Further Chronicles of Avonlea is L.M. Montgomery’s eleventh book, first published in April 1920 by The Page Company. It is the seventh of eleven books to feature Montgomery’s protagonist Anne Shirley Blythe, preceded by Anne of Green Gables (1908), Anne of Avonlea (1909), Chronicles of Avonlea (1912), Anne of the Island (1915), Anne’s House of Dreams (1917), and Rainbow Valley (1919), and followed by Rilla of Ingleside (1921), Anne of Windy Poplars (1936), Anne of Ingleside (1939), and The Blythes Are Quoted (2009).
Although the book consists of fifteen stories that were not chosen for inclusion in Chronicles of Avonlea (1912), Montgomery agreed to this publication reluctantly at the end of a lawsuit in which she sold to her publisher all remaining rights to her first seven books for approximately US$18,000, under the condition that there by no mention of Anne Shirley in the book nor any depiction of her on its cover. After she had revised the stories to remove mentions of Anne and descriptive sections that she had used in her post-1912 books, Page announced their intention to publish the 1912 versions that they had in their possession, even though this violated the terms of their agreement. Montgomery’s legal battle with Page was not settled until 1928, but in the end she was victorious and the bootleg book was taken off the market. It was republished in the mid-1950s, however, and remains in print today.
This book partly formed the basis for the popular television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996), as did The Story Girl, Chronicles of Avonlea, and The Golden Road.
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Contents
I. Aunt Cynthia’s Persian Cat
II. The Materializing of Cecil
III. Her Father’s Daughter
IV. Jane’s Baby
V. The Dream-Child
VI. The Brother Who Failed
VII. The Return of Hester
VIII. The Little Brown Book of Miss Emily
IX. Sara’s Way
X. The Son of His Mother
XI. The Education of Betty
XII. In Her Selfless Mood
XIII. The Conscience Case of David Bell
XIV. Only a Common Fellow
XV. Tannis of the Flats
Reviews of Further Chronicles of Avonlea (18)
Boston Evening Transcript, 8 April 1920 (“Avonlea Again”). Scrapbook of Reviews, 129.
Boston Herald, 10 April 1920, 7 (“In Avonlea”). The L.M. Montgomery Reader, 3: 220.
New York Tribune, 11 April 1920, Magazine and Book Section, 11.
Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), 11 April 1920, Part 3, 10.
Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer (New York), 15 April 1920, 388. The L.M. Montgomery Reader, 3: 221 (as “[Further Doings of Widely Popular People]”).
Pittsburgh Press, 17 April 1920, 10 (“Chronicles of Avonlea”).
Wilmington (DE) Every Evening, 17 April 1920. Scrapbook of Reviews, 328.
Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 24 April 1920, 8 (“More about Avonlea”). Scrapbook of Reviews, 130. The L.M. Montgomery Reader, 3: 221.
Des Moines News, 18 May 1920, 10 (“Writes New Sequel”).
Sunday Sentinel (Milwaukee), 23 May 1920, Music-Drama, Editorial, Motor News Section, 5.
The Christian Endeavor World (Boston), 27 May 1920, 686. Scrapbook of Reviews, 328. The L.M. Montgomery Reader, 3: 221–22 (as “[Plain and Simple Lives]”).
The Christian Register (Boston), 8 July 1920, 674.
Evening Missourian (Columbia, MO), 23 July 1920, 2 (“Chronicles of Avonlea”). The L.M. Montgomery Reader, 3: 222.
Carroll (IA) Times, 7 October 1920, 9.
Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, 31 October 1920, 21.
The Independent (New York), 13 November 1920, 247. The L.M. Montgomery Reader, 3: 222 (as “[Sentiment a Bit Thick]”).
Unidentified and undated clipping, ca. 1920 (“Title of Book Warrants Interest”). Scrapbook of Reviews, 330. The L.M. Montgomery Reader, 3: 223 (as “[The Gift of Humour]”).
Unidentified and undated clipping, ca. 1920 (H.L.G.). Scrapbook of Reviews, 328.
Published on 1 August 2008; last updated on 29 March 2024. Please contact the site owner with additions, corrections, questions, and suggestions.