L.M. Montgomery Research Group

The Road to Yesterday (1974)

By L.M. Montgomery

Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1974 [Paperback edition: Seal Books, 1993]

Synopsis

All who have read and loved Anne of Green Gables will be delighted to return to its setting with this recently discovered collection of fourteen stories by L.M. Montgomery. Anne, whom we’ve met in so many of the author’s previous books, is married and has grown-up children of her own. But she still recalls the strange and funny tales and bits of gossip she heard as a child.

These stories have their heart in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s love for the drama and comedy of life in the villages and country houses surrounding the Blythe family home in Avonlea. Some are tender romances, others accounts of vengeance; some have a touch of the gothic, others are sprinkled with humour; some of the settings are familiar, others are places we’ve never walked before. But all of these stories, and the memories from which the author pieces them together, add to our picture of L.M. Montgomery’s greatest source of inspiration—the people of The Island.

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s name has long been associated with the finest junior fiction. Anne of Green Gables, first published in 1908, persists to this day as one of the world’s best-selling books and has become a classic in literature. It has been translated into several foreign languages, produced as a film, and presented on stages around the world. It is this sensitive and charming portrayal of the life of an orphan girl growing up that Mark Twain once described as “the sweetest creation of child life yet written.” And it is the same warmth, understanding and love that Lucy Maud Montgomery shows in The Road to Yesterday. [1974 edition]

For Anne and Gilbert Blythe, life in a small village is never dull because of all the entertaining gossip, and what strange and funny tales they hear: about the mischievous twins whose dearest wish comes true when they meet up with a bored and haunted millionaire; or clever Penelope Craig, who considers herself an expert on children—until she adopts a boy of her own; or Timothy Randebush, a man so eager to keep his brother out of the clutches of a dangerous woman that he spirits her away—only to fall prey to her charms himself. Filled with unexpected surprises, laughter, and tears, here are fourteen of the Blythes’ favorite tales. [1993 edition]

Publisher’s forward [1974 edition only; n.pag.]

Canadian Twilight (n.pag.)

An Afternoon with Mr. Jenkins (1-10/1-15)

Retribution (11-22/17-36)

The Twins Pretend (23-40/37-66)

Fancy’s Fool (41-57/67-93)

A Dream Come True (59-79/95-129)

Penelope Struts Her Theories (81-107/131-174)

The Reconciliation (109-114/175-183)

The Cheated Child (115-144/185-234)

Fool’s Errand (145-153/235-247)

The Pot and the Kettle (155-179/249-288)