The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery, Vol. 4: 1929-1935

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald-Murray is an assistant professor of English at
the University of Western Ontario.

In this latest instalment of the journals of L.M. Montgomery, the reader
is introduced to a more mature and complex woman than was evident in the
earlier volumes. Montgomery is now an established and successful author
who takes considerable private satisfaction from her popularity and
renown, yet her increasing concern for her husband’s severe
depressions and her disappointment in her sons’ academic careers begin
to dominate her entries, as does her awareness of encroaching age and
infirmity. Set against the social background of the Depression and a
threatening world war, Montgomery’s journals, which she first began at
the age of 14, continued to provide a much-needed outlet for her
passionate opinions and intense emotions. As she wrote in 1930, “As a
preacher’s wife I cannot swear in public. But in this diary I do.”

As always, Montgomery’s self-narration is lively and entertaining as
she combines parish and local events, news of friends and families, and
reminiscences of her Island childhood. Her literary prominence, however,
was beginning to affect her awareness of the act of journal-keeping. She
always kept her diaries under lock-and-key, she became increasingly
conscious that these notebooks represented a permanent record that would
one day become public. Thus, in this volume Montgomery appears to be
searching for a balance between frank expression and careful
self-censorship. Her diaries still provide remarkable insights into her
life’s many facets—emotional, spiritual, creative, and social.
Montgomery gives no indication of glossing over the significant
distresses and disappointments in her life, although she may have
treated them more circumspectly than before.

As in the three earlier volumes, Rubio and Waterston have done a
careful and thorough job of editing the journals. Their introduction
establishes a context for the volume and provides a clear overview of
the events, individuals, and themes that appear in the entries.

Just as she related the joys and sorrows of Anne Shirley, so too Lucy
Maud Montgomery narrated her own doubts, dreams, and disappointments:
“And all make, for us as readers of the journals, a literary work as
rewarding as any novel.”