Publisher's Synopsis
The Story Girl is a 1911 novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. It narrates the adventures of a group of young cousins and their friends who live in a rural community on Prince Edward Island, Canada.The book is narrated by Beverley, who together with his brother Felix, has come to live with his Aunt Janet and Uncle Alec King on their farm while their father travels for business. They spend their leisure time with their cousins Dan, Felicity and Cecily King, hired boy Peter Craig, neighbor Sara Ray and another cousin, Sara Stanley. The latter is the Story Girl of the title, and she entertains the group with fascinating tales including various events in the King family history. The book is actually two stories; those of Beverley King and his friends, and the tales told by the Story Girl. Montgomery had grown up in a Scottish-Canadian family, where stories, legends, and myths from Scotland were often told, and she drew upon this background in creating the character of Stanley, who excels at the telling of tales. The Canadian scholar Elizabeth Waterson noted at the book begins with "...the Story Girl winning the ultimate accolade in the eyes of the Scottish community, when her facility at telling an old story squeezes a five dollar donation out of an old curmudgeon". Stanley in her first scene stands "gay and graceful" and promises she can tell some "witch stories" that "will freeze the blood in your veins". Unlike Montgomery's better known character Anne Shirley, whose wild, improbable stories are clearly those of a child while her later stories are those of a young adult, the Story Girl is at the age of 14, an accomplished story-teller whose achievements are beyond her age. The character of Peter Craig bears a strong resemblance to Herman Leard, the great love of Montgomery's life, the man she wished she had married, but did not. Sara the story girl wins the love of Peter, and bests her more pretty rival Felicity for his affections not through her looks, but rather because of her sense of humor, her ability to see what others cannot not, and a mystical sense of the beauty of the world. Montgomery wrote about the difference between the two: "Her face was like a rose of youth. But when the Story Girl spoke, we forgot to look at Felicity". The Story girl has a somewhat dreamy quality not only to her stories, but herself as she says "I'd like a dress of moonshine with stars for buttons".
