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The L.M. Montgomery Reader, Volume 2: A Critical Heritage

University of Toronto Press, 2014 (paperback edition, 2020)

Paperback edition (2020)
Cover of /The L.M. Montgomery Reader/, Volume 2: /A Critical Heritage/
Hardcover edition (2014)

Following on the heels of the first volume of The L.M. Montgomery Reader, this second volume narrates the development of L.M. Montgomery’s (1874–1942) critical reputation in the seventy years since her death. Edited by leading Montgomery scholar Benjamin Lefebvre, it traces milestones and turning points such as adaptations for stage and screen, posthumous publications, and the development of Montgomery Studies as a scholarly field. Lefebvre’s introduction also considers Montgomery’s publishing history in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom at a time when her work remained in print not because it was considered part of a university canon of literature, but simply due to the continued interest of readers.

The twenty samples of Montgomery scholarship included in this volume broach topics such as gender and genre, narrative strategies in fiction and life writing, translation, and Montgomery’s archival papers. They reflect shifts in Montgomery’s critical reputation decade by decade: the 1960s, when a milestone chapter on Montgomery coincided with a second wave of texts seeking to create a canon of Canadian literature; the 1970s, in the midst of a sustained reassessment of popular fiction and of literature by women; the 1980s, when the publication of Montgomery’s life writing, which coincided with the broadcast of critically acclaimed television productions adapted from her fiction, radically altered how readers perceived her and her work; the 1990s, when a conference series on Montgomery began to generate a sustained amount of scholarship; and the opening years of the twenty-first century, when the field of Montgomery Studies became both international and interdisciplinary.

This is the first book to consider the posthumous life of one of Canada’s most enduringly popular authors.

Preceded by Volume 1: A Life in Print and followed by Volume 3: A Legacy in Review.

Praise

“Benjamin Lefebvre is a key figure in the field of ‘Montgomery studies,’ with a keen eye to the ‘pop-cult’ aspects of Montgomery’s reputation and readership. His encyclopaedic knowledge of Montgomery and her works is evident in the knowledgeable and readable introduction, the annotations, and the useful headnotes that contextualize each selection.”
—Heather Murray, Department of English, University of Toronto

“The L.M. Montgomery Reader, volume 2, presents a generous selection of material, judiciously chosen and clearly organized. The essays included cover an excellent range of primary texts, critical approaches, and eras.”
—Faye Hammill, Department of English, University of Strathclyde

Publishing History

Jacketed hardcover, May 2014
Ebook, August 2014
De Gruyter ebook, August 2018
Trade paperback, June 2020

Contents

Acknowledgments (ix)
Abbreviations (xi–xii)

Introduction: A Critical Heritage / Benjamin Lefebvre (3–49)

A Note on the Text (50)

1. Lucy Maud Montgomery 1874–1942 (1966) / Elizabeth Waterston (51–74)

2. The Fair World of L.M. Montgomery (1973) / Helen Porter (75–82)

3. Anne of Green Gables and the Regional Idyll (1983) / T.D. MacLulich (83–96)

4. Little Orphan Mary: Anne’s Hoydenish Double (1989) / Rosamond Bailey (97–108)

5. Subverting the Trite: L.M. Montgomery’s “Room of Her Own” (1992) / Mary Rubio (109–48)

6. Women’s Oral Narrative Traditions as Depicted in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Fiction, 1918–1939 (1993) / Diane Tye (149–62)

7. L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside: Intention, Inclusion, Implosion (1994) / Owen Dudley Edwards (163–77)

8. Decoding L.M. Montgomery’s Journals / Encoding a Critical Practice for Women’s Private Literature (1994) / Helen Buss (178–97)

9. “Fitted to Earn Her Own Living”: Figures of the New Woman in the Writing of L.M. Montgomery (1995) / Carole Gerson (198–211)

10. “Pruned Down and Branched Out”: Embracing Contradiction in Anne of Green Gables (1995) / Laura M. Robinson (212–22)

11. Finding L.M. Montgomery’s Short Stories (1994) / Rea Wilmshurst (223–27)

12. L.M. Montgomery’s Manuscript Revisions (1995) / Elizabeth Epperly (228–35)

13. “My Secret Garden”: Dis/Pleasure in L.M. Montgomery and F.P. Grove (1999) / Irene Gammel (236–58)

14. Writing with a “Definite Purpose”: L.M. Montgomery, Nellie L. McClung and the Politics of Imperial Motherhood in Fiction for Children (2000) / Cecily Devereux (259–76)

15. Kinship and Nation in Amelia and Anne of Green Gables (1908) (2002) / Monique Dull (277–90)

16. The Maud Squad (2002) / Cynthia Brouse (291–304)

17. “The Golden Road of Youth”: L.M. Montgomery and British Children’s Books (2004) / Jennifer H. Litster (305–24)

18. Women at War: L.M. Montgomery, the Great War, and Canadian Cultural Memory (2008) / Andrea McKenzie (325–49)

19. Anne of Green Gables / Akage no An: The Flowers of Quiet Happiness (2008) / Emily Aoife Somers (350–70)

20. Archival Adventures with L.M. Montgomery; or, “As Long as the Leaves Hold Together” (2012) / Vanessa Brown and Benjamin Lefebvre (371–86)

Sources (387–89)
Bibliography (391–436)
Index (437–51)

Reviews

“While Lefebvre’s The L.M. Montgomery Reader is a vital resource of primary sources from and secondary assessments of one of Canada’s most popular twentieth-century authors, it is his insightful and knowledgeable analysis that shapes and gives meaning to the collection. . . . The depth of his knowledge results in a work that is as comprehensible as it is comprehensive.”
—André Narbonne, American Review of Canadian Studies

“Lefebvre illustrates both the impact of Montgomery’s fiction upon her contemporaries, and its continuing value to present-day scholars who are still discovering new ways to approach and contextualise her work, especially when such valuable archival material has, until now, remained largely unexamined. . . . One is immediately struck by the meticulous and exhaustive nature of the archival research that went into the creation of this three-volume series.”
—Sarah Galletly, British Journal of Canadian Studies

“Enhanced by Lefebvre’s incredible knowledge of the publication history of Montgomery’s work, his meticulous editing, and the archival work begun in volume one, . . . A Critical Heritage looks backward in order to propel the conversation forward, underscoring readers’ and scholars’ enduring fascination with Montgomery and speaking to the vibrancy of continued discussions of Montgomery’s life and work.”
—Emily Woster, University of Toronto Quarterly

“Both scholars and devoted readers of this complex Canadian author will find it fascinating.”
Barbara L. Talcroft, Children’s Literature LLC