I’m grateful to Canadian bloggers Naomi (Consumed by Ink) and Sarah for hosting the readalong: It’s been a pure pleasure to discover this lesser-known work by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
{SOME SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING}
Like Anne of Green Gables, this is a cosy novel about finding a home and a family. Fairytale-like in its ultimate optimism, it nevertheless does not avoid negative feelings. It also seemed to me ahead of its time in how it depicts parental separation.
Jane Victoria Stuart lives with her beautiful, flibbertigibbet mother and strict grandmother in a “shabby genteel” mansion on the ironically named Gay Street in Toronto. Grandmother calls her Victoria and makes her read the Bible to the family every night, a ritual Jane hates. Jane is an indifferent student, though she loves writing, and her best friend is Jody, an orphan who is in service next door. Her mother is a socialite breezing out each evening, but she doesn’t seem jolly despite all the parties. Jane has always assumed her father is dead, so it is a shock when a girl at school shares the rumour that her father is alive and living on Prince Edward Island. Apparently, divorce was difficult in Canada at that time and would have required a trip to the USA, so for nearly a decade the couple have been estranged.
It’s not just Jane who feels imprisoned on Gay Street: her mother and Jody are both suffering in their own ways, and long to live unencumbered by others’ strictures. For Jane, freedom comes when her father requests custody of her for the summer. Grandmother is of a mind to ignore the summons, but the wider family advise her to heed it. Initially apprehensive, Jane falls in love with PEI and feels like she’s known her father, a jocular writer, all the time. They’re both romantics and go hunting for a house that will feel like theirs right away. Lantern Hill fits the bill, and Jane delights in playing the housekeeper and teaching herself to cook and garden. Returning to Toronto in the autumn is a wrench, but she knows she’ll be back every summer. It’s an idyll precisely because it’s only part time; it’s a retreat.
Jane is an appealing heroine with her can-do attitude. Her everyday adventures are sweet – sheltering in a barn when the car breaks down, getting a reward and her photo in the paper for containing an escaped circus lion – but I was less enamoured with the depiction of the quirky locals. The names alone point to country bumpkin stereotypes: Shingle Snowbeam, Ding-dong, the Jimmy Johns. I did love Little Aunt Em, however, with her “I smack my lips over life” outlook. Meddlesome Aunt Irene could have been less one-dimensional; Jody’s adoption by the Titus sisters is contrived (and closest in plot to Anne); and Jane’s late illness felt unnecessary. While frequent ellipses threatened to drive me mad, Montgomery has sprightly turns of phrase: “A dog of her acquaintance stopped to speak to her, but Jane ignored him.”
Could this have been one of the earliest stories of a child who shuttles back and forth between separated or divorced parents? I wondered if it was considered edgy subject matter for Montgomery. There is, however, an indulging of the stereotypical broken-home-child fantasy of the parents still being in love and reuniting. If this is a fairytale setup, Grandmother is the evil ogre who keeps the princess(es) locked up in a gloomy castle until the noble prince’s rescue. I’m sure both Toronto and PEI are lovely in their own way – alas, I’ve never been to Canada – and by the end Montgomery offers Jane a bright future in both.
Small qualms aside, I loved reading Jane of Lantern Hill and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Anne books. It’s full of the magic of childhood. What struck me most, and will stick with me, is the exploration of how the feeling of being at home (not just having a house to live in) is essential to happiness. (University library) 
#ReadingLanternHill
Buy Jane of Lantern Hill from Bookshop.org [affiliate link]
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Oh, I need to get reading this! I might take it Toronto. I have read before, as a child, but I don’t remember it well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh, definitely take it on location! I have a feeling I own a copy in a box in America (I fly later today, so I’ll check tomorrow), but wanted to be sure I could take part in the readalong so borrowed it from a library. It was so enjoyable 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Somehow, when I was a child. a voracious reader, I was never tempted by these books, and never read any (Same goes for Anne of Green Gables). I really don’t know why – the covers perhaps? Something shallow like that? Despite your positive review, I still can’t get over my childhood antipathy. Should I get over myself?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Anne books have such a nostalgia factor that I don’t know if I can assess them objectively. I haven’t tried rereading them as an adult, but I’d like to. Do you have grandchildren nearly of an age to read them with you?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmm. The next-one-along is 7, a boy, and a voracious reader, mainly of non-fiction. Maybe not …
LikeLike
Gosh, L.M. Montgomery wrote a lot, I hadn’t even heard of this one! Like margaret21, above, Anne of Green Gables never did it for me, but I had friends who were obsessed. So hard to know why books appeal to some kids and not others.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did you ever try the Emily books? They are much darker, about a young woman who wants to be a writer but struggles with illness and family stuff. A totally different tone to the Anne books. As a child I didn’t like them, but maybe I’d find them more mature these days.
LikeLike
I read this with my Offspring and did enjoy it very much – but that was a long time ago. I wish I could find our copy because I would have loved to revisit it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had to resort to the library on this occasion … though I’m sure I have a copy somewhere!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much for joining us to read the novel! I share your reservations about the way the Islanders are described, and about Jody’s adoption and the happy ending in which the parents are reunited. Great point about how this may have been one of the earliest stories about a child who’s forced to adapt to living part-time with parents who’ve separated. I think you’re right—it does seem to be ahead of its time. And you’ve described the theme of feeling at home, rather than just finding a house, beautifully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This sounds lovely! I love Anne of GG, though didn’t like the first sequel at all – but will try the next one. And this one, at some point!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Would definitely recommend! Her books are such cosy reading.
LikeLike
[…] to add a link to Rebecca Foster’s blog post “Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery (1937) #ReadingLanternHill”: she writes that “It’s full of the magic of childhood. What struck me most, and will stick with […]
LikeLike
[…] to add a link to Rebecca Foster’s blog post “Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery (1937) #ReadingLanternHill”: she writes that “It’s full of the magic of childhood. What struck me most, and will stick with […]
LikeLike
I’ve always preferred the other, non-Anne LM Montgomery books (heresy, I know!), and Jane of Lantern Hill is one of my very favorites. You’re right that it has a lot of cliched elements, but I always love a book about someone slowly coming out of their shell — my other fave LMM book is The Blue Castle, which I guess is about someone VERY QUICKLY coming out of her shell, but same vibe. 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for commenting! The Blue Castle sounds like one for me, then.
LikeLike
I read and re-read every book by Montgomery I could get my hands on as a kid. Her books are still such comfort reads for me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to seek out a few of the non-series reads secondhand, and then I fancy rereading at least Anne of Green Gables.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She has a lot of stand-aliens that are lesser known! Montgomery does get repetitive but if you liked this one and you approach her work as simple and comforting, knowing it always ends happily, I think you’ll enjoy it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was one of those kids who loved the Anne books, it surprised me when I was older how much LMM had written! Something to explore further now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree, we don’t hear so much about her other works. It was great to have an excuse to try a new one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of this being one of the earliest books about separated parents. That strikes me so funny that it wouldn’t have crossed my mind! I wonder if it’s because when I first read it I was too young to notice that part of it. I’m so glad you brought it up!
I agree with you about some of the local characters. LMM does, however, rely heavily on lost letters, last-minute illnesses, and coincidences in many of her stories. Most of the time I find them fun, but sometimes they feel too contrived.
I love the last line of your review. So true!
Thanks for joining in, Rebecca! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a tiny quibble; I love plenty of Victorian novels that are full of coincidences and melodramatic incident!
I’ve been inspired to seek out more of her non-series books when I go secondhand book shopping in the States next week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so excited to see which ones you find! There are also many short story collections.
LikeLike
[…] From Rebecca Foster: “Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery (1937) #ReadingLanternHill” […]
LikeLike
I echo Jenny’s comment about The Blue Castle, it’s good fun. I think I might prefer Jane, though. I rank it right up there with the best of the Anne books. I didn’t read Anne as a child, but during a readalong of the whole series a few years ago with some other bloggers. I tried Emily but didn’t get on with that series so much – a little too dark for me.
LikeLike