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New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"

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vison
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sat 19 Dec , 2009 2:18 am
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This is the only place I've seen it mentioned. I find that very odd. Especially after that "prequel" crap.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sat 19 Dec , 2009 3:06 am
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Did you read the article from the L. M. Montgomery Research Group?

link to article

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Jude
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sat 20 Feb , 2010 9:43 pm
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My local bookshop doesn't have "Anne of Windy Poplars". However, they did have... "Anne of Windy Willows". :Q

What is that? An alternative version? (and why?)

I flipped through the book, and "Windy Willows" was mentioned quite a bit. So if it is an alternative version, not only did they change the title, but they took the time to change all references to it as well.

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vison
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sun 21 Feb , 2010 12:45 am
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Never heard of "Windy Willows"!!!

So I finished "The Blythes Are Quoted" the other day. It wasn't very good, IMHO. First, a confession: I did not read one poem. Maybe they were nice, but if so, I missed them.

The Blythes are quoted, indeed. Silly. The Blythes are mentioned in every other paragraph. It got so annoying I felt like chucking the book across the room. There are several good stories, but as I say, the name Mrs. Dr. Blythe or Dr. Blythe or Anne Blythe is mentioned so often it was like a bell clanging or clanking every time I read it. OVERDONE, Lucy Maud.

I realize the guy who edited this wanted it published as she wrote it, but I suspect that if she had lived another day or so she would have fixed it herself. I hope so.

The so-called "shocking thremes" were a bit shocking. Montgomery did not often mention really bad stuff, but there was murder, illegitimacy, infidelity, all right. Nothing wrong with the ideas but my word, if the name Blythe had been left out, say, 99,999, 999 times and left in only 99 times? Would have been MUCH BETTER.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sun 21 Feb , 2010 2:28 am
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Yeah, but then the title would've been, "The Blythes Are Only Mentioned in Passing." ;)

I haven't gotten back to this book since the first time I picked it up. (I haven't picked up any book except for the few I'm reading for Lent.)

Jude, I've never heard of that. Very strange. :scratch:

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vison
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sun 21 Feb , 2010 3:03 am
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LalaithUrwen wrote:
Yeah, but then the title would've been, "The Blythes Are Only Mentioned in Passing." ;)

I haven't gotten back to this book since the first time I picked it up. (I haven't picked up any book except for the few I'm reading for Lent.)

Jude, I've never heard of that. Very strange. :scratch:
Well, if you read the whole book, I think you will be as annoyed as I was by the constant and silly references to the Blythes. Surely once in a story would have been enough! But apparently the people of Glen St. Marys think of the Blythes with every breath.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sun 21 Feb , 2010 3:38 am
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Spoiler:
















Quote:

I should've known from the absolute get-go that the invalid was the "ghost" in the first story. She had the audacity not to like the Blythes! :LMAO:

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Jude
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sun 21 Feb , 2010 4:21 pm
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I'll have to remember to check out what you wrote once I finally get to read the book!

I wonder if the first drafts of her other novels had similar weaknesses before they were edited.

Well, I looked up Anne of Windy Willows:
Quote:
Anne of Windy Poplars, also published as Anne of Windy Willows in the UK, Australia and Japan, is an epistolary novel by L. M. Montgomery.
I wonder why? :scratch:

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vison
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sun 21 Feb , 2010 4:30 pm
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Maybe they thought it sounded better? Maybe they don't have poplar trees?

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 22 Feb , 2010 3:44 am
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Yeah, maybe the Brits, et al don't have poplars? :scratch: (I mean, really, though, that doesn't sound right. Surely they do.) Let's go ask some! :D

vison, you start with that Aussie guy you have there, and I'll ask Tosh on Facebook.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 22 Feb , 2010 2:17 pm
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So - what did they say?

By an odd coincidence, I was reading "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett (a Brit) on the bus today, and poplars were mentioned:
Quote:
For once, it wasn't raining. The breeze shook the sooty poplars around the wall, making them rustle.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 22 Feb , 2010 2:45 pm
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Here's what they said:

Leoba: We certainly have poplars here. I think they're native but would have to double-check. "Windy Willows" is more alliterative though.

Hobby: That's fascinating, I never knew that - my copy says 'willows', too, and so does the German version (which keeps place names untranslated).
Hmmh, they are both nice trees, but in addition to the alliteration Helen pointed out, willows seem more fitting for Anne. They have very romantic connotations. Poplars by contrast are rather everyday trees, aren't they?
***
And here's what wikipedia says: "Montgomery's original title for the book was Anne of Windy Willows, but her US publisher requested that she change the title because of the title's similarities to The Wind in the Willows. Additionally, her publisher requested some cuts to the book, mainly for perceived gory or terrifying content. Montgomery complied, and the edited novel was published in the United States and Canada as Anne of Windy Poplars. Her UK publisher, however, did not see the need for the edits and published the unabridged version under the original title, Anne of Windy Willows." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Windy_Poplars
Now I think I shall have to re-read it and look for the 'gory and terrifying content'. :D ;)



And that makes me want to read the Willows version as well to see the gory and terrifying content! :D

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Jude
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 22 Feb , 2010 3:27 pm
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So the Willows version is the original one? I should cancel my order for Poplars and ask them to put the Willows copy aside for me.

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vison
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 22 Feb , 2010 3:36 pm
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Thinking about this, I am almost certain that I had a copy of Windy Willows at one time. I think Anne of Windy Poplars sounds better, really. Anne of Windy Willows sounds dorky.

The Blythes are Quoted was not exactly a disappointment. But I am sure that had Montgomery had a chance to edit it properly she would have made some serious changes. I doubt that I'll ever read it again, and yet I've read the other books about 1,000 times each.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Sun 14 Mar , 2010 11:08 pm
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Just started Anne of Windy Poplars. What year is this supposed to take place? It was published in 1936, but Anne is certainly not 28 years older than in Anne of Green Gables - that would put her in her mid-thirties.

For that matter, was the first book meant to be contemporary, or was it set in the recent past?

Anne's letters to Gilbert are meticulously dated with month and date, but, maddeningly, she leaves out the year.

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vison
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 15 Mar , 2010 2:38 am
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Jude wrote:
Just started Anne of Windy Poplars. What year is this supposed to take place? It was published in 1936, but Anne is certainly not 28 years older than in Anne of Green Gables - that would put her in her mid-thirties.

For that matter, was the first book meant to be contemporary, or was it set in the recent past?

Anne's letters to Gilbert are meticulously dated with month and date, but, maddeningly, she leaves out the year.
These books have to take place in a time so that Anne can marry Gilbert and have a family and all 3 of her sons go to The Great War. Her youngest son, Shirley, couldn't have been younger than, say, 18, when he went overseas. She had 7 children all told, with baby Joyce dying when Anne and Gilbert were only married about 1 year. So count backward: if she had a baby a year - although one pregnancy led to twins, so say, 5 pregnancies . . . . 1918 - 23 = 1895 at the absolute latest. But. Anne also did 4 years at Redmond after leaving Avonlea - I'm sure someone has done the math.

But, in fact, her chronologies were not that perfect.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 15 Mar , 2010 3:49 am
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In fact, they have:

http://members.multimania.co.uk/hendric ... ology.html
Quote:
  • Date Event Anne's Age
    March 1865 Anne born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia -
    Spring 1876 Anne arrives at Green Gables 11
    Summer 1880 Anne goes to Queens 15
    Summer 1881 Anne begins teaching at Avonlea 16
    Summer 1883 Course at Redmond begins 18
    Summer 1887 Anne and Gilbert engaged, Anne becomes Principle at Summerside 22
    Summer 1890 Anne and Gilbert marry and move to Four Winds 25
    Spring 1891 Joyce born and dies 26
    Autumn 1892 Jem born 27
    Spring/summer 1893 Walter born 28
    Late 1894 / early 1895 Nan and Di born 29/30
    Late 1896 / early 1897 Shirley born 31/32
    Spring / summer 1899 Anne of Ingleside begins 34
    July 1899 Rilla born 34
    Feb - May 1906 Anne and Gilbert visit Europe 40-41
    May 1906 Rainbow Valley begins 41
    June 1914 Rilla of Ingleside begins 49
Marilla is eighty-five when Rainbow Valley begins (RV, ch 2), and so must have been born in 1820 or late 1819. She would have been fifty-six when Anne first arrived at Green Gables, 29 years before.*

* It has recently been pointed out to me that this calculation of Marilla's age disagrees with what is said in AotI, ch 22. 'Marilla felt that out of her sixty years she had lived only the nine that had followed the advent of Anne.' This of course implies that Marilla was 51 when Anne arrived at Green Gables. It'll take a while to work out what to do about this...

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Jude
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 15 Mar , 2010 8:12 am
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Ah, that's cool, thanks. I was picturing about three decades too late.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 26 Apr , 2010 3:19 am
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I finally finished it last night. I haven't been reading much lately, so that's my main excuse.

My brief, final thoughts...

The stories could have been so much better if (a) LMM had not died before properly editing them, and (b) she would not have felt the need to mention the Blythes in every other paragraph. That really did get old. I did find it interesting that whenever someone mentioned the Blythes the person to whom it was said almost always had a negative reaction. It made me wonder if LMM herself was resenting Anne and Gilbert by that time!

(And I do really wonder that. Did she feel trapped as a writer, sort of as an actor might feel typecast?)

Also, the poems were actually quite good, on the whole. I thought that, overall, they were better than most of the stories.

You really can see an almost preoccupation with death, grief, loss, and the like. She cloaks much of it around
Quote:
Walter's death
, but I do wonder what was going on in her real life.

There were glimpses of the glory that LMM often displayed in her Anne books. She was a good writer, even if this last sample was sub-par.

Which leads me to my final thought--I've never read a proper biography of LMM, and I think it's high time I did so.

Last edited by LalaithUrwen on Mon 26 Apr , 2010 3:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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vison
Post subject: Re: New book by L. M. Montgomery - "The Blythes are Quoted"
Posted: Mon 26 Apr , 2010 3:23 am
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She actually had a pretty dreadful life. I think you would find her life story very interesting.

At the park in PEI where "Green Gables" is, there are some photos and memorabilia from her life. There is a photo of her at about age 5, a dear, sweet little girl with big, anxious eyes. Your heart just aches looking at it: she was orphaned and sent to live with her grandparents, as I recall. That anxious little girl WAS Anne, I know it was. Everyone always plays Anne as a bouncing, yakky nuisance, but she was not.

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