A Tangled Web

Lucy Maud Montgomery scores again!

I recently acquired a lovely antique copy of this book, and after beginning it yesterday afternoon, and finishing it this morning, I could not help but share its story.

A Tangled Web

Harriet Dark was a young woman deeply in love.  When her fiance' is killed at sea, she dies of a broken heart.  But he had given her a gift, something made before his death and received before hers, a fancy, engraved jug with their names on it.

The jug floats from place to place in the Dark and Penhallow families, until a century after its creation, it has become the family treasure. 

When the clan head, Becky Dark, is on her deathbed, she calls a "levee", asking that all the clan be present for the purpose of passing the precious jug on.  But her decision spurs into action a year of unrest in the clan, and many lives change their course before the final decision regarding the jug is brought forth.

Gay Penhallow is a lovely young girl with only love and spring in her thrilling heart, unsuspecting of the sorrows that await her.

Naomi Dark spends her weary days caring for the husband whose war wounds have taken away his memory of her, so that he only knows her as his kind nurse, not the darling wife whom he loved with all his love.

Joscelyn Dark left her husband on the night of their wedding and the two have lived apart ever since, never speaking of what happened between them on that mysterious night.

Donna Dark little dreams that the man she has been brought up to hate, and who has ever hated her, is the man she will suddenly and irrevocably lose her heart to.

Margaret Penhallow dreams only of the little house in the hollow and childish laughter to fill it.

These and the many other stories of the Dark and Penhallow clan are woven gently throughout this wonderful book.  They entranced me, heart and soul, as I read it, and the surprising and thrilling way it ended brought tears from my eyes and a delighted smile on my face as I turned the last page and laid the cover closed.

L.M.Montgomery never fails to capture the reader and pull them into her characters lives, making them feel as if they'd know them, always, and never want to leave them till the story ends.  Her breathtaking descriptions of the lovely scenery of Prince Edward Island and her quaint and humorous way of telling the character of the island's people is too delightful to be missed.  

I am ever so happy I own this book.:)

Below is the summary from the back of the book.  

Over the years sixty members of the Dark family and sixty Penhallows have married one another - but not without their share of fighting and feuding.  Now Aunt Becky, the eccentric old matriarch of the clan, has bequeathed her prized possession: a legendary heirloom jug.  But the name of the jug's new owner will not be revealed for one year.  In the next twelve months beautiful Gay Penhallow's fiance' Noel Gibson, leaves her for sly and alluring Nan Penhallow; reckless Peter Penhallow and lovely Donna Dark, who have hated each other since childhood, are inexplicably brought together by the jug; Hugh and Joscelyn Dark, separated on their wedding night ten years ago for reasons never revealed, find a second chance - all watched over by the mysterious Moon Man, who has the gift of second sight.  Then comes the night when Aunt Becky's wishes will be revealed... and the family is in for the biggest surprise of all.

Ahh.... I do like it.:) I shall leave you now and go on to my next book, War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy.

Emma