Sunday Salon: Reading Anne of Windy Poplars

Anne of Windy Poplars. L.M. Montgomery. 1936. 288 pages. [Source: Bought]

Anne of Windy Poplars is such a lovely little epistolary novel. Readers are privileged to share in some of Anne's letters to her beloved Gilbert. In these letters there are hundreds (if not thousands) of character sketches sharing details about Anne's life and new experiences as she teaches at a high school in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. (Highlights include Rebecca Dew, "Little Elizabeth" (Grayson), Katherine Brooke, Aunt Chatty and Aunt Kate, Jen Pringle, Mrs. Gibson, Lewis Allen, Teddy Armstrong (Little Fellow), Gerald and Geraldine (the twins she babysits...once), Jarvis Morrow, Dovie Westcott, Miss Minerva Tomgallon, etc.) Some people just get a brief sentence or two, but oh what Montgomery can do with just a few sentences or even a few words! Montgomery, at her very best, can bring more life and humanity to a character than a good many contemporary writers do in an entire novel. Other characters have whole episodes about them. For example, readers really get to spend some time with Katherine Brooke! One of my favorite episodes--if episode is the right word--is Anne and Lewis out canvassing for subscriptions to the drama club. They meet a "little fellow" named Teddy Armstrong. That story just gets me every single time! Montgomery can bring me to near tears and yet not feel manipulative. How does she do that?!

Have you read Anne of Windy Poplars? How do you think it fits in with the rest of the series? Do you have a favorite character?

Favorite quotes:

I have a scratchy pen and I can't write love-letters with a scratchy pen...or a sharp pen...or a stub pen. So you'll only get that kind of letter from me when I have exactly the right kind of pen. 

You know I've always been one to whom adventures come unsought. I just seem to attract them, as it were.  

School begins tomorrow. I shall have to teach geometry! Surely that can't be any worse than learning it. 

Isn't it queer that the things we writhe over at night are seldom wicked things? Just humiliating ones.

I don't like reading about martyrs because they always make me feel petty and ashamed...ashamed to admit I hate to get out of bed on frosty mornings and shrink from a visit to the dentist!

Nobody is ever too old to dream. And dreams never grow old.

I said drenched and I mean drenched.

Oh, no, babies are never common," said Anne, bringing a bowl of water for Mrs. Gibson's roses. "Every one is a miracle."

It seems so strange to read over the stories of those old wars...things that can never happen again. I don't suppose any of us will ever have more than an academic interest in 'battles long ago.' It's impossible to think of Canada ever being at war again. I am so thankful that phase of history is over. 

Nobody is ever too old to wear just what she wants to wear. You wouldn't want to wear it if you were too old. 

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Behold, Here's Poison (1936)

Behold, Here's Poison. Georgette Heyer. 1936/2009. Sourcebooks. 330 pages.

I definitely LOVED this mystery by Georgette Heyer. Gregory Matthews has been poisoned. At first, the family assumed his death was of natural causes, but one insistent aunt sees differently. The aunt's instincts proved correct: he was poisoned by nicotine! Inspector Hannasyde and Inspector Hemingway are assigned the case. I have come to appreciate Inspector Hannasyde very much! (I also LOVED seeing Giles Carrington again!)

The entire family is on the list of suspects. And to be honest, the family is that dysfunctional so it would make sense that the suspect list would be a long one.

I enjoyed this one for the characters. (I loved Stella, and Randall definitely grew on me!!!) I found this one oh-so-satisfying.

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The Red Box (1936)

The Red Box. Nero Wolfe. (Nero Wolfe #4) 1936. 266 pages.

I really enjoyed The Red Box by Rex Stout. It is the fourth mystery in the Nero Wolfe series. In this one, Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe are trying to solve a murder. A young woman has been murdered--death by chocolate; the almond candy in a box of luxurious candy was poisoned. No one is admitting knowledge of where the box of candies came from. So was this young woman, Molly Lauck, the intended victim? Wolfe doesn't think so. He's convinced the killer will make another attempt. Can he solve the crime in time to prevent a second death?

I really love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series. I love Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe. The series is very enjoyable. I would definitely recommend! 

Others in the series include: The Doorbell Rang,  The League of Frightened Men, The Rubber Band, Black Orchids. Silent Speaker. Some Buried Caesar. The Golden Spiders. Death of a Doxy. Three at Wolfe's Door. Too Many Cooks. Fer-de-lance. Too Many Women. Champagne for One.

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The Rubber Band (1936)

The Rubber Band. (Nero Wolfe #3) Rex Stout. 190 pages.

I threw down the magazine section of the Sunday Times and yawned. I looked at Nero Wolfe and yawned again. 

 I was slightly disappointed in my most recent Nero Wolfe read, The League of Frightened Men. But I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED The Rubber Band. It reminded me of why I enjoy the Nero Wolfe stories so much. It had plenty of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin! It also featured plenty of interaction with Inspector Cramer.

Nero Wolfe has plenty of potential clients in this one because several people have come to him with their problems. But which client will he accept, and why?!

This murder mystery has multiple victims. I could try to summarize the mystery, but why spoil the fun?!

Favorite quotes:

There's just as many honest men here as the other side of the mountain. And just as few. I'm one. I'm so damn honest I often double-cross myself. Nero Wolfe is almost as bad. (19)

It is not always practicable to sneer at mud; there's too much of it. (31)

The avoidance of idiocy should be the primary and constant concern of every intelligent person. It is mine. I am sometimes successful. (44)

Okay. I'll gargle my milk. It'll probably be my last chance for that innocent amusement before they toss us in the hoosegow. I remember you told me once that there is no moment in any man's life too empty to be dramatized. (76) 

No guy who knows he's right because he's too conceited to be wrong can be expected to go into conference about it. (167)

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The Talisman Ring (1936)

The Talisman Ring. Georgette Heyer. 1936/2009. Sourcebooks. 316 pages.

It can be easy to forget just how much you enjoyed a particular Heyer romance when you've read so many. The Talisman Ring is certainly enjoyable and quite satisfying...even if it doesn't necessarily stay as fresh in one's memory as being a favorite-favorite. I enjoyed the two romances in this one. But above all, I enjoyed the dramatic, suspenseful mystery! It reminded me a bit of the promise of Northanger Abbey, except in this case, there was actually plenty of adventure and danger and mystery!

One of the heroines, Eustacie, is quite fun because she is so over-the-top silly and dramatic. She CRAVES romantic adventures and dangers--the stuff of novels. While she's willing to settle, to a certain degree, for a marriage of convenience, she really, truly wants a soul mate just as imaginative and expressive as she is. She wants to be made much of, she wants to be adored, she wants to be rescued, she wants to feel like life is one thrill after another. Her grandfather wants her to marry one cousin, Tristam Shield, one of the heroes of the novel; but these two just do not suit one another! They would drive each other crazy if the marriage actually took place! But Eustacie is determined to run away--in the middle of the night. And oh the adventure she stumbles into that night, SMUGGLERS. How perfect, how romantic. One of the smugglers turns out to be another cousin, Ludovic, a man who had to flee England several years earlier because he's suspected of murder....

And that's just the start!

A scene between Eustacie and Tristam:

“You would more probably have gone to the guillotine,' replied Sir Tristram, depressingly matter of fact.
'Yes, that is quite true,' agreed Eustacie. 'We used to talk of it, my cousin Henriette and I. We made up our minds we should be entirely brave, not crying, of course, but perhaps a little pale, in a proud way. Henriette wished to go to the guillotine en grande tenue, but that was only because she had a court dress of yellow satin which she thought became her much better than it did really. For me, I think one should wear white to the guillotine if one is quite young, and not carry anything except perhaps a handkerchief. Do you not agree?'
'I don't think it signifies what you wear if you are on your way to the scaffold,' replied Sir Tristram, quite unappreciative of the picture his cousin was dwelling on with such evident admiration.
She looked at him in surprise. 'Don't you? But consider! You would be very sorry for a young girl in a tumbril, dressed all in white, pale, but quite unafraid, and not attending to the canaille at all, but--'
'I should be very sorry for anyone in a tumbril, whatever their age or sex or apparel,' interrupted Sir Tristram.
'You would be more sorry for a young girl--all alone, and perhaps bound,' said Eustacie positively.
'You wouldn't be all alone. There would be a great many other people in the tumbril with you,' said Sir Tristram.
Eustacie eyed him with considerable displeasure. 'In my tumbril there would not have been a great many other people,' she said.” 

I loved this one; I just LOVED it. It's so delightful and fun! I am just loving my 2013 project of reading and rereading all of Georgette Heyer's romances in chronological order!

Read The Talisman Ring

• If you enjoyed Northanger Abbey
• If you enjoy historical romance with a good bit of mystery
• If you like drama, romance, mystery, adventure set in the 1790s
• If you enjoy Georgette Heyer

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