Be sure to read this great review of Volume III at The Sheila Variations.*
Here are Serenity Bohon’s words on an entry from 1923.
Here are Serenity Bohon’s words on an entry from 1923.
So many thoughts on this one. Let’s see if I can keep them all straight. First off, I read Volume III faster than any of the others so far. What can I say? Maud feels like a companion at this point. And with her declaration early on in this edition that her journal could be published after her death, I kind of feel I’ve been ushered in as a friend — not that she would have approved of me or my free-verse ways.
On her husband, Ewan
More headaches, more religious melancholia with brief periods of relief. It’s interesting that when he’s occupied with the Marshall Pickering suit or his new congregation in Norval, he’s able to escape his illness. Still, when that handkerchief comes out and ends up on his head — sometimes when he’s a dinner guest! — I can’t imagine Maud’s dread, especially because she kept his illness from everyone.
I have to wonder, though. Did all those maids know? What were Chester and Stuart’s impressions of their father as they grew older? Surely they saw changes in his behavior, too.
It broke my heart to hear Ewan couldn’t handle any praise directed at Maud. He was a product of his time — sure. His wife made more money than he did — yes. But to cringe when her Sunday School students gave her a basket of flowers? What was going on there?
The Marshall Pickering Affair
While driving one day, the McDonald** car collided with Marshall Pickering’s***. Witnesses mostly agreed Pickering was to blame. This led to a long-drawn out court case that favored the Pickerings, and almost everyone in their small community felt the McDonalds had been wronged. The McDonalds were to pay damages…but never did! I’m still at a loss as to how they got away with this (please fill me in below if you get it). Evidently, Ewan was able to arrange to have his salary paid in advance. This way the church would owe him nothing, and Pickering’s lawyer was unable to garnishee his salary. Maud’s money was protected, for while she had purchased the car, it had been a gift to Ewan and was in his name. Rumors ran rampant: the new congregation in Norval had a spy that would finally get the money to Pickering; for their move, the McDonalds should mark all their boxed goods in Maud’s name, so that Pickering’s lawyer couldn’t claim them. Years and years of distress. But I’m still hung up on the fact that they didn’t pay up.
Writing
6/1/1927 Yesterday I began work on a new book about a new heroine — Marigold. I don’t think I’ll love her as well as Anne and Emily — so likely the public won’t.
Maud wrote a number of books at this time: the three books in the Emily series, the beginnings of The Blue Castle****, and Magic for Marigold. While I’ve always loved Anne Shirley, it’s Emily who has been the character I most relate to, and from what I’ve read, other authors have often felt the same. I can’t say much about Marigold other than it’s not a book for me. Marigold was too young and too cute. Boring, in other words. I have to wonder if part of my disinterest is a result of the way it was written — first as stories for the women’s magazine, the Delineator.
The United Church
It was interesting to read again of the merge between the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational churches which formed Canada’s United Church because of my own church experience as an exchange student in Australia. There my church was part of the Uniting Church in Australia, a blending of the same three denominations as the United Church, but formed in 1977 instead of 1925.
Also: I’m SO glad I’m not expected to host annual garden parties with 1,000 guests in my front yard!
What were your impressions as you read Volume III?
* Sheila read Ewan’s taking of the Norval church differently than I did. She felt he was driven out of Leaksdale, possibly because his mental illness made him incompetent (Maud certainly wrote of plenty of sermons he muddled through). I felt their going was a result of the split caused by the creation of the United church. What was your take?
* Sheila read Ewan’s taking of the Norval church differently than I did. She felt he was driven out of Leaksdale, possibly because his mental illness made him incompetent (Maud certainly wrote of plenty of sermons he muddled through). I felt their going was a result of the split caused by the creation of the United church. What was your take?
** Maud’s married name
*** Anyone else astounded by the number of car accidents / car troubles during this time?!
**** Soucebooks has recently bought rights to LMM books. I’m looking forward to re-reading this one when it becomes available
I’m not quite finished with this volume yet, but I’ll jump in to the discussion. 🙂 (I’m also kind of dying because I don’t have the other two volumes yet…Volume IV should be coming soon but Volume V is really hard to find! So I’m drawing this one out.)
I know Maud said she rarely based her characters on real people, but I couldn’t help but see an awful lot of Dean Priest in Ewan in this volume! That belittling of Maud’s work is more than a cultural reaction, I think…it’s someone who let jealousy get under his skin and embitter everything. Reading all those bits made me even more grateful for a husband who is positive about my writing even when I’m not.
I never cared for Marigold, either, so it was interesting to see Maud’s feelings. It made me feel a little less disloyal for just not caring much about her. But The Blue Castle is one of my very, very favorites. It’s also the first Christmas present my husband ever gave me (before we were even dating)–a result of some discussions on how we both liked L. M. Montgomery. 🙂
I just love that you made this happen for me this year, Caroline.
I was so happy to see LM’s spirits lift a bit after the move to Norval. (Although, wow, the names of her real life towns are so bleck compared to her fiction – Norval? and Leaksdale?). Her entries at that point sounded much more like her books. Her appreciation for nature was one of the things in Anne that shaped me as a girl. It opened my eyes to the calming, perspective change nature can bring.
It’s terrible to read about their “trouble with Chester”. But I felt like I got a fuller picture of Montgomery by this volume. She’s very forthright in the journals about her opinions of others – e.g., they are boring or unintelligent or “her hair was bobbed; it did not become her.” 🙂 But you can also see her quick wit and the fact that she was very loyal and forbearing. It does seem so evident the way her inner life saved her, as she often says herself. And I am always deeply fascinated by her global/big-picture perspective. She often makes comments that show she is very aware of her place in the world and in time – that’s the most striking. These thoughts of hers especially make me think:
Her belief that it is the age of science, which will be detrimental both to faith and to art.
Her awareness of how quickly the world is changing through invention.
Her conviction that the world is probably not any happier for it.
I’m especially fascinated by her belief that there will never again be great literature, as if great art can only come from a lack of comfort/technology. She also has a strong superstition that nothing can ever be too happy or comfortable without some terrible sadness to counteract it. I think this comes from the fact that she felt her own happiness so passionately but never felt that all the pieces in her life were part of that. There was always death or mental illness to hold her back from perfect contentment. This is just part of the human condition, I know. But she just strikes me as this person who wanted so desperately to feel that her cup runneth over, but it just never could reach the brim. It makes me so grateful for those moments (like her flash) when life does feel perfectly wonderful and then some. And it inspires me to hold onto a steady sense of happiness despite having a nature almost as passionate as hers. (Which, if you give full rein, will keep you on a complete roller coaster of emotions). 🙂
Just wrote a long response that didn’t go through. That’s what I get for trying to conduct a blog conversation while on a road trip!