19th c Canadian Chick Lit

Lucy Maud Montgomery is (long)* 19th Century Canadian juvenile chick lit, and I love her.

One of the best trips of my life was a family vacation that included Prince Edward Island and its delightful Green Gables, and Lover’s Lane, and the house with the dress that Montgomery once wore, as an adult with a waist smaller than I had as a skinny high schooler. The lupines were everywhere and they were in bloom, and the potatoes were fantastic.

Like many other girls, I read Anne of Green Gables, and going to the place is a highlight of literary travel I recommend to anyone who cares for Anne with an e.

I recently read Montgomery’s Christmas Stories. I used the app Serial and read one story of baked goods and snow and boarding houses and, of course, Christmas generosity each day.

The generosity in these stories typifies the genre, and it must be unexpected. People turn out to be better than you think, at least for a day. That is a key ingredient in a nineteenth century heartwarmer, along with, I now realize, a Christmas plum cake.

*Edited to add: one day I’ll have to write about the long 19th century concept. Suffice it to say that Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908.