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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
#CBR10Bingo: This Old Thing (published in 1910)
Spoiler warning!There will be a number of spoilers for the plot of this book, because the only way I will be able to fully vent my spleen on this atrocious piece of writing is by going into minute detail about the MANY things I found dumb, objectionable or downright offensive in this book. You might as well allow yourself to be spoiled, this book is bad and you don't actually want to waste time reading it.
Eric Marshall has just graduated college and knows that his future is secure. He is going to work for his wealthy father, but before he starts in the family business, he agrees to help out an old school friend for a while. Substituting as a teacher on Prince Edward Island for a season, Eric settles in nicely, popular among the locals.
One day, wandering in an overgrown and abandoned orchard, Eric comes across a beautiful young woman playing the violin. Kilmeny Gordon is mute and has lived an extremely sheltered life on the farm belonging to her aunt and uncle. There was a scandal surrounding her birth and until Kilmeny's mother died a few years ago, the girl was barely allowed outside the house. At first, she's scared of Eric, but they begin to get to know one another, and it doesn't take too long for Eric to realise he wants to make Kilmeny his wife.
When one of the squares for CBR10Bingo required me to read a book published before 1918, I pondered for a while. Then, inspired by my love for [a:L.M. Montgomery|5350|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1188896723p2/5350.jpg]'s [b:Anne of Green Gables|8127|Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390789015s/8127.jpg|3464264] books, her Emily books, and [b:The Blue Castle|95693|The Blue Castle|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442108651s/95693.jpg|1298683], I decided to see if she'd written any other books I could try. This one fit the bill, being published in 1910. When I recently mentioned to my BFF Lydia that I'd read a more obscure Montgomery novel, she exclaimed: "It wasn't Kilmeny of the Orchard, was it? That book is awful!" How I wish I'd spoken to her BEFORE I read this book.
Let's start by listing the positives. It wasn't very long, so I was able to finish it rather quickly, even though I deeply regretted my choice from early on. I'm pretty sure I've found my "Worst book of 2018". I desperately hope that nothing I read for the rest of the year is worse than this book. It will also allow me to really get my vitriol on in my review, which tends to make for amusing reading for others, and an easier time writing for me. That's about it. I can't think of anything else positive. No, wait, there are two pretty decent female supporting characters in the book. Marshall's landlady and Kilmeny's aunt are both good (no, I'm not going back to check their names - I've wasted enough time on this book already).
So why was this such an awful reading experience? To begin with, my expectations of [a:L.M. Montgomery|5350|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1188896723p2/5350.jpg]'s work, based on the books mentioned above, had not prepared me for something quite this dismal. I loved the Anne and Emily books growing up, and was utterly delighted by [b:The Blue Castle|95693|The Blue Castle|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442108651s/95693.jpg|1298683]. There is NOTHING delightful in this book.
Eric Marshall is a rich, privileged dude bro, utterly convinced of his own greatness and superiority. He comes across a young woman (who he keeps referring to as "a child", even though it's established early on that she's 18 and he's 24, certainly not a terrible age difference back in the early 20th Century) who is initially scared of him, and keeps meeting her in secret, unbeknownst to her family, and has to be lectured by his landlady about why this is an inappropriate and dishonourable thing.
Kilmeny Gordon is an orphan. Her mother, the apple of her father's eye, married a man her family disapproved of and then discovered that he was probably a bigamist. She had no idea about this when she married him, but there was a scandal nonetheless. Returning to her family, she gave her father the silent treatment for months after she felt judged by him, refusing to speak even when he made himself more sick on his own death bed to plead with her to forgive him. Kilmeny's family believe that is why she's been mute her entire life. Despite being apparently completely exquisitely beautiful (this seems to be the first thing everyone is struck by upon first seeing her), Kilmeny believes herself to be ugly, because her angry, bitter mother always told her so, and made sure there were no mirrors in the house so the girl could see her reflection. Living an extremely sheltered life, Kilmeny uses a little slate to write on, and otherwise "expresses herself through her violin". Not that she's ever been tutored in playing it, you understand, but she nevertheless plays it wonderfully and makes up beautiful little tunes that spellbind Eric.
Eric, who keeps thinking of Kilmeny as a "darling child" is of course extremely taken with her beauty and grace and general awesomeness, and keeps meeting with her in the abandoned orchard near her aunt and uncle's farm. After a stern talking to by his landlady, he realises that he has to do the right thing and go speak to her relatives, as consorting with a young unmarried lady every evening is deeply inappropriate and creepy. Of course, he kisses her (entirely without her consent) before he ever gets to that point.
Of course, by the time he goes to see Kilmeny's guardians, their cranky foster son ("of Italian descent" and therefore clearly seen as terribly volatile and almost a bit sub-human), who's been spying on Kilmeny and Eric's meetings (because of course he too has a creepy crush on her, that she's entirely unaware of), has tattled and they've locked her in her room and are none too happy to see Eric. Once he exclaims that he wants to marry Kilmeny (despite her terribly inconvenient muteness, he's such a champ!), they are pretty much mollified. However, Kilmeny, for all that she claims to return Eric's feelings, refuses his proposal, as he couldn't possibly be saddled with a mute woman for a wife.
Oh noes, how could this book ever get a "happy" ending, I hear you ask. Well, don't fret. Of course one of Eric's best friends is an amazing doctor who specialises in vocal maladies. He comes to examine Kilmeny (again being utterly transfixed by her beauty), and claims there is nothing actually wrong with her, but that she will need some sort of sharp shock to be induced into speaking. When her cousin/foster brother/creepy stalker gets overcome with jealousy and is about to bludgeon Eric to death with an axe, Kilmeny fears for him enough that she shouts out a warning. The dastardly Italian is overpowered (and flees town in the night shortly after, never to be heart from again), and Kilmeny, who has never spoken a single solitary word before in her life, can miraculously speak. Fluently and with no difficulty, because of course she can.
There is one last hurdle in the way of our young couple's happiness. Eric's father believes him to have fallen for some country temptress only interested in his fortune. He comes to the town to dissuade his son from what he believes to be an inappropriate match - but it's ok! He has only to lay eyes on the comely Kilmeny (seriously, he doesn't even SPEAK to her) before he welcomes her to the family.
Seriously, this book is utter dreck. It's sexist, racist, patronising, it weirdly fetishises Kilmeny's muteness, innocence and ability to play violin. The whole backstory about Kilmeny's parentage and childhood is bonkers and then there's her cousin/foster brother, apparently abandoned on her aunt and uncle's farm by itinerant Italians when he was a baby. So he's been raised by them, alongside her, but creepily believes that he will be able to marry her, and becomes crazy jealous when he realises she loves someone else. His sullen behaviour is written off as due to his unfortunate background and no one seems to concerned that he was about to axe murder someone. This book is extremely bad, yet somehow has an average rating of 3.69 on Goodreads (with nearly 6000 ratings).
I did just remember one more positive thing - I didn't have to pay a penny for the book. It's available free from Project Gutenberg. Even free, it's not worth your time. Stay away from it, if you value your time, even a little bit.
Judging a book by its cover: This book has had a number of covers over the years, this is the one that was attached to the free edition I downloaded. Some things seem accurate - Kilmeny is female and has dark hair. She loves flowers and picks a lot of them. Apart from that, this woman looks WAY too old to be Kilmeny, she's got a strange buxom matronly thing going with what she's wearing - generally I dislike this cover. But it's ok, because I very much dislike the book it's attached to as well.
Spoiler warning!There will be a number of spoilers for the plot of this book, because the only way I will be able to fully vent my spleen on this atrocious piece of writing is by going into minute detail about the MANY things I found dumb, objectionable or downright offensive in this book. You might as well allow yourself to be spoiled, this book is bad and you don't actually want to waste time reading it.
Eric Marshall has just graduated college and knows that his future is secure. He is going to work for his wealthy father, but before he starts in the family business, he agrees to help out an old school friend for a while. Substituting as a teacher on Prince Edward Island for a season, Eric settles in nicely, popular among the locals.
One day, wandering in an overgrown and abandoned orchard, Eric comes across a beautiful young woman playing the violin. Kilmeny Gordon is mute and has lived an extremely sheltered life on the farm belonging to her aunt and uncle. There was a scandal surrounding her birth and until Kilmeny's mother died a few years ago, the girl was barely allowed outside the house. At first, she's scared of Eric, but they begin to get to know one another, and it doesn't take too long for Eric to realise he wants to make Kilmeny his wife.
When one of the squares for CBR10Bingo required me to read a book published before 1918, I pondered for a while. Then, inspired by my love for [a:L.M. Montgomery|5350|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1188896723p2/5350.jpg]'s [b:Anne of Green Gables|8127|Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390789015s/8127.jpg|3464264] books, her Emily books, and [b:The Blue Castle|95693|The Blue Castle|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442108651s/95693.jpg|1298683], I decided to see if she'd written any other books I could try. This one fit the bill, being published in 1910. When I recently mentioned to my BFF Lydia that I'd read a more obscure Montgomery novel, she exclaimed: "It wasn't Kilmeny of the Orchard, was it? That book is awful!" How I wish I'd spoken to her BEFORE I read this book.
Let's start by listing the positives. It wasn't very long, so I was able to finish it rather quickly, even though I deeply regretted my choice from early on. I'm pretty sure I've found my "Worst book of 2018". I desperately hope that nothing I read for the rest of the year is worse than this book. It will also allow me to really get my vitriol on in my review, which tends to make for amusing reading for others, and an easier time writing for me. That's about it. I can't think of anything else positive. No, wait, there are two pretty decent female supporting characters in the book. Marshall's landlady and Kilmeny's aunt are both good (no, I'm not going back to check their names - I've wasted enough time on this book already).
So why was this such an awful reading experience? To begin with, my expectations of [a:L.M. Montgomery|5350|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1188896723p2/5350.jpg]'s work, based on the books mentioned above, had not prepared me for something quite this dismal. I loved the Anne and Emily books growing up, and was utterly delighted by [b:The Blue Castle|95693|The Blue Castle|L.M. Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442108651s/95693.jpg|1298683]. There is NOTHING delightful in this book.
Eric Marshall is a rich, privileged dude bro, utterly convinced of his own greatness and superiority. He comes across a young woman (who he keeps referring to as "a child", even though it's established early on that she's 18 and he's 24, certainly not a terrible age difference back in the early 20th Century) who is initially scared of him, and keeps meeting her in secret, unbeknownst to her family, and has to be lectured by his landlady about why this is an inappropriate and dishonourable thing.
Kilmeny Gordon is an orphan. Her mother, the apple of her father's eye, married a man her family disapproved of and then discovered that he was probably a bigamist. She had no idea about this when she married him, but there was a scandal nonetheless. Returning to her family, she gave her father the silent treatment for months after she felt judged by him, refusing to speak even when he made himself more sick on his own death bed to plead with her to forgive him. Kilmeny's family believe that is why she's been mute her entire life. Despite being apparently completely exquisitely beautiful (this seems to be the first thing everyone is struck by upon first seeing her), Kilmeny believes herself to be ugly, because her angry, bitter mother always told her so, and made sure there were no mirrors in the house so the girl could see her reflection. Living an extremely sheltered life, Kilmeny uses a little slate to write on, and otherwise "expresses herself through her violin". Not that she's ever been tutored in playing it, you understand, but she nevertheless plays it wonderfully and makes up beautiful little tunes that spellbind Eric.
Eric, who keeps thinking of Kilmeny as a "darling child" is of course extremely taken with her beauty and grace and general awesomeness, and keeps meeting with her in the abandoned orchard near her aunt and uncle's farm. After a stern talking to by his landlady, he realises that he has to do the right thing and go speak to her relatives, as consorting with a young unmarried lady every evening is deeply inappropriate and creepy. Of course, he kisses her (entirely without her consent) before he ever gets to that point.
Of course, by the time he goes to see Kilmeny's guardians, their cranky foster son ("of Italian descent" and therefore clearly seen as terribly volatile and almost a bit sub-human), who's been spying on Kilmeny and Eric's meetings (because of course he too has a creepy crush on her, that she's entirely unaware of), has tattled and they've locked her in her room and are none too happy to see Eric. Once he exclaims that he wants to marry Kilmeny (despite her terribly inconvenient muteness, he's such a champ!), they are pretty much mollified. However, Kilmeny, for all that she claims to return Eric's feelings, refuses his proposal, as he couldn't possibly be saddled with a mute woman for a wife.
Oh noes, how could this book ever get a "happy" ending, I hear you ask. Well, don't fret. Of course one of Eric's best friends is an amazing doctor who specialises in vocal maladies. He comes to examine Kilmeny (again being utterly transfixed by her beauty), and claims there is nothing actually wrong with her, but that she will need some sort of sharp shock to be induced into speaking. When her cousin/foster brother/creepy stalker gets overcome with jealousy and is about to bludgeon Eric to death with an axe, Kilmeny fears for him enough that she shouts out a warning. The dastardly Italian is overpowered (and flees town in the night shortly after, never to be heart from again), and Kilmeny, who has never spoken a single solitary word before in her life, can miraculously speak. Fluently and with no difficulty, because of course she can.
There is one last hurdle in the way of our young couple's happiness. Eric's father believes him to have fallen for some country temptress only interested in his fortune. He comes to the town to dissuade his son from what he believes to be an inappropriate match - but it's ok! He has only to lay eyes on the comely Kilmeny (seriously, he doesn't even SPEAK to her) before he welcomes her to the family.
Seriously, this book is utter dreck. It's sexist, racist, patronising, it weirdly fetishises Kilmeny's muteness, innocence and ability to play violin. The whole backstory about Kilmeny's parentage and childhood is bonkers and then there's her cousin/foster brother, apparently abandoned on her aunt and uncle's farm by itinerant Italians when he was a baby. So he's been raised by them, alongside her, but creepily believes that he will be able to marry her, and becomes crazy jealous when he realises she loves someone else. His sullen behaviour is written off as due to his unfortunate background and no one seems to concerned that he was about to axe murder someone. This book is extremely bad, yet somehow has an average rating of 3.69 on Goodreads (with nearly 6000 ratings).
I did just remember one more positive thing - I didn't have to pay a penny for the book. It's available free from Project Gutenberg. Even free, it's not worth your time. Stay away from it, if you value your time, even a little bit.
Judging a book by its cover: This book has had a number of covers over the years, this is the one that was attached to the free edition I downloaded. Some things seem accurate - Kilmeny is female and has dark hair. She loves flowers and picks a lot of them. Apart from that, this woman looks WAY too old to be Kilmeny, she's got a strange buxom matronly thing going with what she's wearing - generally I dislike this cover. But it's ok, because I very much dislike the book it's attached to as well.
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A sweet, classic romance. Some of the tropes ("gorgeous girl who doesn't know she's beautiful," etc etc) will make you roll your eyes, but it's a well-written story. Like all L.M. Montgomery books, it will make you fall in love with nature and see the romance and fantasy in the world around you.
This is a very quick read-- it's like a long short story; things move quickly, there isn't a lot that happens with the other characters and as such, it felt a little drab compared to what I'm used to from Lucy Maud Montgomery. The story is very of its time-- it was published in 1910, and there are quite a few parts of the story that, in my opinion, haven't aged so well, almost 110 years on. There is a lot of talk about the eponymous Kilmeny being pure and virginal; there are many passages describing her beauty and how perfect she is in looks (though not much about her personality; she cannot speak, and has been sequestered in her home and orchard her whole life). There are a few uncomfortable comments on this disability of hers (her inability to speak), but that has everything to do with how our language and perception of these words and indeed, our entire ideas on disabilities in general, and less to do with Lucy Maud Montgomery being unfeeling or callous.
Interestingly, this is Lucy Maud Montgomery's only book with a male protagonist.
Overall, I'd recommend this short book for fans of L.M. Montgomery's work, but I wouldn't count it among her best work, nor would I say it's a must-read.
Interestingly, this is Lucy Maud Montgomery's only book with a male protagonist.
Overall, I'd recommend this short book for fans of L.M. Montgomery's work, but I wouldn't count it among her best work, nor would I say it's a must-read.
I never thought I would rate one of Montgomery's books in this manner but I have to be honest with myself: it was awful. The characters are one dimensional and unlikable, the plot is contrived and the dialogue is simply terrible. The blatant racism is also surprising as that is not an issue with her later books. I gave it two stars instead of one only for the rare glimpses of brilliant writing that gave such color to Anne and Emily. I'm sorry to say that this is a book to skip unless you just really have to read everything an author publishes.
One of my goals for this year is to slowly make my way through the book written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and because I thought that full Spring would be a perfect time to do so, I decided to pick up Kilmeny of the Orchard. Sadly, I think it might be one of my least favourite of her books.
It's a very short and sweet story and it does have a slightly fairytale quality to it, but it struck me as very very shallow - too shallow even for the time it was written in, or considering L. M. Montgomery's other works. After finishing it, I found out that the author originally meant this book to be a short story and then had to quickly rewrite it into a full novel, so perhaps that's why it's not up to par with her other books.
Trying to find the positives, the writing style is as beautiful as ever - especially the descriptions of the orchard. Lucy Maud Montgomery paints vivid and stunning pictures with her words, that make me want to move to Prince Edward Island this instant. It's the third book she's published and I'm still amazed at her gift of writing such beautiful descriptions and lovely stories. I can't wait to read more of her works now.
It's a very short and sweet story and it does have a slightly fairytale quality to it, but it struck me as very very shallow - too shallow even for the time it was written in, or considering L. M. Montgomery's other works. After finishing it, I found out that the author originally meant this book to be a short story and then had to quickly rewrite it into a full novel, so perhaps that's why it's not up to par with her other books.
Trying to find the positives, the writing style is as beautiful as ever - especially the descriptions of the orchard. Lucy Maud Montgomery paints vivid and stunning pictures with her words, that make me want to move to Prince Edward Island this instant. It's the third book she's published and I'm still amazed at her gift of writing such beautiful descriptions and lovely stories. I can't wait to read more of her works now.
Mixed Feelings...
I've loved nearly everything I've read from Montgomery over the years and this is one of the exceptions. For these reasons:
1) The narrator, Eric, was often arrogant and patronizing of others, especially towards Kilmeny who he initially thinks of as a child.
2) Kilmeny is essentially flawless. It goes with tropes and doesn't bother me too much but Eric puts her on a pedestal and everything she does is romanticized.
3) And this is the biggest one: the xenophobic treatment of Neil. Neil being an antagonist was fine but every character in the story thinks of him as being lesser because of his ethnicity and his actions are colored in a xenophobic light.
I've loved nearly everything I've read from Montgomery over the years and this is one of the exceptions. For these reasons:
1) The narrator, Eric, was often arrogant and patronizing of others, especially towards Kilmeny who he initially thinks of as a child.
2) Kilmeny is essentially flawless. It goes with tropes and doesn't bother me too much but Eric puts her on a pedestal and everything she does is romanticized.
3) And this is the biggest one: the xenophobic treatment of Neil. Neil being an antagonist was fine but every character in the story thinks of him as being lesser because of his ethnicity and his actions are colored in a xenophobic light.
L.M. Montgomery is a long time and all time favorite author of mine. She writes the perfect girls story with just the right mix of adventure, drama and happiness. I find her books a comfort to read and have re-read most of her works many times over the years. They are classics for a reason and that reason is they are great. These are true comfort books for me and books I enjoy re-reading again and again.
Impossibly innocent and sincere. A gentle sort of romance that would never get published today. Loses a star for unfortunate racism.
I am as yet undecided how I feel about this book. It was a quick, easy read and full of L.M. Montgomery's trademark beautiful imagery, which I loved.
But it has my least favourite protagonist of any of Montgomery's works that I've read (including short stories), Eric Marshall. He was a bit too confident in himself and I missed the lovely, interesting and strong heroines of her other works. Even the Story Girl, although is was narrated by a young man, had several main female characters. This book had only one main female character and two minor ones.
Then there's the ending. I really liked that Kilmeny was dumb. It made for a really interesting and different heroine. And for it to be resolved as simply and quickly as it was at the end kind of annoyed me! I wish it wasn't such an easy fix.
I'm glad it's a standalone novel, because I don't know that I'd want to read any sequels!
But it has my least favourite protagonist of any of Montgomery's works that I've read (including short stories), Eric Marshall. He was a bit too confident in himself and I missed the lovely, interesting and strong heroines of her other works. Even the Story Girl, although is was narrated by a young man, had several main female characters. This book had only one main female character and two minor ones.
Then there's the ending. I really liked that Kilmeny was dumb. It made for a really interesting and different heroine. And for it to be resolved as simply and quickly as it was at the end kind of annoyed me! I wish it wasn't such an easy fix.
I'm glad it's a standalone novel, because I don't know that I'd want to read any sequels!
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No