Lucy Maud Montgomery re-read post 1

Dear Friend,
I have decided to re-read all of L. M. Montgomery's novels in the order they were published. I have previously read each of her novels, and a few short story collections, and am a big fan of her writing. I was aware that the "Anne" books were published in a different order than most box sets you'll find today put them in, and became curious to know what it was like to read the books the way the earliest fans of Maud would have read them. In the end, I decided not only to read all of the "Anne" books in order, but to read all of the books that way. So, after a quick search on the internet I had my reading plan.
I have now read first three books Maud published, and wanted to write out my thoughts so far.

Anne of Green Gables was first published in 1908. It was the first L.M.Montgomery book I ever read, like many others. Anne Shirley, the adolescent orphan adopted by brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, is a well known character with many fans. Most people are already familiar with the story and the character, so I don't have much to say about this particular book. I still find it charming and enjoyable to read. Anne Shirley feels like a friend in the way that most protagonists of novels I read in my youth do. This book has held up in countless reads through my life, and it still does.

Anne of Avonlea was published the year after AoGG, 1909. It continues the story of the first book, with Anne now working as the teacher at the Avonlea school. The returning characters are just ass charming as they were in the previous book and the progression of their characters feels natural. The book's main problem is a pair of new characters. Perhaps Maud thought that since her first story of a surprise adoption had been successful then the surprise adoption of a pair of twins would be twice as successful! Davey and  Dora Keith come to live at Green Gables with Anne and Marilla after a relative of Marilla's dies and leaves the twins alone in the world. I don't feel that I am exaggerating if I say that Davey Keith is a sociopath. On the other hand, Dora Keith is so lacking in personality, traits, or impact on the story that she could have been replaced by a plank of wood and achieved the same results. The goal with the character of Davey, I think, was to show an immature boy who was naturally selfish and hadn't yet learned to consider either the feelings of others or the consequences of his actions. He's meant to to seem thoughtless but innocent. However, he winds up seeming like someone who would kill something (or even someone) just because he wants to see what it would be like, and then not understand why such an action would upset another person. The main problem with this characterization is that Anne and Marilla repeatedly make it clear that they prefer Davey to Dora. There are multiple conversations between the two admitting that though they feel guilty about it they prefer the terror twin over the one who is obedient, clean and completely uninteresting. Yeah, Dora is boring, like I said, she may as well be a plank of wood, but at least you don't have to worry about her causing permanent damage like you do with Davey.
Two other new characters is this book are Paul Irving, a student in the school, and Lavender Lewis, a quirky and beautiful old maid that Anne and her best friend Diana happen to find living out of the way near Avonlea. Both of these characters are fun to read about and charming. Paul is very similar to Anne, being dreamy and imaginative, while being raised by an older lady instead of a parent. Lavender's story intersects with Paul's in a very sweet way.
Despite the twins, AoA is an enjoyable read, and a great continuation of beloved characters.

Kilmeny of the Orchard, published in 1910, is not like the two previous books. I haven't confirmed this, but I read that this book was written before the two Anne books, and was published after their success. I can believe that, since the book seems immature in comparison. There was a chapter in AoGG in which Anne and her friends start a story writing club. The stories the girls write are melodramatic pieces of purple prose which no one but their young authors would take seriously. KotO could easily have been written by on e of the girls in the club. The story is about a handsome and rich young man helping a sick friend of his by becoming a substitute teacher in a small town. He finds a beautiful girl in a hidden orchard and discovers that she is mute and has been hidden away from society due to the shame of her mother who died long ago. They fall in love, because they are the two most beautiful people in the book, pretty  much, but they can't be together because...various stupid reasons. There is also an Italian character who likes Kilmeny, but he's evil. Why is he evil? The only reason I could decipher was that he was Italian, therefore foreign, and of course evil, so there's that.
This book has the purplest of prose, and I resorted to skipping entire paragraphs just to get to some action or dialogue. Maud always had a tendency toward over-description, but it is uncontrolled in this book. All of the conflict was magically resold and Kilmeny was automaticallyt accepted by everyone who met her because she was simply that beautiful. The book was only 134 pages long and it took me over a month to read simply because I didn't care about it.

The next book on the list will be The Story Girl, which I remember as one of my favorites, so my suffering through KotO was almost worth it.