Sarah and I have been re-reading some of L.M. Montgomery’s novels. We have re-read The Blue Castle, the Emily books, Jane of Lantern Hill, The Story Girl, and The Golden Road. This May we are going to be reading Kilmeny of the Orchard and we’d love for you to join us!
Kilmeny of the Orchard is one of Montgomery’s early novels. It was published in 1910 and was expanded from a story Montgomery had already published called “Una of the Garden”. According to Mary Henley Rubio in The Gift of Wings, “the style of Kilmeny is different from Maud’s other novels, and in style reflects her rereading of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories shortly before expanding “Una” into a novel.”
I’m a few chapters into the novel now and have found the greatest difference in this novel for me, so far, is the male protagonist. The Story Girl is narrated by a man, but it is written about a group of children, at the heart of which is a girl. Kilmeny of the Orchard‘s main character is a man, the son of a wealthy Nova Scotia merchant, who has come to a small village in Prince Edward Island to finish teaching the school year as a favour to a friend.
Although Nova Scotia is to get a Nor’easter this weekend–a three-day mix of rain and snow with strong winds–I’ll leave you with a more pleasing thought of April weather, from the first chapter of Kilmeny.
The sunshine of a day in early spring, honey pale and honey sweet, was showering over the red brick buildings of Queenslea College and the grounds about them, throwing through the bare, budding maples and elms, delicate, evasive etchings of gold and brown on the paths, and coaxing into life the daffodils that were peeping greenly and perkily up under the windows of the co-eds’ dressing-room.
A young April wind, as fresh and as sweet as if it had been blowing over the fields of memory instead of through dingy streets, was purring in the tree-tops and whipping the loose tendrils of the ivy network which covered the front of the main building. It was a wind that sang of many things, but what it sang to each listener was only what was in that listener’s heart.
I’m looking forward to discovering how much of Kilmeny I remember and how much is new to me all over again. Maybe there are things I’ll notice this time around that I didn’t the last time I read it, about 30 years ago.
You can join in by commenting on our blogs, writing your own thoughts about the book, and/or talking about the book on social media using #ReadingKilmeny. See you in May!
Sarah’s introductory post: Let’s Read Kilmeny of the Orchard in May (#ReadingKilmeny)
Consumed by Ink 
I downloaded this from Project Gutenberg so will aim to join you in reading and reviewing it in May.
Yay! It’s a nice and short. 🙂
I’m gonna try to get a copy of this and join you.
Hooray! And it’s a good one to join in with, because it’s probably her shortest novel. 🙂
This looks like fun! A romance between the woman with the violin and the man coming to teach???
Yes! He is teaching at the local school, though, not the violin. But he stumbles upon her playing the violin in an orchard and frightens her away. I have to try not to think about the fact that she is only the age of my youngest daughter (18). Lol
18!!!!
Lol
I’ve been thinking about rereading Jane, which I couldn’t manage in 2023, so maybe that’s how I’ll take part without taking part. Or maybe another LMM entirely. Sigh… I wish I felt differently, as I do understand the appeal of returning to her earlier novels, when there aren’t any new ones to read, but it’s the exact opposite of my current reading mood.
You don’t have to join at all! Maybe someday you’ll suddenly feel like reading them, and I’ll be all ready for it! 🙂
I’ve got a copy reserved from the library to join in! Somehow this one never caught my eye, even after I read all of Montgomery’s Anne books. I’m looking forward to reading and discussing it in May.
Great! Looking forward to your thoughts on the book! 🙂