Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence

Although L.M. Montgomery is my favourite author, I can’t claim to have read all of her stuff – yet. There are still quite a number of short story volumes that I haven’t made my way through, mainly because, as I’ve said before, I don’t normally enjoy short stories. Of course, there are always exceptions.

The langauge Montgomery uses; the way she describes things! Ah! If she wanted me to, she could make me feel sympathetic with a rock. And then the stories she tells, whether they are stories of family, friendship or romance, there’s always such innocence and beauty that completely draws me in.

Across the Miles was put together by Rea Wilmshurst, the stories originally being published in various magazines and newspapers. Most of show more the stories revolve around correspondence between people, and the results of the correspondence.

I have to say that my favourites in this book were Cyrilla’s Inspiration, A Fortunate Mistake, and The Growing Up of Cornelia, such sweet stories. The first one deals with girls in a boarding house keeping busy on a rainy day by sending out letters to the other people in the boarding house. In A Fortunate Mistake, one girl is sick and her sister accidentally invites a very shy girl over to keep the invalid company. The last one is about a girl who doesn’t want to grow up, but can’t quite figure out why she doesn’t like one certain man calling her a child. show less

Like many of the other compilations of this author's work, this was put together after her death, and like any of the other collections, this has a theme to it, in this case, letters (whether it's about writing or receiving one) Some of the stories are better than others, which holds true for any of the collections of LM Montgomery's short stories that were put together a good time after her death. If you've never read this author before, I don't recommend this particular collection, as it's more a read for LM Montgomery completists.

These stories are primarily ones that never saw the light of day after being published in magazines in Montgomery's lifetime. There's a reason for that. I love reading more my L.M. Montgomery, but these are not my favorites. Maybe because they're grouped together by theme? The stories get very repetitive. And some of the stories showed up as scenes in her books. Fans of Montgomery should read these, but don't pick this up expecting to fall in love with it.

L.M. Montgomery is a long time and all time favorite author of mine. She writes the perfect girls story with just the right mix of adventure, drama and happiness. I find her books a comfort to read and have re-read most of her works many times over the years. They are classics for a reason and that reason is they are great. These are true comfort books for me and books I enjoy re-reading again and again.

Across the Miles was the first compilation of Montgomery's short stories that I read following my discovery of her works. It sold me on both the short story style and her ability to write them. The stories are sweet and touching, as are most of her works, and they also provide a picture into a different lifestyle: one where letters were a large part of life and correspondence and where long-distance relationships were much, much harder to maintain. This remains one of my favorite compilations.