Pat of Silver Bush is a novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE , called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success...

, noted for her Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Set in 1878, it was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book...

series. It portrays a girl named Patricia Gardiner, who hates changes of any kind and loves her home, Silver Bush, more than anything else in the world. She is very devoted to her family: her father and mother, her brothers Joe and Sid, and her sisters Winnie and Rachel(Cuddles). The book begins when Pat is 7 years old and ends when she is 18.

Throughout the text, various members of Pat's family are lost from Silver Bush (Aunt Hazel to marriage, Joe to the sea, Winnie to marriage). Pat is sustained through these losses due to her enduring love for her home. She is "unlike other children" and has few close friends. She maintains a strong relationship with Hilary "Jingle" Gordon and later befriends Elizabeth "Bets" Wilcox, who eventually dies. Like most of Montgomery's texts, Pat is a domestic tale. Unlike Anne or Emily, the only other Montgomery heroines whose stories are told in multiple texts, Pat is not ambitious or a writer. She also has a conventional family and home life, unlike the others, who are orphans.

In the beginning, Judy, the family's cook, and like a second mother to the Gardiner children, announces that there will be a new baby in the family. The baby is "Growing in the Parsley Beds," and she's going to "Pick it on the full moon." At first, Pat doesn't want a new baby. She doesn't want any change in her home, but when the baby girl arrives, Pat loves her as if she were her own. The family tries to give her a new name, but everyone wants a different one. In the end, though, they take to calling her Cuddles.

This book has a sequel, Mistress Pat

Mistress Pat

Mistress Pat is a novel written by L. M. Montgomery. It is the sequel to Pat of Silver Bush, and describes Patricia Gardiner's life in her twenties and early thirties, during which she remained single and took care of her beloved home, Silver Bush...

, which describes her later years.

The Gardiner Family

Joe: The oldest child, Joe is not interested in farming and ultimately runs off to sea.

Winnie: The oldest girl, Winnie is a beauty. Pat has a difficult time dealing with her marriage and her movement out of the family home.

Sid: Pat's closest sibling both in age and relationship. He is interested in farming and has a childhood 'crush' on Pat's friend Bets.

Pat: The heroine of the novel. Loyal and loving, overly sensitive to any perceived slight to her home.

Rachel: The youngest child. "Cuddles" is inquisitive and rather pert.

Aunt Hazel: Pat's beloved aunt, who marries early in the book.

Judy Plum: Technically a maid in the household, Judy acts more as a parental authority. She speaks with an Irish brogue and tells the children stories, makes them "liddle bites," and generally mothers all members of the household.

External links

• Plot introduction and book covers
• Online text of Project Gutenberg
• An L.M. Montgomery Resource Page Resource on L.M. Montgomery and her novels
• The L.M. Montgomery Research Group This scholarly site includes a blog, an extensive bibliography of reference materials, and a complete filmography of all adaptations of Montgomery texts.
• The L.M. Montgomery Literary Society This site includes information about Montgomery's works and life and research from the newsletter, The Shining Scroll.