The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass: L.M. Montgomery's Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance

by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly

Book Overview

When it originally appeared, Elizabeth Rollins Epperly's The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass was one of the first challenges to the idea that L.M. Montgomery's books were unworthy of serious study. Examining all of Montgomery's fiction, Epperly argues that Montgomery was much more than a master of the romance genre and that, through her use of literary allusions, repetitions, irony, and comic inversions, she deftly manipulated the normal conventions of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1442626534
• ISBN13: 9781442626539
• Release Date: April 2014
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Responding to the Fragrance of Sweet Grass

"The Fragrance of Sweet Grass: L.M. Montgomery's Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance" by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly exposes many insights about Montgomery's literary works. Most interestingly, Epperly connects home, self-awareness, and romance. Home is where you discover yourself. Not until this discovery can the heroine go beyond herself to recognize her male counterpart. The heroine establishes herself so she can find a hero equally self-aware. Epperly makes the point that although Montgomery subverts convention by having self-aware, independent women not marry until later in life, they do marry and thus conform to convention. Therefore, Epperly suggests that in the 1990s we may not see Montgomery as a feminist. However, I believe she is wrong. Montgomery is a feminist because her heroines are stongly aware of what they can do. Montgomery gives them choices of career, family, or both. Epperly gives an excellent analysis of Montgomery's work, although I do not agree with everything she posits. The book is thoughtful and interesting, providing insights for further investigation.