Jane Of Lantern Hill: A Timeless Novel Full of Warmth and Beauty

J.E Stanway
Sep 1, 2018
3 min read

The Plot

In 1930’s Toronto, Victoria Jane Stuart lives with her mother and grandmother on 60 Gay in a dreary home that more than contradicts the cheery name their street was given. Jane’s grandmother is a controlling and insulting woman who makes Janes daily life a misery, and though Jane’s mother is the kindest and loveliest of them all, she’s weak and can’t stand up for herself or Jane. She feels suffocated and cannot truly be herself, and wishes there was someone besides mother who she could love. When Jane then learns that her father (who she was taught was dead) is living on Prince Edward Island and sends for her to visit him, She is finally able to find her place in the world. She only wishes her mother and father could reconcile and all three of them could be together at Lantern Hill, a dream she intends to make come true.

First Impressions

I have been meaning to pick up this novel for a long time, and I’m ever so glad I did. I don’t believe I can remember crying so much while reading a book, for both happy and sad reasons. I simply loved being immersed into “Superior Jane’s” world, and meeting all the people in it.

I also cannot remember loathing a character more than Jane’s grandmother, a woman who insists on calling her Victoria ( a name she despises) and who hates everything about Jane that reminds her of her father. I found myself physically forming my hand into a fist whenever she had any dialogue in the book. L.M Montgomery sure knows how to write characters you can hate, and I loved hating that character.

A Complex Character

Now this may be an unpopular opinion, but in all honesty I couldn’t stand Jane’s mother. She had no backbone and spent all her time crying and feeling sorry for herself. Granted, she was being controlled, but it took until the very end of the book for her to ever stand up to her mother.

She is however, a good example of a person who has been mentally abused her whole life, being guilt tripped and made to feel like she can only have love for one person. She is a lesson to individuals who live under similar circumstances, and displaying what your life could become if you continue to submit.

The Highlights and Overall Impression

My favorite parts in this book were when Jane and her father were together on P.E Island. They are full of so much hope and love. These are the times where you truly see Jane for who she is. Janes romance and her connection she feels to the moon and nature around her, make me certain she and Anne would have been good friends had they existed as children in the same time period.

The scene where Jane and her father are house hunting is I believe one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole novel; there is so much familiarity between them in such a short period of time and in the two months that Jane is on the island, she grows far closer to her father then she ever had to her mother. As Jane says in the novel, she finally felt a sense of home.

Most of all that I loved from this book however, were L.M Montgomery’s beautiful descriptive prose of the island. Whenever I read one of her stories or novels I feel the greatest urge to pack my bags and take off on the first plane to Charlottetown. Reading her books and watching the films based off of them have made Prince Edward Island my ultimate dream place to live, and now I’m simply longing to see the place that inspired Lantern Hill.

There must be magic about it, Jane... lashings of magic... and magic houses are scarce, even on the Island. Have you any idea at all what I mean, Jane?"