The Life and Works of L.M. Montgomery

By: Kate Scarth, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Kate Scarth

Canadian author L. M. Montgomery is best known for her best-selling and beloved novel Anne of Green Gables. But Montgomery was a prolific writer and artist whose output extends well beyond this long-lived masterpiece. Montgomery published 20 novels in her lifetime. She wrote hundreds of short stories and poems and 10 volumes of handwritten journals. Through her work, she has introduced readers around the world to the places she loved and to a host of unforgettable characters. Her books—especially the Emily of New Moon series, which focuses on a young writer—have inspired many other aspiring writers, including some of today’s most successful novelists. How did Montgomery make artistic magic through her writing, and how does she continue to touch so many readers across time, place, and culture?

In the six lectures of The Life and Works of L. M. Montgomery, you’ll join Kate Scarth to delve into five key topics that illuminate the life, work, and legacy of the author sometimes called “the Jane Austen of Canada”: family, place, friendship, creativity, and literature. Through these lectures, you’ll explore the impact of Montgomery’s personal experience on her art and get a clearer picture of how life both shapes and is shaped by literature. You’ll examine why Montgomery’s novels mattered in her own time and better understand the lasting and international influence of her life and her work across the generations. And you’ll discover why readers still can’t get enough of Anne, Emily, Valancy, and, of course, Lucy Maud Montgomery herself.

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whispering sweet nothings

I barely got into this book. I love LM Montgomery! She inspired me when I was young and my love for her writing never died. My love for the reader, however, died quickly. It irritated me for sure ended every other sentence in whispering. Not secretive whispering but like she was whispering sweet nothings to a lover. Creeped me out. Please get another reader. I would love to hear this book.

Excellent

As a 39 year-old American male I take great joy in saying I love L.M. Montgomery and the stories she wrote. My thanks to the good professor and the work she put into this lecture series. I learned a lot about Montgomery's life and works.