgomery’s descriptions of the Canadian landscape are exquisite. Even as a teenager, she stopped to set the scene before telling the rest of the story. I was struck by how disciplined Montgomery was in her writing during her early 20s when she was teaching school — also by how widely read she was.
September 28, 2017
Just wonderful. The seeds of Anne are strewn throughout these journals, and it's best to read them side by side, so all the direct quotes jump out at you. It brings into a tighter focus the creator, and all the darkness and light that she left out of Anne.
December 28, 2016
it took me a year to read this book. I found it a bit repetitive at some times but I love her books so much that it was interesting to see how she lived.
July 3, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed/absolutely loved/was enchanted by this collection.
I love L.M. Montgomery. She is my favourite author - I do not believe that there is a single piece of her writing that I have read and not adored. She is consistently brilliant.
That being said, her complete journals fascinated me. I love how raw and real they are - she had days where she felt "blue" like anyone else, periods where she struggled, a life outside of her pen. While reading her journals I could definitely see how her life helped shape her works. It was interesting to note the parallels between the stories she had published and her life events - drawing from her own life definitely led some credibility to her fictional characters, but likewise made her journals more intriguing to read. 10/10 would recommend, even if you don't typically read non-fiction or autobiographies.
I love L.M. Montgomery. She is my favourite author - I do not believe that there is a single piece of her writing that I have read and not adored. She is consistently brilliant.
That being said, her complete journals fascinated me. I love how raw and real they are - she had days where she felt "blue" like anyone else, periods where she struggled, a life outside of her pen. While reading her journals I could definitely see how her life helped shape her works. It was interesting to note the parallels between the stories she had published and her life events - drawing from her own life definitely led some credibility to her fictional characters, but likewise made her journals more intriguing to read. 10/10 would recommend, even if you don't typically read non-fiction or autobiographies.
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