Product Description

When she was twenty, nearly everyone thought Patricia Gardiner ought to be having beaus--except of course, Pat herself. For Pat, Silver Bush was both home and heaven. All she could ever ask of life was bound in the magic of the lovely old house on Prince Edward Island, "where good things never change." And now there was more than ever to do, what with planning for the Christmas family reunion, entertaining a countess, playing matchmaker, and preparing for the arrival of the new hired man. Yet as those she loved so dearly started to move away, Pat began to question the wisdom of her choice of Silver Bush over romance. Was it possible to be lonely at Silver Bush?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114831 in Books
• Published on: 1997-02-26
• Released on: 1997-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Publisher
In this sequel to Pat of Silver Bush, Pat must choose between the possibility of a lonely life at Silver Bush and leaving her home for romance.

From the Inside Flap
When she was twenty, nearly everyone thought Patricia Gardiner ought to be having beaus--except of course, Pat herself. For Pat, Silver Bush was both home and heaven. All she could ever ask of life was bound in the magic of the lovely old house on Prince Edward Island, "where good things never change." And now there was more than ever to do, what with planning for the Christmas family reunion, entertaining a countess, playing matchmaker, and preparing for the arrival of the new hired man. Yet as those she loved so dearly started to move away, Pat began to question the wisdom of her choice of Silver Bush over romance. Was it possible to be lonely at Silver Bush?

About the Author

"I love books. I hope when I grow up to be able to have lots of them." Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote in her journal when she was just fourteen. This journal entry, made in 1889, is significant to readers today who know that when she grew up she not only owned and read many books, but also became the world-famous author L. M. Montgomery. Maud, as she liked to be called by family and friends, wrote twenty-four books between 1908 and 1939. Her first was Anne of Green Gables, and her other works include seven more Anne books, the Avonlea stories, the Emily trilogy, two novels for adults, an autobiography, and the novel The Story Girl.

Lucy Maud Montgomery was always writing and reading and was quite a story girl herself, creating more than five hundred short stories. She also wrote many poems. One edition of her poetry was published during her lifetime and today all her poems have been collected in a single volume.

Customer Reviews

Disliked the Ending
I have loved and enjoyed many of L.M. Montgomery's books through the years--especially the Emily series, which I have read over and over again--but I had never read this book before. I read it without reading "Pat of Silver Bush" first. This was probably a mistake.

"Mistress Pat" contained many of the elements that I have loved in Montgomery's other books--the magical sense of place, the humor, the vividly described characters. The portentous "CHANGE IS COMING" theme seemed to overshadow all of those elements throughout the book; nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the novel... until the very end.

Until "The Eleventh Year", I had believed that Pat would someday realize what everyone around her and every reader had realized since page one: Hilary is the love of her life. Yes, she does realize this at the end, but only after almost everything else that matters to her has been swept away. For several days after finishing the book, I wondered why it bothered it me so much. I don't like to see beautiful places destroyed, even fictional beautiful places, but it was more than that. I think it was the disturbing thought that this horrendous Deus ex machina transformed Hilary into Pat's last resort.

One is quite sure at the end that Hilary and Pat will live happily ever after. But one wonders if Hilary will ever speculate, in his darker moments: "Would she still have loved and chosen me, if she HADN'T lost everything?"

interesting....
I found that Pat was interesting surfacely, but lacked depth somewhat. She has a lot of room for developement through the approximate decade of the novel's span, yet does not seem to transform. She is somewhat predictable. Since the previous novel portrays Pat's charming childhood, I was hoping to read and find a real woman full of Valancy Stirling-like passion and Anne-like spirit, and Emily-like intellect---I found Pat was wanton of the emotions and qualities that separate Montgomery's characters from so many others. Also, I disliked the lack of Jingle in the book. When he is present in the few scenes he appears in he has a dominating effect. LM should have taken better advantage of this strength. David is a wonderful character with an eccentric Dean Priestish air to him. Try it--- but if you want a complicated read with a little more substance and something to think and devour over-- stick to the Blue Castle.

Another of Montgomery's fine works...
Although this is one of Montgomery's less-read works, it is nonetheless very charming. It is the sequel to Pat of Silver Bush. The story is of Pat, a young girl with dreams and ambitions. She is fiercefully proud of her home, Silver Bush. Now she is growing up, and she is experiencing the events and feelings that girls of Montgomery's time period experienced. As always, Montgomery portrays each and everyone of her characters in ingenius ways, letting the reader really get a feel for what each character is like.

Although the plot of the story is almost nonexistant in some ways, in others it's the best kind of plot there is - it's simply the story of Pat's life. It's not portrayed in biographical form, though; the book simply displays some of the quaint, funny, or particularly touching moments in Pat's life.

This book is a must-read for any L.M. Montgomery lover - if you liked Anne of Green Gables, you'd love Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat.