University of Toronto Press, 2015 (paperback edition, 2020)


This third and final volume of The L.M. Montgomery Reader examines a long overlooked portion of Montgomery’s critical reception: reviews of her books. Although Montgomery downplayed the impact that reviews had on her writing career, claiming to be amused and tolerant of reviewers’ contradictory opinions about her work, she nevertheless cared enough to keep a large percentage of them in scrapbooks as an archive of her career.
Edited by leading Montgomery scholar Benjamin Lefebvre, this volume presents 370 reviews from eight countries that raise questions about and offer reflections on gender, genre, setting, character, audience, and nationalism, much of which anticipated the scholarship that has thrived in the last four decades. Lefebvre’s extended introduction and chapter headnotes place the reviews in the context of Montgomery’s literary career and trace the evolution of attitudes to her work, and his epilogue examines the response to her books, letters, journals, and other writings that were published posthumously.
A comprehensive account of the reception of Montgomery’s books, published during and after her lifetime, A Legacy in Review completes this important new resource for L.M. Montgomery scholars and fans around the world.
Preceded by Volume 1: A Life in Print and Volume 2: A Critical Heritage.
- The L.M. Montgomery Reader, Volume 3: A Legacy in Review at University of Toronto Press website
- The L.M. Montgomery Reader, Volume 3: A Legacy in Review at L.M. Montgomery Online
- The L.M. Montgomery Reader, Volume 3: A Legacy in Review at Goodreads
- The L.M. Montgomery Reader, Volume 3: A Legacy in Review at 49th Shelf
Contents
Acknowledgments (vii–viii)
Abbreviations (ix–x)
Introduction: A Legacy in Review / Benjamin Lefebvre (3–48)
A Note on the Text (49–50)
1. Anne of Green Gables (1908) (51–68)
2. Anne of Avonlea (1909) (69–83)
3. Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910) (84–91)
4. The Story Girl (1911) (92–114)
5. Chronicles of Avonlea (1912) (115–38)
6. The Golden Road (1913) (139–54)
7. Anne of the Island (1915) (155–71)
8. The Watchman and Other Poems (1916) (172–79)
9. Anne’s House of Dreams (1917) (180–99)
10. Rainbow Valley (1919) (200–18)
11. Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920) (219–23)
12. Rilla of Ingleside (1921) (224–40)
13. Emily of New Moon (1923) (241–52)
14. Emily Climbs (1925) (253–68)
15. The Blue Castle: A Novel (1926) (269–85)
16. Emily’s Quest (1927) (286–96)
17. Magic for Marigold (1929) (297–306)
18. A Tangled Web / Aunt Becky Began It (1931) (307–14)
19. Pat of Silver Bush (1933) (315–26)
20. Courageous Women (1934) (with Marian Keith and Mabel Burns Mckinley) (327–28)
21. Mistress Pat: A Novel of Silver Bush (1935) (329–33)
22. Anne of Windy Poplars / Anne of Windy Willows (1936) (334–39)
23. Jane of Lantern Hill (1937) (340–44)
24. Anne of Ingleside (1939) (345–52)
Epilogue: Posthumous Titles, 1960–2013 / Benjamin Lefebvre (353–90)
Sources (391–411)
Bibliography (413–38)
Index (439–53)