Charles Synyard (@CharlesSynyard)

“It was so lovely at the shore... They passed by the old, wind-beaten spruces of Tiny Cove and ran down to where the wind and shore were calling each other. Fishing boats went past, wraith-like. Far-off was the thunder of waves on the bar but here the sea crouched and purred. They raced along the shore with the sting of the blowing sand in their faces. They waded in the pools among the rocks. They built ‘sea-palaces‘ with shells and driftwood. Finally they sat them down on a red rock in a little curve below the red ‘capes‘ and looked far out in the soft fading purple of the long-shore twilight to some magic shore beyond the world’s rim.” Time for stopping to admire a few favorite parts of Pat of Silver Bush (1933), by L. M. Montgomery, before I move on to the end. Chapter XX, “Shores of Romance”, is classic Montgomery both in the untiringly vivid descriptions of the natural world, followed by the ironic recognition that that world keeps being beautiful even when it turns threatening. Following the unexpected, inexplicable death of a beloved kitten, “She and Jingle had planned a walk to the shore. This was by way of being a treat to Pat for although you could, from Silver Bush, see the great gulf to the north and the shimmering blue curve of the harbour to the east, it was a mile and a half to the shore itself and the Silver Bush children did not often get down.“ Something I’ve noticed about Montgomery’s characters. You can be forgiven if you forget that Patricia Gardiner too, like Anne Shirley, lives within easy walking distance of the ocean shore. Under another author, or with many people in real life, this would be a determinative fact, and would greatly affect how Anne and Pat see themselves and their environs. But for Anne Barry’s Pond, dubbed the Lake of Shining Waters, looms much larger in her imagination and sense of place, while Pat, when not preoccupied with the looking hills that overwatch Silver Bush at dusk, takes the most notice of the waters of Jordan, a tiny stream that flows through the woods and appears on the cover of this gorgeous French edition, and leads to “a beauty spot”, Hilary “Jingle” Gordon and her favorite, which they name Happiness. When, a few chapters later, the eldest Gardiner son Joe becomes a seaman, it is a major break, and on returning and departing again, Pat doesn’t think of him as belonging to Silver Bush any longer. Montgomery’s settings and characters are thus highly telluric; is this simply a reflection of how agrarian Prince Edward Island is? Belted on each side by the sea, even when it is just over the next hill, the main concern is farming, the main sight the red soil, and not anticipation of play amidst the waves. ”Pat loved that long red road that wandered on until it reached the sea, twisting unexpectedly just because it wanted to, among the spruce ‘barrens,’ where purple sheep laurel bordered the path and meadow-sweet and blue-eyed grass grew along the fences. ‘Kiss-me-quicks,’ Judy called the blue-eyed grasses. Pat liked this name best but you couldn’t call it that to a boy.” True that. At least not until they become more than friends. In passing, note that Pat’s environs also have a barrens, like Avonlea. “They rambled happily on, sucking honey-filled horns of red clover, a mad, happy little dog tearing along before them with his tongue out. Sometimes they talked and sometimes they didn’t. That was what Pat liked about Jingle. You didn’t have to talk to him unless you wanted to.” A giveaway that they are a destined couple? I’ve often heard the sign of real chemistry is when you can be comfortably, contentedly silent with a loved one. You can contrast this with how Pat gets along with a seasonal crush, Harris J. Hynes, for a couple of chapters I won’t post on. Montgomery lets us know from the goofy name on that Harris and Pat won’t stay an item long. Suffice it to say they seem like peeks into a transitional world, between the olden “cottagecore” times Montgomery was loved for writing about, and the modern world. Pat uses “boy-friend” instead of beau, and she and Harris go on movie dates in Silverbridge. Pat and Jingle consider future journeys far from home in the image of the sunset horizon—“Would you like to go away ‘way out there, Pat?” After speaking more practically of higher education and exams, Jingle continues, ”The mists down by the harbour look like ghosts, don’t they? And look at that little, lonely ship away over there… it looks as if it was drifting over the edge of the world. There’s a fog coming in from sea. I guess maybe we’d better be going, Pat.” Only then do they make a rather important discovery. “There was only one objection to their going. While they had sat there the tide had come in. It was almost at their feet now. The rocks at the cape points were already under water. They looked at each other with suddenly whitened faces. “‘We… we can’t get around the capes,’ gasped Pat. “Jingle looked at the rocks above them. Could they climb them? No, not here. They overhung too much. “‘Will we... be drowned, Jingle?‘ whispered Pat, clutching him. “Jingle put his arm around her. He must be brave and cool for Pat’s sake.” Photo is Canoe Cove, in Prince Edward Island, and seems to show just the situation Jingle and Pat find themselves in. Lovely even when it threatens! Montgomery often shows the almost insulting persistence of beauty even in moments of grief, and so too danger bursts the most poetic bubbles. I won’t give the resolution to this worrisome scene away, but it is likewise romantic and intimate in parts, blushingly practical in others. #LMMontgomery #PatOfSilverBush #PrinceEdwardIsland #PEI #telluric #agrarian #land #cottagecore #ocean #sea #cove #tide #nature #beauty #romance #love #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books