I’m pleased to announce that my edition of L.M. Montgomery’s rediscovered final novel, The Blythes Are Quoted, will be published by Penguin Canada in 2009:
The Blythes Are Quoted
By L.M. Montgomery
Edited by Benjamin Lefebvre
With a foreword by Elizabeth Rollins EpperlyThe never-before-published complete and unabridged last work of L.M. Montgomery
Adultery, illegitimacy, misogyny, revenge, murder, despair, bitterness, hatred, and death—usually not the first terms associated with L.M. Montgomery. But in The Blythes Are Quoted, completed shortly before her death and never before published in its entirety, Montgomery brought these topics to the forefront in what she intended to be the ninth volume in her bestselling series featuring the beloved heroine Anne. Divided into two sections, one set before and one after the Great War of 1914-1918, The Blythes Are Quoted contains fifteen short stories that include an adult Anne and her family. Between these short stories Montgomery inserted sketches featuring Anne and Gilbert Blythe discussing poems by Anne and their middle son, Walter, who dies as a soldier in the war. By blending together poetry, prose, and dialogue, Montgomery was experimenting with storytelling methods in ways she had never attempted before. The Blythes Are Quoted marks L.M. Montgomery’s final contribution to a body of work that continues to fascinate readers all over the world.
I see there are no comments here yet.
Well, yay! And what might the cover look like?
Patience, Bethy–I’ll post it here as soon as I can. I really like it, though!
I’m SO excited! A few weeks ago i was looking on wikipedia about L.M.Montgomery to see what other books she wrote in her life. At the bottom of the list was “The Blythes Are Quoted” At once i started looking on amazon for the book. Unfortantly it wasn’t there to my disiapointment! I was and still reading Anne of Green Gables series when i found out. It puzzled me for some weeks my mom was going to buy some stuff on amazon and told me i had some money on amazon left over from easter from a friend so i thought i would want to get a book i wasn’t sure what book i wanted i was looking for at least one hour then i went on wikipedia and looked at all her books she wrote and then clicked on “the blythes are quoted” and then this website came up I learned it was coming out on my birthday month it made me SO excited i jumped up and down and told my mom! Later i choose to get the book story girl i heard it was her favorite book she wrote. Well I can’t wait to go and buy the blythes are quoted! I feel like october is never going to come! summer is going fast but september won’t! One day i hope i will be as good a writer as L.M.Montgomery she has made my imagination grow bigger and i see things more clearly and love it better because of HER fantastic writing!
Can’t wait to see the cover i’m looking every day now!
Thanks very much for your comments, Sarah! The reason you haven’t found a listing for /The Blythes Are Quoted/ on Amazon.com is that there is not yet an American edition of the book. It will be published in Canada only this October, but you can order a copy of it on Amazon.ca. In the meantime, have you read Montgomery’s Emily books? It’s about a young girl who wants to become a writer–I think you’ll enjoy it. The first book in the series is /Emily of New Moon/, and it’s followed by /Emily Climbs/ and /Emily’s Quest/.
As for the cover, I’ll post it on this website as soon as it’s safe to do so, so stay tuned!
Best wishes,
Ben
Can’t wait for “The Blythes are Quoted”. L.M. , in my opinion was the best writer in history!
This sounds really exciting!
Ben – thanks for your comment, I had been looking on Amazon UK and Amazon US and couldn’t find anything about it for pre-order, didn’t think to try .ca! I will go order my copy now. 🙂
No I haven’t read the Emily books but I wish! I’m a total fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery! Just for my Birthday two weeks ago I got ‘Story Girl’ and ‘Kimley of the Orchered’ Next year in school I have to read Anne of Green Gables! I stared reading the series in June and ended them by the end of Augest! I was so proud of myself! I don’t think there has ever been better than her in that perspective! The Anne Of Green Gables series is one of my FAVORITES! So now I’m waiting to be able to get them! Hopfully for CHRISTMAS! My whole wish list was all books by her! I can’t wait to read more by her! Because I live in the Middle East I went on like in the morning to see how much it was and it was so funny when I remebered that it wasn’t morning yet! For you guys! I’ve been waiting and waiting telling my mom “one more week” “twomarow the Blythes are Quoted is coming out! Now it is finnaly here! Its made it!
Hi Sarah,
I hope you enjoy this one too. Consider getting the Emily books, if you can–I have a feeling you’ll like them.
I haven’t been able to find this information and am not sure if I’ve simply missed it. I apologize for any inaccuracies–I’m just trying to figure it out for myself. 🙂
From what I’ve gathered, “The Road to Yesterday” is an incomplete, jumbled up version of “The Blythes Are Quoted”. Will “The Blythes Are Quoted” include the material which was included in “The Road to Yesterday”, or will said material be excluded? I’m incredibly curious as to what the intended sequence of the pieces was/is.
To clarify, I assume that, because it is “complete and unabridged”, it will include the text from “The Road to Yesterday” but in its original form. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Hi Heather,
The simplest answer to your question is yes: /The Blythes Are Quoted/ is the unabridged final text by L.M. Montgomery. /The Road to Yesterday/ omits all the dialogue, all but one of the poems, shortens most of the short stories, and changes the order of some of the stories besides. But it’s actually more complicated than that, because /The Road to Yesterday/ is abridgment of an earlier typescript, so there are also a number of minor differences between the two versions. Ultimately, though, what is now available for the first time is the complete and unabridged version of the book that Montgomery submitted to her publishers on the day of her death.
A fascinating find after all these years. I had not read an ‘Anne’ book in quite some time, and this restored edition certainly begs for more research on the author and her subjects. Might someone direct me to more of Mr. Lefebvre’s own research on the topic?
Hi Adriana!
I published a book chapter on The Blythes Are Quoted in the collection of essays Storm and Dissonance: L.M. Montgomery and Conflict, which you may be able to find at a university library. This chapter appeared before Blythes was published, however. I’m still thinking and writing about how this book fits within her lifetime and her legacy–it still fascinates me as much as ever.
Best wishes,
Benjamin