Chronicles of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery’s fifth book, was published in June 1912 by L.C. Page and Company (Boston).
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Contents
About Chronicles of Avonlea
Epigraph
Dedication
Chapters
Editions of Chronicles of Avonlea
Adaptations of Chronicles of Avonlea
Reviews of Chronicles of Avonlea
Related page: Reviews of Books by L.M. Montgomery: 1908–1921
About Chronicles of Avonlea
Chronicles of Avonlea is the third of eleven books to feature Montgomery’s protagonist Anne Shirley Blythe, preceded by Anne of Green Gables (1908) and Anne of Avonlea (1909) and followed by Anne of the Island (1915), Anne’s House of Dreams (1917), Rainbow Valley (1919), Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920), Rilla of Ingleside (1921), Anne of Windy Poplars (1936), Anne of Ingleside (1939), and The Blythes Are Quoted (2009).
Because Montgomery had no novel ready for 1912 due to her grandmother’s death in March 1911, her marriage to Ewan Macdonald in July 1911, her honeymoon in England and Scotland, and her move to Ontario in October 1911, her publisher persuaded her to rewrite some of her published short stories to include references to Anne and to the community of Avonlea, as a volume of linked short stories. Montgomery complied and sent him a few dozen stories, out of which her publisher selected the twelve that appear here. In the first edition, the title page identifies the book as Chronicles of Avonlea “in which Anne Shirley of Green Gables and Avonlea plays some part, and which have to do with other personalities and events, including The Hurrying of Ludovic, Old Lady Lloyd, The Training of Felix, Little Joscelyn, The Winning of Lucinda, Old Man Shaw’s Girl, Aunt Olivia’s Beau, The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham’s, Pa Sloane’s Purchase, The Courting of Prissy Strong, The Miracle at Carmody, and finally The End of a Quarrel.”
Epigraph
The unsung beauty hid
life’s common things below.
—Whittier.
Dedication
To the memory of
Mrs. William A. Houston,
a dear friend, who has gone beyond
Chapters
I. The Hurrying of Ludovic
II. Old Lady Lloyd
III. Each in His Own Tongue
IV. Little Joscelyn
V. The Winning of Lucinda
VI. Old Man Shaw’s Girl
VII. Aunt Olivia’s Beau
VIII. The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham’s
IX. Pa Sloane’s Purchase
X. The Courting of Prissy Strong
XI. The Miracle at Carmody
XII. The End of a Quarrel
Editions of Chronicles of Avonlea
L.C. Page and Company (Boston) published the first edition of Chronicles of Avonlea in June 1912. This first edition contains cover art and a full-colour frontispiece illustration by George Gibbs. Page licensed reprint editions to A.L. Burt Company (New York) and Grosset and Dunlap (New York).
Sampson Low, Marston and Company (London) published the first UK edition of Chronicles of Avonlea in 1912, followed by a similar edition by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Company (London) in 1914. George G. Harrap and Company (London) released a new edition in 1925.
Angus and Robertson (Sydney) published the first Australian edition of Chronicles of Avonlea in 1925, through its Cornstalk Publishing Company imprint. It published subsequent editions throughout the twentieth century.
The Ryerson Press published the first Canadian edition of Chronicles of Avonlea in September 1943. The Ryerson Press reprinted this edition for almost half a century, later in trade paperback format, even after the press became McGraw-Hill Ryerson in 1970.
Adaptations of Chronicles of Avonlea
Chronicles of Avonlea partly formed the basis for the popular television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996), as did The Story Girl, The Golden Road, and Further Chronicles of Avonlea.
Reviews of Chronicles of Avonlea
Reviews of Chronicles of Avonlea that have been located so far appeared in periodicals from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Volume 3 of The L.M. Montgomery Reader includes the full text of twenty-seven reviews of Chronicles of Avonlea.
“In this volume the author establishes her right to be considered one of the best short story writers in our country.”
—The Oakland Tribune
“The author shows a wonderful knowledge of humanity, great insight and warm-heartedness in the manner in which some of the scenes are treated, and the sympathetic way the gentle peculiarities of the characters are brought out.”
—The Boston Globe
“To say that the Chronicles of Avonlea is a better book than Miss Montgomery’s other books is in the nature of trying to gild refined gold. But as impossible as the feat may seem, this delightful Canadian woman is improving as her pen becomes more practiced.”
—The Rochester Herald