| Jane of Lantern Hill | |
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1st edition |
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| Author(s) | Lucy Maud Montgomery |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's novel |
| Publisher | McClelland & Stewart |
| Publication date | 1937 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback, Hardcover) |
| Pages | 217 |
| ISBN | 9780770423148 |
| OCLC Number | 35397190 |
Jane of Lantern Hill is a novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. The book was adapted into a 1990 telefilm, Lantern Hill, by Sullivan Films, the producer of the highly popular Anne of Green Gables television miniseries and the television series Road to Avonlea.
Contents |
Montgomery began formulating an idea on May 11, 1936 and began writing on August 21 and wrote the last chapter on February 3, 1937. She finished typing up the manuscript on February 25, as she could not hire a typist to do it for her.[1] This novel was dedicated to "JL", her companion cat.
The novel was written at Montgomery's house, "Journey's End"; the environment influenced Montogomery's writing to create a positive setting for Jane in Toronto compared to Montgomery's earlier novel, The Story Girl, which was also partially set in Toronto. The unusual episode in chapter 37 involving a lion was based on a similar incident Montgomery had been aware of that had occurred in Atlantic Canada several years before, which she detailed in a letter to GB MacMillan on February 23, 1938 she wrote MacMillan that similar things really happened in Atlantic Canada several years before.[2]
On April 17, 1939, she began working on a new Jane book, but the sequel was never completed.[1]
Jane Victoria Stuart, called Victoria by her family, lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her mother, grandmother, and aunt. Her grandmother is very strict and is jealous of anything that her daughter Robin (Jane's mother), loves. Jane does not like having to live with her grandmother and wishes she and her mother could escape. Her only friend is Josephine Turner, Jody for short, an orphan who lives next door in the boarding house and is a servant. Jane also likes to cook, but she is not allowed to by her grandmother.
One day, a letter from her estranged father arrives, asking that Jane stay with him for the summer on Prince Edward Island, her birthplace. Jane is very reluctant about going, but one of her uncles says that it would be best if she went. At the island, Jane meets her Aunt Irene and takes an instant dislike to her.
The next morning, she meets her father for the first time and loves him from the start. The two buy a little house on Lantern Hill and Jane takes on the role of housekeeper. Jane soon becomes friends with all the neighbors, such as the Snowbeam family and the Jimmy Johns, (to distinguish them from a James Garland and a John Garland). She also gains backbone and, upon her return to Toronto, is able to stand up to her grandmother.
The next summer, Jane returns to the island and is reunited with her father and friends. There she has many adventures, including finding a lion that had escaped from a circus and fearlessly locking it up in a barn. When she receives a letter from Jody, saying that she will be sent to an orphanage, Jane talks with the Titus ladies, a pair of sisters who want to adopt a child. Initially they say no, but after having second thoughts, they decide to adopt Jody. Upon her return to Toronto, Jane tells her the good news and Jody soon leaves for the island, promising to see Jane in the summer. In the meantime, Jane finds out precisely why her parents have separated. She discovers that her grandmother was against their marriage and when her mother had returned home for a visit after some arguments, the grandmother had convinced her to stay.
One day, Jane receives a letter from Aunt Irene saying that Jane's father is going to Boston, probably to get a divorce from her mother, and it is likely he will remarry. Jane is shocked by the news and immediately hops on a train back to the island. She has to walk three miles from the station in the cold and wet to the house on Lantern Hill, where her father assures her that he is not going to get a divorce or remarry. He is going to Boston, but only to meet with publishers about a book of his that has been accepted. Jane then catches pneumonia and her father sends a telegram to her mother. Robin, ignoring her mother's command of staying in Toronto, goes to the island to be with Jane. Jane's parents make up and the book ends with Jane mostly recovered and making plans for her reunited family.
1990: Lantern Hill - Directed by Kevin Sullivan. Also translated into French and Japanese. Currently available as DVD.
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