Kilmeny of the Orchard, L.M. Montgomery’s third book, was published in March 1910 by L.C. Page and Company (Boston).
« Anne of Avonlea (1909) | The Story Girl (1911) »
Related page: Reviews of Books by L.M. Montgomery: 1908–1921
About Kilmeny of the Orchard
Although Montgomery had planned for The Story Girl to be her follow-up to Anne of Avonlea, it did not progress quickly enough for her publisher, who suggested that she shelve the book temporarily and expand a five-part serial, “Una of the Garden,” that had appeared in the Minneapolis magazine The Housekeeper between December 1908 and April 1909. Montgomery renamed the title protagonist, shifted the scene from a garden to an orchard, and expanded the story to book length. The story of schoolteacher Eric Marshall who falls in love with Kilmeny Gordon, a mute violinist with a tragic past, Kilmeny of the Orchard appeared only six months after Anne of Avonlea.
Epigraph
“Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace,
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny’s face;
As still was her look, and as still was her ee,
As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea,
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
• • • • • • • • • • •
Such beauty bard may never declare,
For there was no pride nor passion there;
• • • • • • • • • • •
Her seymar was the lily flower,
And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower;
And her voice like a distant melodye
That floats along the twilight sea.”
—The Queen’s Wake
Dedication
To my cousin
Beatrice A. McIntyre
this book
is affectionately dedicated
Contents
I. The Thoughts of Youth
II. A Letter of Destiny
III. The Master of Lindsay School
IV. A Tea Table Conversation
V. A Phantom of Delight
VI. The Story of Kilmeny
VII. A Rose of Womanhood
VIII. At the Gate of Eden
IX. The Straight Simplicity of Eve
X. A Troubling of the Waters
XI. A Lover and His Lass
XII. A Prisoner of Love
XIII. A Sweeter Woman Ne’er Drew Breath
XIV. In Her Selfless Mood
XV. An Old, Unhappy, Far-off Thing
XVI. David Baker’s Opinion
XVII. A Broken Fetter
XVIII. Neil Gordon Solves His Own Problem
XIX. Victor from Vanquished Issues