Have you ever wondered what inspired your favorite classic novelist to write their stories? What was happening in their lives to inspire their famous works? What was happening in the world at the time that they wrote those stories you love?
Join Host Bree Carlile while she helps to answer some of the questions you have always had about your favorite classic novelists.
For the next few weeks we will talk about the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery. What inspired her to write Anne of Green Gables? What else was happening in the world at the time?
Come with us as we release new episodes with the launch of each new author on the Bite at a Time Books Podcast, detailing the life and history at the time of your favorite authors.
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If you would also like to hear a story by the author we are currently featuring, check out the Bite at a Time Books daily podcast where we read one bite (chapter) a day of your favorite classics, wherever you listen to podcasts, right now we are reading Jane Eyre.
Information for today's episode came from Wikipedia, don't judge us, we just want to give you a brief glimpse into the life. Thanks!
Transcripts
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Welcome to bite at a time.
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Books behind the story where we answer the questions you have about your favorite classic authors.
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What inspired your favorite author to write their novels?
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What was going on in the world at the time.
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Follow along with us as we tell you what was happening in the world.
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While your favorite authors wrote your favorite classics.
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My name is bree Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to share my passion with listeners like you today.
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We'll be talking about the marriage and family of lucy maud Montgomery.
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In 1908, Montgomery published her first book, Anne of green Gables, an immediate success.
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It established Montgomery's career and she wrote and published material, including numerous Sequels to an for the rest of Her life and of green Gables was published in June 1908 And by November 1909 had gone through six printings.
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The Canadian press made much of Montgomery's roots in Prince Edward Island, which was portrayed as a charming part of Canada, where the people retained old fashioned values and everything moved at a much slower pace.
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The american press suggested that all of Canada was backward and slow arguing that a book like anne of green Gables was only possible in a rustic country like Canada, where the people were nowhere near as advanced as in the US typical of the american Coverage of Montgomery was a 1911 newspaper article in Boston which asserted recently, a new and exceedingly brilliant star Rose on the literacy horizon in the person of a previously unknown writer of heart interest stories?
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Miss lucy m Montgomery.
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And presently the astronomers located her in the latitude of Prince Edward Island.
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No one would ever imagined that such a remote and unassertive speck on the map would ever produce such a writer whose first three books should one and all Be included in the 6th best sellers.
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But it was on this un emotional island that anne of green Gables was born.
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This story was the work of a modest young schoolteacher who was doubtless as surprised as any of her neighbors when she found her sweetly simple tale of childish joys and sorrows of a diminutive red haired girl had made the literary hit of the season with the american public.
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Miss Montgomery, who is entirely unspoiled by her unexpected stroke of fame and fortune, made her first visit to boston last winter and was lionized to quite an extent, her pleasing personality making a decidedly favorable impression on all who met her.
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It was all very nice and novel, but the young lady confided to her friends that she would be more than glad to get back to her quiet and uneventful country life, and she would far prefer it as a regular thing even to a residence in boston.
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one of the most delightful of her boston experiences was a lunch that was given by a local publishing house that issues her books a thoroughly bostonian idea as well as the most credible one Britain possesses as a cherished literacy shrine, the isle of man.
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But on this side of the ocean we have our isle saint john where in good old summertime, as Anne Shirley founded on the day of her arrival, the gulf, cold air is sweet with the breath of many apple orchards and the meadow slope away in the romantic distance to horizon, mist of pearl and purple.
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In contrast to this publisher's ideal image of her, Montgomery wrote a letter to her friend, I am frankly in literature, to make a living out of it.
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The British scholar fe Hammill noted that in the books and is a tall girl and Montgomery was 37 at the time, which hardly made for a young schoolteacher.
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Hamill also noted that the author of the piece chose to present Montgomery as the idealized female author who was happiest in a domestic or rural environment and disliked fame and celebrity, which was seen at the time as conflicting with femininity.
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In emphasizing Montgomery's modesty and desire to remain anonymous.
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The author was portraying her as the ideal woman writer who wanted to preserve her femininity by not embarking on a professional career with writing only a part time job at best.
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At the same time, Hamill noted that the author was using the anachronistic french name for Prince Edward Island to add to his picture of a romantic mist shrouded fantasy island where the old ways of life continued unspoiled, just as Montgomery was portrayed as an unspoiled woman.
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Shortly after her grandmother's death in 1911, Montgomery married Yuen spelled in her notes and letters as E WAN McDonald 1870-1940 three, a presbyterian minister and they moved to Ontario where he had taken the position of minister of ST paul's Presbyterian Church Leaks Dale in present day Uxbridge Township, also affiliated with the congregation in nearby Zephyr.
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Montgomery wrote her next 11 books from Leaks Dale Mantz that she complained had neither a bathroom nor a toilet.
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The congregation later sold the structure, which is now the leak stale man's national historical site.
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Macdonald was not especially intelligent, nor was he interested in literature, Montgomery wrote in her diary, I would not want him for a lover, but I hope at first that I might find a friend in him after their marriage, she took her honeymoon in England and Scotland.
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The latter a particular point of interest to her as it was for her, the old country, the romantic land of castles, rugged mountains, shining glen's lakes and waterfalls.
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That was her ancestral homeland.
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By contrast, Mcdonald's parents had come to Canada after being evicted in the highland clearances and he had no desire to visit the old country.
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His wife had to drag him to the isle of Skye, The home of the clan Macdonald where the Mcdonald's had once reigned as the lords of the isles.
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The Mcdonald's had been Gaelic speaking highlanders.
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While the Montgomery's and MacNeill's had been english speaking Low Landers, which might explain the different attitudes the couple held towards Scotland, as Montgomery was more proud of her Scottish heritage than her husband.
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Furthermore, Montgomery had read the works of Scottish writers like Robbie Burns and Sir walter scott, whereas her husband did not read literature at all, forcing his wife to explain to him who Burns and scott were.
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In England.
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Montgomery visited places associated with her favorite writers.
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Going to the Lake District, made famous by William Wordsworth to William Shakespeare's house in Stratford upon Avon, and to the hall worth house in the Yorkshire moors where the brontes and charlotte Emily and Brand Well, had lived.
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The McDonald's had three sons, the second was stillborn, Montgomery believed it was her duty as a woman to make her marriage work, though, during a visit to Scotland, she equipped to a reporter, those women whom God wanted to destroy, he would make into the wives of ministers.
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The great increase of Montgomery's writings in leaks dale is the result of her need to escape the hardships of real life In 1909 to 19 10, Montgomery drew upon her Scottish Canadian heritage and her memories of her teenage years To write her 1911 novel.
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The story girl, her youth had been spent among the Scottish Canadian family, where Scottish tales, Miss and legends had often been recounted, and Montgomery used this background to create the character of 14 year old sarah Stanley a skilled storyteller who was an idealized version of her adolescent self.
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The character of Peter Craig in the story girl very much resembles Herman, leered the great love of Montgomery's life, the man she wished she had married but did not write down to having blonde curly hair.
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As with her relationship with leered.
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The other characters object to the lower class craig as not good enough, but Felicity.
