The Next Instalment: Serials, Sequels, and Adaptations of Nellie L. McClung, L.M. Montgomery, and Mazo de la Roche is a book-length study by Wendy Roy that was published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in December 2019.
From the Dust Jacket
What happens next?
That was the question asked of early-twentieth-century authors Nellie L. McClung, L.M. Montgomery, and Mazo de la Roche, whose stories and novels appeared serially and kept readers and publishers in a state of anticipation. Each author answered through the writing and dissemination of further instalments. McClung’s Pearlie Watson trilogy (1908–1921), Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables books (1908–1939), and de la Roche’s Jalna novels (1927–1960) were read avidly not just as sequels but as serials in popular and literary newspapers and magazines. A number of the books were also adapted to stage, film, and television.
The Next Instalment argues that these three Canadian women writers, all born in the 1870s, were influenced by early-twentieth-century publication, marketing, and reading practices to become heavily invested in the cultural phenomenon of the continuing story. A close look at their serials, sequels, and adaptations reveals that, rather than existing as separate cultural productions, each is part of a cultural and material continuum that encourages repeated consumption through development and extension of the originary story.
Contents
Acknowledgements (ix–x)
Introduction: Serials, Sequels, and Adaptations in Early-Twentieth-Century Canada (1–31)
Part 1: Nellie L. McClung and the Pearlie Watson Trilogy (33–35)
1. Sowing the Seeds for McClung’s First Novel (36–52)
2. Serialization as Marketing Strategy (53–65)
3. McClung’s Second Chances (66–85)
4. Changing Popular and Critical Responses (86–93)
5. Sequel (Non)Recognition = (Non)Adaptation? (94–104)
Part 2: L.M. Montgomery, Anne, and Other Sequel Heroines (105–7)
1. Beginning the Cycle: Montgomery’s First Serials and Sequels (108–37)
2. New and Old Continuing Stories: The “Teen” Years (138–49)
3. Anne and Emily of Somewhere Else: More Sequels and Serials (150–62)
4. Anne Grows Up: The Sequel as Bildungsroman (163–67)
5. Love for and Criticism of the Red-Headed Girl (168–84)
6. Adapting and Internationalizing Anne (185–215)
Part 3: Mazo de la Roche and the Whiteoaks of Jalna (217–19)
1. From Magazine Short Stories to Magazine Novels (220–40)
2. Beyond the Trilogy: The Serial–Sequel Continuum (241–54)
3. More Non-Jalna Novels, and New Jalna Prequels and Sequels (255–73)
4. From Acclaimed Contest Winner to “Outside the Range of Literary Criteria” (274–95)
5. The Whiteoaks of Hollywood—les Whiteoak de Paris (296–324)
Conclusion: The Next Instalment (325–30)
List of Abbreviations (331–32)
Notes (333–64)
Works Cited (365–97)
Index (399–429)