What do you think?
Rate this book
Writing a Life: L. M. Montgomery
In Writing a Life , Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston look at the work of the prolific Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, paying particular attention to her children's fiction and the secret journal that she began in 1889 and maintained until her death in 1942. Montgomery is revealed as a “subversive author” who “built secret messages of rebellion and resistance against authority (especially patriarchal authority) into her superficially sunny stories.” Writing a Life is an engaging portrayal of the covert passion and rebellion of a woman known to the public as a good wife, loving mother, and popular author.
133 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
100 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 9, 2024
I do have to admit that after reading (and very much enjoying/appreciating) Mary Henley Rubio's extensive and illuminating 2008 biography Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings and with Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings happily and wonderfully being an account that is not at all unwilling and not at all shy to also, to equally present the oh so many negatives in Lucy Maud Montgomery's life (including her and her husband Evan's numerous and debilitating mental health challenges and that L.M. Montgomery's 1942 death might actually have been suicide), sorry, but for me and in my humble opinion Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery (which was penned by Rubio and coauthor Elizabeth Hillman Waterston in 1995) totally and utterly pales in comparison to Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings and has actually been rather a massive and all encompassing textual letdown and personal disappointment (and so much so that I am in fact quite glad to have found and read Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery on Open Library and thus did not need to purchase a copy, as Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery seems to be out of print and not all that cost effectively available).
Sure and to be perfectly truthful, Henley Rubio and Hillman Waterston's presented contents, thematics and narrative style for Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery do manage to provide a generally concise and also for the most part sufficiently accurate textual rendering of L.M. Montgomery's life (and that as such, Writing a Life: L. M. Montgomery would probably work pretty well as a general biographical introduction to Lucy Maud Montgomery for readers from about the age of twelve or so onwards and in particular for anyone who does not want their proverbial boat being rocked too much so to speak with and by potentially uncomfortable details regarding how majorly depressed and full of emotional pain and suffering L.M. Montgomery often was, that she seems to have had a pretty high libido and thus went through quite a number of sexual dalliances before marrying the Reverend Ewan MacDonald, that the MacDonalds' marriage was equally rather one of convenience and proved to be disappointing, generally unhappy and unfulfilling especially for Maud, and yes, that with Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery, the earlier tendencies of L.M. biographers of waxing ridiculously poetic about how Lucy Maud Montgomery supposedly turned her own magical and wonderful marriage etc. into similar such stories etc. are fortunately and generally being avoided by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston).
However and indeed, I was definitely expecting (after the textual brilliancy and hard hittingness of Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings) a bit more narrative meat and also not so much rather unengaging simply scratching the surface from Henley Rubio's and Hillman Waterston's pen and have thus personally speaking found the presented narrative of Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery much too basic, not really all that interest retaining and definitely not in any way in-depth enough for me personally to consider more than two stars as a rating (and with Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery certainly not showing and giving me ANYTHING concerning L.M. Montgomery's life and times that I did not already know and also leaving out way too much negative and/or potentially problematic and discussion necessitating information and details, basically an all right account, but one that I do only recommend with reservations and caveats as there are indeed much better and also much more complete biographies of L.M. Montgomery out there, and that Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery just does not really manage to make the grade for me).
Sure and to be perfectly truthful, Henley Rubio and Hillman Waterston's presented contents, thematics and narrative style for Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery do manage to provide a generally concise and also for the most part sufficiently accurate textual rendering of L.M. Montgomery's life (and that as such, Writing a Life: L. M. Montgomery would probably work pretty well as a general biographical introduction to Lucy Maud Montgomery for readers from about the age of twelve or so onwards and in particular for anyone who does not want their proverbial boat being rocked too much so to speak with and by potentially uncomfortable details regarding how majorly depressed and full of emotional pain and suffering L.M. Montgomery often was, that she seems to have had a pretty high libido and thus went through quite a number of sexual dalliances before marrying the Reverend Ewan MacDonald, that the MacDonalds' marriage was equally rather one of convenience and proved to be disappointing, generally unhappy and unfulfilling especially for Maud, and yes, that with Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery, the earlier tendencies of L.M. biographers of waxing ridiculously poetic about how Lucy Maud Montgomery supposedly turned her own magical and wonderful marriage etc. into similar such stories etc. are fortunately and generally being avoided by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston).
However and indeed, I was definitely expecting (after the textual brilliancy and hard hittingness of Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings) a bit more narrative meat and also not so much rather unengaging simply scratching the surface from Henley Rubio's and Hillman Waterston's pen and have thus personally speaking found the presented narrative of Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery much too basic, not really all that interest retaining and definitely not in any way in-depth enough for me personally to consider more than two stars as a rating (and with Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery certainly not showing and giving me ANYTHING concerning L.M. Montgomery's life and times that I did not already know and also leaving out way too much negative and/or potentially problematic and discussion necessitating information and details, basically an all right account, but one that I do only recommend with reservations and caveats as there are indeed much better and also much more complete biographies of L.M. Montgomery out there, and that Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery just does not really manage to make the grade for me).
March 10, 2017
Es un muy buen libro. Una biografía de la autora de mi libro favorito, la cual no podía dejar de leer. Está en ingles, lo que explica porqué tarde un poco mas en terminarlo, entre otras cosas que estuve haciendo.
La vida de Lucy "Maud" Montgomery , uno fácilmente podría imaginarla repleta de felicidad, de esperanza, de amor (tanto de pareja como de amigos e hijos), de aventuras maravillosas o de experiencias inolvidables; en cierta forma, podría decirse que así fue con respecto a las experiencias y algunas aventuras (especialmente sus primeros años, su juventud), pero la realidad es totalmente otra.
Esta biografía es básicamente una recopilación de diferentes fuentes, pero principalmente, sus diarios privados, los que muestran los verdaderos sentimientos, pensamientos, esperanzas, ilusiones y desilusiones de una de las autoras mas brillantes de todos los tiempos.
Detesté a Ewan McDonald (como lo comenté antes en los avances de lectura), creo firmemente que el fue uno de los principales motivos que arruinó a Maud, rompió su espíritu y la llevo al vació emocional en el que estuvo sumergida por tantos años.
Definitivamente fue una historia que me revolvió. Cada libro de la autora muestra una fase de ella y de su vida real, mas allá de la ficción. En los libros de Anne, se puede ver claramente estas fases (en gracioso, porque si no te empapas en la verdadera historia de Montgomery, jamas sabrías que hay detrás), creo que una de las razones por la cual paré los libros de Anne, fue por esto. Se pierde la inocencia y se da paso a la crueldad de la vida adulta y de los desamores y desilusiones. Tal vez en algún momento tendré el coraje de leer los últimos libros de la serie.
Lo que mas tristeza me dio de todo esto, es que siendo tan famosa, teniendo dos hijos, amigos y todo ello, y en sus últimos días, estuvo sola.
La vida de Lucy "Maud" Montgomery , uno fácilmente podría imaginarla repleta de felicidad, de esperanza, de amor (tanto de pareja como de amigos e hijos), de aventuras maravillosas o de experiencias inolvidables; en cierta forma, podría decirse que así fue con respecto a las experiencias y algunas aventuras (especialmente sus primeros años, su juventud), pero la realidad es totalmente otra.
Esta biografía es básicamente una recopilación de diferentes fuentes, pero principalmente, sus diarios privados, los que muestran los verdaderos sentimientos, pensamientos, esperanzas, ilusiones y desilusiones de una de las autoras mas brillantes de todos los tiempos.
Detesté a Ewan McDonald (como lo comenté antes en los avances de lectura), creo firmemente que el fue uno de los principales motivos que arruinó a Maud, rompió su espíritu y la llevo al vació emocional en el que estuvo sumergida por tantos años.
Definitivamente fue una historia que me revolvió. Cada libro de la autora muestra una fase de ella y de su vida real, mas allá de la ficción. En los libros de Anne, se puede ver claramente estas fases (en gracioso, porque si no te empapas en la verdadera historia de Montgomery, jamas sabrías que hay detrás), creo que una de las razones por la cual paré los libros de Anne, fue por esto. Se pierde la inocencia y se da paso a la crueldad de la vida adulta y de los desamores y desilusiones. Tal vez en algún momento tendré el coraje de leer los últimos libros de la serie.
Lo que mas tristeza me dio de todo esto, es que siendo tan famosa, teniendo dos hijos, amigos y todo ello, y en sus últimos días, estuvo sola.
January 3, 2016
It's hard to rate this one. In itself it is perfectly fine as a concise and accurate and fairly engaging account of L.M. Montgomery's life. For that alone it could probably merit four stars at least. But . . . if you have already read plenty of books about Montgomery, or read her journals, then it has little more to offer. For those with only a slight interest in L.M.Montgomery, who simply want a concise but relatively accurate account of her life, then this is the book to go for. But for those wanting to look at her life more seriously, and go deeper, then it is probably best to go straight to her journals (the journals might also be more interesting to read if you have no idea of what lies ahead). This book didn't leave me thirsting for more. I felt it lacked something. It had no real atmosphere about it to allow you to immerse yourself in another world, or in another person's mind. That is why I only gave it three stars. It's only about 80 pages of actual biography, plus thirty or so pages of illustrations. There are some interesting insights into the timings of some of her writings, of how the writing of certain events in her books coincided or contrasted with some of the things going on in her real life. But generally I would be inclined to tell Montgomery fans not to bother with this book unless they can buy it very cheaply.
Read
August 17, 2012This was a good book, but I had to return it the library before I finished it. I would buy it if I could afford it. (I might some day)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews