I recently found out that many of the books that Lucy Maud Montgomery mentions reading in her journals — obscure books from the 1800s — can be found in the Loserville Library.
When I say obscure, I mean they are obscure today. They were best-sellers back in their time.
One of them is Beside the Bonnier Brier Bush, published in 1895. I decided I would try to read that one. When I asked to check it out, however, the librarians said it was not allowed to take back to your residence. You can only read it in the library itself.
So I sat down at a table and did just that, and it was soon obvious why we can’t leave the library with Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush. I think it’s because the book I had in my hands was an actual copy from 1895. I studied the publication page carefully and there was no mention of it being a recent reprint. Just “1895” and the telltale feel of an old, fragile, and threadbare book.
It was maybe the exact same printing from which Lucy Maud Montgomery got her book!
It turns that that Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush is a collection of short stories set in Scotland. I was reading Waverly at the same time, and it had the same feel, except it was even harder at first to figure out what the author was trying to say. You try:
It doesn’t help that the main character is called Dominie, Domsie, and something else I can’t remember, and it took me a while to figure out it was all the same person.
And I guess back in the day, people just knew that “twa” meant “two” and “schule” meant “school” without any problems. This book was the number one best seller in the USA in 1895.
Once I figured out what was going on, though, it was a really wonderful story. I only had time to read the first one, but the whole collection is only 200 pages so hopefully I can go back and read the rest.
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