things she read

I’m almost done with my class reading project, so I managed to sneak in the final chapters of Pat of Silver Bush before starting the next book for class.

Pat of Silver Bush is another one of L.M. Montgomery’s books about girls growing up on Prince Edward Island. Like many of Montgomery’s  heroines, Pat is a self-assured girl who takes no-nonsense from boys or hoity-toity misses. Pat is just as poetical and dreamy as LMM’s other girls, but she is also very practical. A bit of an odd duck, Pat hates change and wants to keep Silver Bush just as it is. Of course, everything changes with time and Silver Bush is no exception. Idealistic though she may be, Pat learns to adapt to change, though she regrets it at times.

What makes Pat different from Anne is that while Anne loves Green Gables, she is willing to move on and strike out on her own as a teacher; Pat earns her teaching license but has no wish to teach. For Pat, there is no place better than Silver Bush and she is always finding ways to remain there. While she experiences love, she is very much aware that she has no desire to get married to the boys who want to marry her. There is a frankness in Pat’s awareness of herself as a woman. She’s not the prettiest or the smartest, but there is something about her open sensuality that makes her attractive. One of the funniest parts of the story is Pat’s experiment with nude moon-bathing, a dreamy scene that is broken by a nosy aunt who tries to shame her into acknowledging her naughtiness, but Pat refuses to believe she did anything wrong and only regrets that she was found out.

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I received my copy of Pat by mistake when I ordered a copy of Emily’s Quest, but this was a nice case of bookish happenstance and I am glad that I got a chance to read this story. For me, reading L.M. Montgomery’s novels is like slipping into an idyllic land filled with charming scenes and friendly faces. Though life is not always pleasant for LMM’s characters, they always persevere and find joy in the small things. Of course, I’ll be reading Mistress Pat as soon as I finish my project… looks like my self-assigned reading list is going out the window.