Days and Dreams and Laughter: The Story Girl and Other Tales is an omnibus edition of The Story Girl, The Golden Road, and Kilmeny of the Orchard that was published as a jacketed hardcover by Avenel Books (later reprinted by Gramercy Books) in 1990. This is one of three omnibus volumes published by Avenel Books/Gramercy Books, preceded by Anne of Green Gables: Three Volumes in One (1986) and followed by Anne of the Island and Tales of Avonlea (1991).
{ Kilmeny of the Orchard } { Kilmeny of the Orchard: Editions } { The Story Girl } { The Story Girl: Editions } { The Golden Road } { The Golden Road: Editions } { Random House } { Editions: 1990–1999 }
Cover of Days of Dreams and Laughter: The Story Girl and Other Tales, an omnibus edition published by Gramercy Books in 1990; pictured on the wrap-around dust jacket are young cast members of the television series Road to Avonlea.
Author
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Title
Days of Dreams and Laughter: The Story Girl and Other Tales
Contributors
Language
English
Country
United States of America
Publisher Location
New York
Publisher
Avenel Books/Gramercy Books, imprints of Random House
Publication Date
Format
Print, jacketed hardcover, 6” x 9”, xviii + 541 pp.
Illustrator
George Gibbs
Front Cover Copy
Avonlea[,] the Kevin Sullivan Production on The Disney Channel, is based on the Story Girl novels
Dust Jacket Flap Copy
This collection combines Lucy Maud Montgomery’s two delightful Story Girl novels—The Story Girl and The Golden Road—with Kilmeny of the Orchard, a poignant and romantic novel. Each of the stories takes place on Prince Edward Island, a setting the author knew and dearly loved, and one that will be familiar to readers of the author’s eternally popular Anne of Green Gables.
“Never had we heard a voice like hers,” says the young narrator, describing his first meeting with Sara Stanley, “the Story Girl,” and thus begins a merry journey into the hearts and lives of a close-knit group of Canadian teenagers. The heroine and her young companions, like Anne of Green Gables, are blessed with humor, spunk, a strong sense of adventure, and romantic souls.
The Story Girl has Sara Stanley at its center, skillfully weaving stories that fascinate listeners while incorporating subtle lessons in friendship, love, and life. Through her magical talents, she becomes each character she tells of, so enthralling listeners that they believe that one day she will be “destined to stand before kings.” Her mastery of language and sense of drama are what make each story so appealing.
Set in the fictional town of Carlisle, the Story Girl’s tales illuminate the lives and traditions of the people of the Island, bringing to life their romances, tragedies, comedies, and even their ghosts.
Beverley, the thirteen-year-old narrator, observes that, in the Story Girl’s hands, history gently draws in even the very young. And this pattern of short glimpses into the past is continued in The Golden Road, the sequel to The Story Girl, which pursues many of the strands of earlier stories as it moves time forward into the cold blustery winter of Prince Edward Island. Now, the children have started their own newspaper which is both charming and hilarious in its innocent insights.
This volume finishes with the emotional and highly romantic Kilmeny of the Orchard, the story told by a young substitute teacher, Eric, who comes to the Island and falls in love with a mysterious mute young beauty. The story chronicles Eric’s increasing struggles—first, with Kilmeny’s extreme shyness and lack of self-confidence, then against her family’s over-protectiveness and the town’s skepticism about his motivations and, finally, in a dramatic climax, against actual violence.
In the stories collected in Days of Dreams and Laughter, Lucy Maud Montgomery captured the essence of what it is to be young and inquisitive, and they include what she considered to be some of her best writing. Montgomery’s keen eye and wistful heart give the tone a universal quality. If only all of us had our own Story Girl!
Contents
(i) [Half-Title Page]
(ii) [Blank Page]
(iii) [Title Page]
(iv) [Copyright Page]
(v) Contents
(vi) [Blank Page]
(vii–xiv) Introduction / Ellen S. Shapiro
(xv–xvi) About the Author
(xvii) Notes on the Art and the Text / Claire Booss
(xviii) [Blank Page]
(1) The Story Girl [Title Page]
(2) [Dedication/Overleaf Image Caption]
(3–231) [The Story Girl, chapters 1–32]
(232) [Blank Page]
(233) The Golden Road [Title Page]
(234) [Dedication/Overleaf Image Caption]
(235) Author’s Preface
(236) [Blank Page]
(237–434) [The Golden Road, chapters 1–33]
(435) Kilmeny of the Orchard [Title Page]
(436) [Dedication/Overleaf Image Caption]
(437) [Epigraph]
(438) [Blank Page]
(439–541) [Kilmeny of the Orchard, chapters 1–20]
ISBN
0-517-05137-0
Notes
All three dedications included; epigraphs to The Story Girl and The Golden Road omitted. A detailed table of contents for the three individual books is not included. Chapter 1 of Kilmeny of the Orchard is erroneously entitled “The Thoughts of South,” aligning with a typographical error in the first edition of the book, published in 1910.
Sources
A copy of the third printing (undated) from Gramercy Books is in the site owner’s personal collection; the scanned cover above is of that copy. Thanks to Rosemary Park for providing me with additional information about these editions.