kindredSpiritsBuddyRead

The Lady of Shalott | Alfred Lord Tennyson, Keith Seddon, Jocelyn Almond

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent - The Lady of Shalott and Lancelot & Elaine discussion

Could either of these poems be seen as an allegory?

What themes do you see that would have been relevant for women in the mid-1800s?

How might either text contain parallels for women today?

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

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BarbaraJean

Lancelot And Elaine | Alfred Lord Tennyson

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent - The Lady of Shalott and Lancelot & Elaine discussion

Death over unrequited love is a common theme in literature: do you find this theme romantic? (Anne and her friends certainly did!)

What do you notice that might have attracted Anne (and LMM) to these poems?

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

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BarbaraJean

Lancelot And Elaine | Alfred Lord Tennyson

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent - Discussion: The Lady of Shalott and Lancelot & Elaine

In Anne of Green Gables, Anne and her friends re-enact the scene where Elaine‘s body is placed in the barge to float down to Camelot. I loved finding the sections of Lancelot & Elaine that they reference as they set the scene. What are some of your favorite or memorable lines from either poem?

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

JenlovesJT47 Will be reading these later today! 19h

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 👍I‘m a little early posting questions since tomorrow‘s going to be really busy for me! 19h

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BarbaraJean

The Story Girl | L. M. Montgomery

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread Belated discussion questions for Story Girl! I found this in my photos—somehow I missed posting it last week!

Do you agree with LMM‘s own assessment of The Story Girl, that from a literary standpoint it is “far ahead” of Anne? Why/why not?

If you‘re reading the journals, how have the additional details LMM included there impacted your reading? (Story Girl is mentioned in Vol. 2 p. 316 & pp. 404-408)

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks I don\'t agree, but I can\'t tell if it\'s because I just simply like Anne so much better than SG. To me, the character development and story progression in Anne is stronger. SG does have a sense of place and nostalgia, but it feels like you are sitting on the porch with an elderly Bev listening to him reminisce vs more of an \“in the story\“ feeling with Anne. So maybe some of it is what kind of storytelling you prefer? 15h

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BarbaraJean

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery: 1910-1921 | Lucy Maud Montgomery

This evening was fine & crisp and I drove into Uxbridge to meet Ewan who has been away all week attending a conference in Toronto. We have a dear little mare "Queen," who is not afraid of motors or anything of that kind & I can drive her without fear. We had a pleasant drive home through the moonlight and a delightful home-coming, with Frede & Sonny Punch [Chester], a bright fire and a good supper awaiting us.
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead
#LMMJournals

lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks

BarbaraJean I came across this today on FB and was delighted! This quote is from Vol. 2 of the Selected Journals—so it‘s farther along in Maud‘s life than we‘ve gotten yet, but I thought I‘d share 😊 20h

TheAromaofBooks So fun!!! 15h

21 likes2 comments

BarbaraJean

The Lady of Shalott | Alfred Lord Tennyson, Keith Seddon, Jocelyn Almond

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro‘ the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look‘d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack‘d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
the Lady of Shalott.

🖼️: “I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott” by John William Waterhouse

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent ⤵️

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) I‘ve loved this Tennyson poem for so long—I think I became familiar with it from watching the Anne of Green Gables miniseries when I was about 10 years old. Later, I became obsessed with the Pre-Raphaelites, who were also captivated by Tennyson‘s Lady of Shallot. Then in college, I fell in love with this Loreena McKennitt song, the lyrics of which are all taken directly from Tennyson‘s poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxFF03IbIlY 3d

rubyslippersreads I already spy two book titles! 3d

BarbaraJean @rubyslippersreads Ha! Yes! That‘s one of the things I love about reading classics—spotting the sources of so many later references! 3d

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willaful @BarbaraJean Yes! I used to want to write a book just so I could use a quotation title. 😂 3d

Bookwomble I love this poem, and the several paintings Waterhouse did based on it. Thank you for posting this ☺️ 3d

Aimeesue @rubyslippersreads Yes! Miss Marple and Flavia! 💙 3d

TheAromaofBooks There were a couple of lines in this poem that made me say, \“oh! That\'s where that comes from!\“ 😂 3d

BarbaraJean @Bookwomble You‘re welcome! I love this poem, too—and had a hard time choosing which Waterhouse image to post! 2d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Hahaha—I love having that experience! 2d

44 likes9 comments

BarbaraJean

Lancelot And Elaine | Alfred Lord Tennyson

This week‘s #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead moves into some #LMMAdjacent reads, with two of Tennyson‘s poems: The Lady of Shalott and Lancelot & Elaine. I‘ll post discussion questions on Saturday (9/28), and all are welcome—let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

There are many options out there for reading these poems—pictured above are just the ones I have on my shelves! I‘ll post some details and links in the comments.

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

BarbaraJean The Lady of Shalott and Lancelot and Elaine are two versions of the same story, and to further complicate things, Tennyson published two versions of The Lady of Shalott, in 1832 and 1842. Lancelot and Elaine is one section from Tennyson‘s larger work, The Idylls of the King. The Lady of Shalott should be readily available—it was in both the poetry anthologies I had on hand. I‘ll add links below to both poems online. 7d

BarbaraJean 📘 Lancelot & Elaine: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/tennyson-lancelot-and-elaine
📕 The Lady of Shalott (1832): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45359/the-lady-of-shalott-1832
📘 The Lady of Shalott (1842): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45360/the-lady-of-shalott-1842
(The 1842 version is the one that\'s used throughout the Anne of Green Gables miniseries with Megan Follows!) 7d

BarbaraJean Tagging those who were interested in schedule/announcement posts: let me know if you want to be tagged for this discussion. 😊 @CogsOfEncouragement, @kwmg40, @Daisey, @LeahBergen, @Roary47, @Seabreeze_Reader
7d

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JenlovesJT47 You can download Lancelot & Elaine for free here: https://annas-archive.org/md5/28708b290ad18074dc1c8bc06135f789 7d

JenlovesJT47 And The Lady Of Shalott here: https://annas-archive.org/md5/953ef4e3ef76fad468c3ae317803a64f 7d

JenlovesJT47 I‘m excited because I‘ve never read either of these and always wanted to. Thanks for doing this! 7d

Seabreeze_Reader @BarbaraJean Could you please remove me from any upcoming tag lists? Thank you. I don't think I'll have reading time to spare for rereads during October - January. 7d

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 Thanks for sharing those additional links! I‘m looking forward to reading these with the group as well! 7d

BarbaraJean @Seabreeze_Reader Will do! I understand that scarcity of reading time! 7d

TheAromaofBooks Yay!! I found books at the library with these poems in them, so I\'m very interested to read them, despite not being much of a poetry person 😂 7d

julieclair Looking forward to reading these! 6d

44 likes11 comments

BarbaraJean

The Story Girl | L. M. Montgomery

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread - Story Girl discussion (3/3)

What were your favorite happenings and stories in the second half of the book? Which stories stand out to you the most from across the book?

Is there anything else you‘d like to talk about from The Story Girl?

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, Seabreeze_Reader

TheAromaofBooks Peter almost dying is a very realistic chapter to me. When I was growing up, a kid I knew from 4-H died from cancer. I didn\'t know him or his family very well, but I remember really for the first time thinking about how death could actually happen to people I know, and not just old people. 7d

TheAromaofBooks I have to say that I can\'t stand Uncle Roger, and his bullying, teasing ways really got to me in this read through. Times when the children were genuinely scared or confused about something, he just tormented them instead of helping them. He\'s so cruel. The other adults felt like they were just not cognizant of various concerns the children had, but Roger would go out of his way to make things worse for them. What a jerk. 7d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Uncle Roger was infuriating. He\'s an adult who either doesn\'t remember what it was like to be a kid, or doesn\'t care to treat them with respect. His interactions with them are about his own amusement at their expense. I hated those kinds of adults, and I think LMM did, too—like her story about the man who called her Johnny (which shows up here, but not from Uncle Roger!). It surprises me he\'s not painted less sympathetically! 5d

25 likes3 comments

BarbaraJean

The Story Girl | L. M. Montgomery

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread - Story Girl discussion (2/3)

What did you think of the writing itself: the decision to use a first-person narrator reflecting back on childhood, including letters to show each character‘s voice, including family stories along with folk tales & legends?

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, Seabreeze_Reader

lauraisntwilder I can understand why Maud loved this book. It feels so personal, almost intimate. It feels like she packed in all her memories from Park Corner of being with her cousins. Knowing her frame of mind at the time she wrote it, the nostalgic tone makes sense. 1w

lauraisntwilder (Cont'd) I mentioned before that I grew up watching the Road to Avonlea TV show. It was a big surprise to me that the narrator was a character they cut for the show. There were lots of changes, of course, but that seems like an especially big one! I liked the narration. I thought it worked well. 1w

TheAromaofBooks I\'ve never been a huge fan of Bev\'s \“ah those were the days\“ attitude, which feels a little cloying at times, but it does make sense and give the book some framework. Although it felt suspicious that he copied everyone\'s letters to Peter except his own 😂 @lauraisntwilder 7d

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BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder It does feel personal! I kept thinking about her journal, where she talks about the games & adventures she got up to with the Nelson boys, as well as her cousins. Writing it probably felt like spending time in those idyllic childhood days for her. I feel like Bev is kind of a stand-in for LMM, in a way—it makes sense she\'d use a narrator who\'s looking back on childhood days, because that\'s what she\'s doing! @TheAromaofBooks 5d

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder I\'d read Story Girl & Chronicles of Avonlea before seeing Road to Avonlea, so my surprise was how Anne-adjacent it was, with Marilla & Mrs. Lynde as characters! Leaving out Bev & reframing the story with Sara as the outsider gives it such a different flavor—lifts the nostalgia right out. @TheAromaofBooks Yes, the omission of his letter to Peter was a lil sus 😂 Doesn\'t he still have his dream book? But also doesn\'t quote from it! 5d

kwmg40 I liked the narrative choices in this novel. I might not have appreciated the sense of nostalgia if I\'d read this book when I was much younger, but it resonates with me now. 4d

24 likes6 comments

BarbaraJean

The Story Girl | L. M. Montgomery

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread - StoryGirl discussion (1/3)

The Story Girl is a very episodic book, but there are some common themes running throughout the book: faith and religion, family, and the nostalgia of looking back on childhood.

What did you think of the depiction of religion?

What did you think of how LMM described childhood?

What other themes stood out to you?

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, Seabreeze_Reader

Seabreeze_Reader This is just a personal opinion but overall the theme of religion started to feel too dominant and heavy handed. I was relieved there were a couple of chapters that didn\'t focus too much on religion, such as when they were picking apples. 1w

lauraisntwilder I think it's realistic depiction of children growing up in a religious home, at least at that time. They seem to know so much -- all the things they've learned for Sunday School -- but they often don't understand the implications of anything. The Methodist vs. Presbyterian conversations were funny. 1w

TheAromaofBooks I think church was a major social/cultural aspect of life at that time, so it seemed natural that they would talk about it and try to understand as they went along. This never felt like a preachy book in the sense that LMM was trying to \“convert\“ her readers - it felt more like a realistic part of the King children\'s lives. I thought things like Dan\'s skepticism regarding prayer vs Cecily\'s implicit faith helped give their characters depth. 7d

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BarbaraJean @Seabreeze_Reader It really is everywhere, isn\'t it?! I agree with @lauraisntwilder & @The AromaofBooks—church was so central to the life of a family/community like this at that time, so it felt realistic to me. The kid-discussions of prayer and Methodist vs. Presbyterian also felt so realistic, and I found the partial understanding of those topics really funny. And the different perspectives, like Dan\'s skepticism, kept it from feeling preachy—⬇ 5d

BarbaraJean (Cont\'d) instead, it was just a part of life that kids wondered a lot about. What struck me about all the church/God elements is how those might have been viewed at the time. There are a lot of unflattering anecdotes about ministers, and conversations that might have been seen as irreverent at that time—and LMM was engaged to a minister! I kind of love reading it with that in mind, knowing that LMM wasn\'t afraid to poke fun at the institution! 5d

Seabreeze_Reader I was partially viewing it in comparison to Anne of Green Gables which ended up being a more popular book. In Anne religious beliefs were also integral to the story but it just seemed more balanced. Yes, it\'s probably not fair to compare books but one cannot help it sometimes. 🙂 5d

BarbaraJean @Seabreeze_Reader Haha, as I was typing my comment that it was realistic for the time, I actually thought to myself: \“but it\'s not all over the place in Anne like it is in Story Girl...\“ 😂 I love the way Anne talks about faith, too--her comments on wanting to \“just FEEL a prayer\“ out among the trees, and her very on-point critiques about people whose prayers sound like they don\'t actually mean it. With Anne those comments flow more naturally. 5d

kwmg40 As I non-religious person, I did not find the depiction of religion heavy handed. In fact, I thought LMM was good at showing different interpretations of and reactions to religious beliefs, including skepticism of traditional teachings. Also, as others had mentioned, this novel seemed very much a product of its time and I felt I should read it in that context. 4d

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