Gather Across The Miles : Tales Of Correspondence Translated By L.M. Montgomery Accessible In File
light, and just what I needed during the endless election week, The stories are uncomplicated and not particularly lifechanging, but they were lovely and comforting, I enjoyed the afterword, which described how the editor came to find hundreds ! of L, M. Montgomery stories. Montgomery was astonishingly prolific, and she had to be since that was how she made her living, Great! I prefer Montgomery's novels these were a bit too saccharine for my taste, L. M. Montgomery is a long time and all time favorite author of mine, She writes the perfect girls story with just the right mix of adventure, drama and happiness, I find her books a comfort to read and have reread most of her works many times over the years.
They are classics for a reason and that reason is they are great, These are true comfort books for me and books I enjoy rereading again and again,.stars. There were some very good stories in here and a few not so good ones, but I enjoyed them all.
I especially loved that they all used letterwriting as a focal point, What I admire about L, M. Montgomery, that the editor pointed out in her afterward, is that a lot of her stories do have a similar vibe and outline to them but she is able to make each one slightly different and stand out in its own way.
These were great stories to read before bed put you in a good mood! A collection of short stories all around the theme of letters: sent or received.
In some cases, it is journal entries, The nice thing about short stories is that you can pick up and put down without having to follow a thread of an entire novel.
In some cases, the short story format works well in others, it seems to need more, This is my favourite of the Montgomery short story collection thus far, particularly because I like epistolary fiction.
The "Afterword" by editor Rea Wilmhurst is a treat, For me, these short story collections are best read a story a week rather than one a day, since there are some repetitions of themes.
I really enjoyed the afterword that explains the editorial process of compiling these collections! This is a fun one, as predictable as many of the stories are.
LMM is just a delight, The art of letterwriting.
Perhaps a lost art form these days, But once a necessity a vital part of life, The ability to express oneself on paper were a gateway to the world, connecting relatives, creating opportunities and simply catching up.
This story collection contains a collection of Montgomery's short stories that all revolve around letterwriting, journaling or perhaps finding longlost letters and notes, ultimately changing lives.
And it's quite fun too read certainly very romantic and tenderhearted,
The love stories dominate the collection and while they can be a bit too repetitive, I found myself smiling touched by a story of a young girl receiving a fake prom invitation and having the night of her life of a girl pretending to be someone she wasn't only to find out she was the right one all along or perhaps the tale of a misplaced loveletter bringing joy to an older woman.
Reading Montgomery is such a heartwarming experience, This was no exception. One of the more delightful of Wilmshurst's compilations which includes an interesting afterword on how she collected Montgomery's stories.
This one focuses on correspondence, and how letters can tell a story or turn the tide, Most are romances of course, but there is the occasional overcoming of familial challenges, Because this device can be used in many ways these stories aren't as repetitive to read all together as others well, maybe still, a little but you will also find a few that remind you of Anne and other familiar characters.
Lucy Maud Montgomery has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read Anne of Green Gables as a little girl.
But unlike many of my childhood favorites, I never outgrew L, M. Montgomerys books. Reading them as an adult isnt an exercise in nostalgia, it is simply good writing that I always enjoy.
While I have read and reread every book that L, M. Montgomery ever published, many of her short stories were gathered into themed anthologies and published after her death and I havent read all of these quite yet.
In a way, I like it that way because it always a treat to read something “new” from L.
M. Montgomery.
Across the Miles is one of those anthologies, this time with a “correspondence” theme, Each of the stories feature letter writing or writing in a diary as a major plot point, My favorites included:
Miss Sallys Letter A bitter manhating woman is asked to aid a young man in outfitting his new home in preparation for his taking a bride.
As she creates the perfect home, and gets to know and like the young man, she is unaware that the intended bride is own niece and that the young couple were hoping to win her approval for their match though her interest in the house.
Aunt Carolines Dress Two hardworking and poor sisters face the loss of their home when they are unable to pay the mortgage despite their best efforts.
In a burst of unselfishness, the elder sister “makes up” the one party dress they own so that her sister can wear it to a party and have a little bit of fun even though it means that she herself will have nothing to wear and therefore cannot go to a dear friends wedding.
The younger sister suggests that they take an old, ugly dress they inherited from an aunt which leads to a very fortuitous discovery.
Five OClock in the Morning A vacationing artist is woken at a dreadfully early hour and decided to take a walk.
He meets a beautiful young woman that he falls in love with, During the course of their morning together he tells her of the marriage that his uncle has arranged for him and that, despite the fact that it will mean his disinheritance, he plans to refuse it.
Later on a case of mistaken identity and a letter helps resolve things happily,
A Fortunate Mistake A misdirected letter leads to a beautiful friendship
Runaway Kite Children use an old letter to repair a broken kite.
When the kite flies away from them, it helps heal a longtime rift in their family,
The Revolt of Mary Isabel An old maid dominated by her elder sister receives a letter that her
deceased brother had written heryears ago.
In the letter, he encourages her to stand up for her self and not submit to her sisters bullying.
This leads to a chain of events that will change several lives in the process,
While longtime Montgomery readers will recognize some of the themes and plot points that have popped up in other books and stories, not to mention names, at least two stories feature couples with the names Gilbert and Anne the collection is nonetheless charming and fun to read.
I love short stories and these are some of the best, Unless you are a romance as reading genre fan and thus actually would generally appreciate and even much personally enjoy perusing letterbased short stories that for the vast majority of the inclusions have love, match making and rather many schoolgirl or schoolboy like crushes as their main themes, I would probably only suggest L.
M. Montgomery's Across the Miles for serious Montgomery fans and completists, For while the compiled short anecdotes of correspondence part of the late Rea Wilmshurst's series of thematically linked and edited L.
M. Montgomery short stories are indeed interesting and do very much show how in bygone times, how before especially the advent of the telephone, letters and letter writing were in fact the main and often only way of corresponding, of reaching out across the miles, or even across a city or a street if one could not simply go and knock on an individual's door in person, I for one have only really and without qualms enjoyed about six of the twenty presented letter and note writing tales.
And truth be told, NONE of the six stories I did in fact personally enjoy reading specifically involve love letters, but rather they feature other forms and instances of correspondence, such as invitations, promissory notes, misunderstandings, a nasty jest that ends up miserably failing, and a really ingenious and funny anecdote of how an estranged family is brought back together by means of two lonely siblings and their runaway kite.
The fourteen other collected tales of Across the Miles, while most definitely readable and I guess also enjoyable for what they are, due to the fact that most of them are indeed stories of love letters and often of match making, and since I have always despised stories featuring the latter, well, I have found these tales generally rather trite, tedious, repetitive and yes so generally annoying that I really cannot consider Across the Miles with more than two, for a collection of short stories, even by one of my all time favourite authors, which out of twenty tales, only leaves six that are truly enjoyable and engaging for me on personal and reading pleasure level, that is really is not enough for a three star rating although I do still warmly and much recommend Across the Miles for those L.
M. Montgomery fans who enjoy her love and matchmaking stories, and do and will always consider Rea Wilmshurst's thematic collections of L.
M. Montgomery's short stories as brilliant, with especially her eruditely analytical introductions and presented source materials being an appreciated added academic study and research bonus.
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