The Blythes Are Quoted
By L.M. Montgomery
Edited and with an Afterword by Benjamin Lefebvre
Foreword by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly
Toronto: Viking Canada, 2009
The Blythes Are Quoted is the last work of fiction by the internationally celebrated author of Anne of Green Gables. Intended by L.M. Montgomery to be the ninth volume in her bestselling series featuring her beloved heroine Anne—and delivered to her publisher on the very day she died—it has never before been published in its entirety.
This rediscovered volume marks the final word of a writer whose work continues to fascinate readers all over the world.
Adultery, illegitimacy, revenge, murder, and death—these are not the first terms we associate with L.M. Montgomery. But in The Blythes Are Quoted, completed at the end of her life, the author brings topics such as these to the fore.
Intended by Montgomery to be the ninth volume in her bestselling series featuring Anne Shirley Blythe, The Blythes Are Quoted takes Anne and her family a full two decades beyond anything else she published about them, and some of its subject matter is darker than we might expect.
Divided into two sections, one set before and one after the Great War of 1914–1918, it contains fifteen short stories set in and around the Blythes’ Prince Edward Island community of Glen St. Mary. Binding these stories are sketches featuring Anne and Gilbert Blythe discussing poems by Anne and their middle son, Walter, who dies as a soldier in the war. By blending together poetry, prose, and dialogue in this way, Montgomery was at the end of her career experimenting with storytelling methods in an entirely new manner.
This publication of Montgomery’s rediscovered original work—previously published only in severely abridged form as The Road to Yesterday—invites readers to return to her earlier books with a renewed appreciation and perspective.
Contents
Foreword by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly (ix-xiv)
Part One
The Piper (3)
Some Fools and a Saint (5-67)
Twilight at Ingleside (68-74)
I Wish You (70-71)
The Old Path Round the Shore (72-73)
Guest Room in the Country (74)
An Afternoon with Mr. Jenkins (75-87)
The Second Evening (88-95)
The New House (88-89)
Robin Vespers (90-91)
Night (92-93)
Man and Woman (94-95)
Retribution (96-113)
The Third Evening (114-117)
There Is a House I Love (114-115)
Sea Song (116-117)
The Twins Pretend (118-143)
The Fourth Evening (144-145)
To a Desired Friend (144-145)
Fancy’s Fool (146-169)
The Fifth Evening (170-175)
Midsummer Day (170-172)
Remembered (173-175)
A Dream Comes True (176-207)
The Sixth Evening (208-214)
Farewell to an Old Room (208-211)
The Haunted Room (212-213)
Song of Winter (214)
Penelope Struts Her Theories (215-252)
The Seventh Evening (253-259)
Success (253-255)
The Gate of Dream (256-257)
An Old Face (258-259)
The Reconciliation (260-266)
The Cheated Child (267-311)
Fool’s Errand (312-324)
The Pot and the Kettle (325-360)
Part Two
Another Ingleside Twilight (365-378)
Interlude (365-366)
Come, Let Us Go (367-368)
A June Day (369-370)
Wind of Autumn (371-372)
The Wild Places (373-374)
For Its Own Sake (375)
The Change (376-377)
I Know (378)
Brother Beware (379-395)
The Second Evening (396-404)
The Wind (396-398)
The Bride Dreams (399-402)
May Song (403-404)
Here Comes the Bride (405-438)
The Third Evening (439-444)
The Parting Soul (439-440)
My House (441-442)
Memories (443-444)
A Commonplace Woman (445-475)
The Fourth Evening (476-484)
Canadian Twilight (476-477)
Oh, We Will Walk with Spring Today (478-479)
Grief (480-481)
The Room (482-484)
The Road to Yesterday (485-501)
Au Revoir (502-510)
I Want (502-504)
The Pilgrim (505-506)
Spring Song (507-508)
The Aftermath (509-510)
Afterword, by Benjamin Lefebvre (511-520)
A Note on the Text (521-522)
Acknowledgments (523)
Books by L.M. Montgomery (525-527)
Reviews
Clare, Kerry. Review of The Blythes Are Quoted, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre; L.M. Montgomery, by Jane Urquhart. Quill & Quire, December 2009, 23-24.
Golfman, Noreen. “Bleak Island.” Review of The Blythes Are Quoted, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre. Literary Review of Canada, November 2009, 25.
Norris, Laurie Glenn. “Rediscovering Anne.” Review of The Blythes Are Quoted, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre. Telegraph-Journal, 2 January 2010, G6.
Tosenberger, Catherine. “Montgomery Short Stories Contain Full Treasure.” Review of The Blythes Are Quoted, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre. Winnipeg Free Press, 31 October 2009, H9.
van Herk, Aritha. “Blythe Spirits.” Review of The Blythes Are Quoted, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre. The Globe and Mail, 14 November 2009, F12. [Full entry]
Translations
Finnish translation forthcoming from WSOY (Helsinski); Japanese translation forthcoming from Shinchosha (Tokyo).
Links
Penguin Canada: Publisher’s Listing
Penguin Canada: Fall 2009 Rights Catalogue (see p. 3)
Penguin Canada: Spring 2009 Rights Catalogue (see p. 3)
The Blythes Are Quoted on Benjamin Lefebvre’s website
Order
Although The Blythes Are Quoted is published solely in Canada for the time being, the following booksellers ship worldwide:
