Through Lover's Lane: L.M. Montgomery's Photography and Visual Imagination

Through Lover's Lane: L.M. Montgomery's Photography and Visual Imagination by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2007. In this book, Elizabeth Rollins Epperly examines L.M. Montgomery's photographs and draws connections between Montgomery's interest in photography and the compelling visual imagery in her writing.

Here is the description of the book:

It might surprise some to know that internationally beloved Canadian writer L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942), author of the Anne of Green Gables series, among other novels, and hundreds of short stories and poems, also held a passion for photography. For forty years, Montgomery photographed her favourite places and people, using many of these photographs to illustrate the hand-written journals she left as a record of her life. Artistically inclined, and possessing a strong visual memory, Montgomery created scenes and settings in her fiction that are closely linked to the carefully composed shapes in her photographs.

Elizabeth Rollins Epperly's Through Lover's Lane is the first book to examine Montgomery's photography in any depth; it is also the first study to connect it with her fiction and other writing. Drawing on the work of Montgomery scholars, as well as theorists such as Susan Sontag, Gaston Bachelard, Roland Barthes, John Berger, and George Lakoff, Epperly connects Montgomery's practice of photography with the writer's metaphors for home and belonging. Epperly examines thirty-five of the photographs, uncovering their role in the novelist's life and fiction. She argues that the shapes in Montgomery's favourite place in nature—Lover's Lane in Cavendish, P.E.I.—affected her other photographs, underpinned her colourful descriptions, and grounded her aesthetics. Through Lover's Lane demonstrates how an artist creates metaphors that resonate within a single work, echo across a lifetime of writing and photography, and inspire readers and viewers across cultures and time.

The book includes the following contents:

Acknowledgments
Permissions
Abbreviations

Introduction: Seeing Patterns
1 Montgomery's Visual Imagination
2 Montgomery's Photography
3 Picturing a Life: Selected Photographs
4 Picturing Home: Image as Threshold
5 Anne's Green Arches
6 Emily's 'Memory Pictures'
7 'My Castle in Spain': The Blue Castle and the Architecture of Images
8 Afterimage: Around the 'Bend in the Road"

Appendix: 'Cynthia's' 1902 Article on Photography
Notes
Works Cited
Illustration Credits
Index

ISBN-13: 978-0802094605


Image credit:
Book cover of Through Lover's Lane: L.M. Montgomery's Photography and Visual Imagination.

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Created March 30, 2007. Last updated December 19, 2024.
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Anne of Green Gables (1994)

Anne of Green Gables (1994) is a play adapted by Jody Johnson Davidson from the novel Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. The play was produced by the Serendipity Theatre Company and made its world premiere at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles, California, USA on April 15, 1994.

In the original production, Katy Killackey starred as Anne Shirley. The cast also included Caryn Ronis as Marilla Cuthbert, Kathy Kinney as Rachel Lynde/Mrs. Blewitt/Miss Harris, Joe Powers as Matthew Cuthbert, Jasmine Abdul Wahid as Diana Barry, and Kristipher Maschek as Gilbert Blythe. The play was directed by Joyce Guy.

The full-length play is 60 minutes long. The script is available through Pioneer Drama Service.

The play is described as follows:
"Share the adventures of Anne Shirley and her 'best friend for life,' Diana Barry, as they travel from childhood to maturity in this heartwarming adaptation which beautifully captures the highlights of the classic novel.

Maria Cuthbert asks for an orphan boy to help her and her brother take care of Green Gables, but the orphanage sends Anne with an 'e' — an independent, red-headed, freckle-faced girl who changes their lives and touches the hearts of all who come to know and love her. Delight in Anne’s high-spirited antics as she narrowly escapes Mrs. Blewett’s clutches at the orphanage, whacks Gilbert over the head with her slate, saves little Minnie May from her deathbed and, when she has come of age, finally lets Gilbert into her life. In the touching words of Marilla, Anne is 'the dearest mistake' that’s ever come into her life, and she doesn’t know how she could love her more.

Whether your audience already loves Anne’s story or is first discovering it, this sweet and sincere rendition of the classic novel will open their hearts and minds. Flexible staging makes this skillful adaptation suitable for all levels of performance from schools to professional theatres."


Image Credit:
Photograph of Katy Killackey as Anne Shirley in the world premiere of Anne of Green Gables at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles from Encore Performance Publishing (archived webpage).

Created March 9, 2007. Last updated June 20, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com