#CBR10Bingo: This Old Thing (published in 1910)
Spoiler warning! There will be a number of spoilers for the plot of this book, because the only way I will be able to fully vent my spleen on this atrocious piece of writing is by going into minute detail about the MANY things I found dumb, objectionable or downright offensive in this book. You might as well allow yourself to be spoiled, this book is bad and you don’t actually want to waste time reading it.
Eric Marshall has just graduated college and knows that his future is secure. He is going to work for his wealthy father, but before he starts in the family business, he agrees to help out an old school friend for a while. Substituting as a teacher on Prince Edward Island for a season, Eric settles in nicely, popular among the locals.
One day, wandering in an overgrown and abandoned orchard, Eric comes across a beautiful young woman playing the violin. Kilmeny Gordon is mute and has lived an extremely sheltered life on the farm belonging to her aunt and uncle. There was a scandal surrounding her birth and until Kilmeny’s mother died a few years ago, the girl was barely allowed outside the house. At first, she’s scared of Eric, but they begin to get to know one another, and it doesn’t take too long for Eric to realise he wants to make Kilmeny his wife.
When one of the squares for CBR10Bingo required me to read a book published before 1918, I pondered for a while. Then, inspired by my love for L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables books, her Emily books, and The Blue Castle, I decided to see if she’d written any other books I could try. This one fit the bill, being published in 1910. When I recently mentioned to my BFF Lydia that I’d read a more obscure Montgomery novel, she exclaimed: “It wasn’t Kilmeny of the Orchard, was it? That book is awful!” How I wish I’d spoken to her BEFORE I read this book.
Full review on my blog.
This review makes me sad. I love LMM and Anne, and have never heard of this book, and I’m disappointed to hear that it was definitely not good.
One of the reasons I chose to persevere with the book and review it was to warn others away from it. Montgomery has written some very enjoyable books, stick with those.
I’ve been struggling to get through a collection of Montgomery’s short stories for a while now. I’ll read one and then be so disappointed that I don’t pick up the collection for a few months. And they’re all for similar reasons. Montgomery was pretty racist, you can see it in how she her French-Canadian characters. She had awful ideas about how talent just springs fresh and pure from the truly gifted. So while this novel may be on the really bad end of her writing scale, it sounds like it’s fairly typical.
So, this was published in 1910. Does that make him one of the *first* dudebros?? ;)
I still need to read The Blue Castle.
You totally need to read The Blue Castle , yes. Not this. Never this.
Strictly speaking, Eric is whatever the 1910 version of a dudebro was.