L M Montgomery

Spirits and Stories L M Montgomery

'Spirits and Stories: A collection of L. M. Montgomery's short stories' explores a world still bound by superstition and the supernatural. Lucy Maud Montgomery, who is perhaps most well-known for her stories about Anne of Green Gables, the Story-Girl and Emily of New Moon was also a prolific writer of short stories. Many of her short stories were published before her novels, being accepted into a range of Canadian literary magazines in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This collection, edited by Rachel Towns, focuses on the short stories Montgomery wrote about mysterious spirits and tale-tellers. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when these short stories were written or set, spiritualism and mediums controlled the imagination of the population. Yet Montgomery's stories do not tend towards horror and terror of such ghostly encounters and instead look to spirits as a sign of the connection between people who deeply cared for one another. Other stories highlight the way that Montgomery's characters are able to discuss their own meaning and understanding of the world through the tales they told about their lives. In all these stories it is the focus on connection that brings people together or separates them.