Editor: Rea Wilmshurst
Publisher: McClelland and Stewart
Date: 1991
Pagination: 286 pp.
ISBN: 0771061692
After Many Days: Tales of Time Passed is the fourth of eight collections of L.M. Montgomery’s rediscovered short stories edited and introduced by Rea Wilmshurst. It contains eighteen short stories that were originally published in periodicals between 1901 and 1935. The book was preceded by Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans (1988), Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea (1989), and Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side (1990) and followed by Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement (1993), At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales (1994), Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence (1995), and Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories (1995). It was published as a jacketed hardcover by McClelland and Stewart in April 1991, with a mass-market paperback appearing in April 1992.
From the Back Cover (Hardcover edition)
“A life may go on without ripple or disturbance for so many years that it may seem to have settled into a lasting calm; then a sudden wind of passion may sweep over it and leave behind a wake of tempestuous waters.”
This sentence from “The Setness of Theodosia” is the keynote to After Many Days: Tales of Time Passed, the fourth collection of L.M. Montgomery stories to be published from those rediscovered by Rea Wilmshurst. The “wind of passion” sweeps through the lives of Montgomery’s characters in many different guises in these tales. It may come when a lover or family black sheep returns home. It may come as the chance to wreak a revenge plotted over decades. It may come as confession welling from a guilty soul. But the endings here are all happy, because the characters in these stories demonstrate the virtues that Montgomery believed in: patience, trust, forbearance, and love; they deserve their rewards.
L.M. Montgomery’s many avid readers have been delighted with the first three volumes in this series: Akin to Anne, Along the Shore, and Among the Shadows. They will be no less delighted with this new collection.
Contents
Introduction / Rea Wilmshurst (9–20)
After Many Days (21–30)
The Bride Roses (31–42)
The Romance of Jedediah (43–59)
Elizabeth’s Child (61–75)
In the Old Valley (77–88)
The Prodigal Brother (89–98)
Robert Turner’s Revenge (99–110)
For a Dream’s Sake (111–18)
The Price (119–47)
A Golden Wedding (149–57)
Mrs. March’s Revenge (159–69)
An Unpremeditated Ceremony (171–83)
Missy’s Room (185–97)
The Story of Uncle Dick (199–210)
The Romance of Aunt Beatrice (211–22)
The Setness of Theodosia (223–37)
Between the Hill and the Valley (239–52)
The Man Who Forgot (253–79)
Editorial Note (281–82)
Acknowledgements (283)
Other Books by L.M. Montgomery (285–86)
Reviews
Review by Arlene Perly Rae.