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Abel and His Great Adventure
Abel and His Great Adventure By L. M. Montgomery
- GenresShort Stories
26 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1922
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23 people want to read
About the author
L.M. Montgomery
1,985 books13.4k followersLucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author, best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908.
Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Nov. 30, 1874. She came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario, after her wedding with Rev. Ewen Macdonald on July 11, 1911. She had three children and wrote close to a dozen books while she was living in the Leaskdale Manse before the family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926. She died in Toronto April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Nov. 30, 1874. She came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario, after her wedding with Rev. Ewen Macdonald on July 11, 1911. She had three children and wrote close to a dozen books while she was living in the Leaskdale Manse before the family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926. She died in Toronto April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 20, 2021
First encountered and read in the edited by Catherine McClay 1979 collection of 14 Lucy Maud Montgomery short stories titled The Doctor's Sweetheart and Other Stories (and actually one of the very few tales included in said collection which I indeed have always managed to enjoy without any major and frustrating reservations whatsoever), for me, what makes L. M. Montgomery’s 1917 Abel and his Great Adventure so delightful and so personally appealing as a story is threefold.
For one and first and foremost, I totally do adore how similar much of Abel Armstrong’s story, how akin and alike Abel and his Great Adventure is to parts of Captain Jim Boyd’s biography in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne’s House Of Dreams (and interestingly enough, Abel and his Great Adventure and Anne’s House of Dreams both hail from 1917), not Abel Armstrong’s specific and sometimes quite saddening family issues, of course (with Abel having to abandon his college courses to take care of his emotionally fragile sister Tamzine, with his oldest sister Alice dying of a broken heart), but yes, Abel’s positive and filled with wonder and sweetness attitude towards life in general and that he wants to tell the new schoolmaster about his brother’s deceased wife Mercedes so that there will be someone to remember her when he, when Abel himself is gone, this sure does wonderfully and sweetly bring to mind how in Anne’s House of Dreams Captain Jim Boyd tells Anne Blythe about the love of his life, about Lost Margaret and precisely for the same reason. For two, while I certainly tend to find the entire scenario of Abel Armstrong falling in love with his brother Alec’s new wife Mercedes a bit uncomfortable, at the same time do I absolutely and totally appreciate how L.M. Montgomery never has Abel act on this, that while Abel admits to the schoolmaster how he used to despise Alec for having Mercedes as a wife, Abel and his Great Adventure equally never shows actual and physical inappropriateness but only Abel adoring Mercedes silently from a distance and while she lived being nothing more than her brother-in-law. And for three and finally, I also love love love how in both Abel and his Great Adventure and in Anne’s House of Dreams Abel Armstrong and Captain Jim Boyd’s deaths are depicted not as something tragic and devastating but as a quasi spiritual journal after both Abel and Jim have lived their lives to the fullest, finding beauty everywhere (with Abel in his garden and with Captain Jim with his lighthouse, his friends and of course his Life Book).
So yes, for Abel and his Great Adventure, my rating most definitely is a solid and glowing four stars for L.M. Montgomery’s featured narrative and I indeed do highly recommend Abel and his Great Adventure and especially so for fans of Anne’s House of Dreams.
For one and first and foremost, I totally do adore how similar much of Abel Armstrong’s story, how akin and alike Abel and his Great Adventure is to parts of Captain Jim Boyd’s biography in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne’s House Of Dreams (and interestingly enough, Abel and his Great Adventure and Anne’s House of Dreams both hail from 1917), not Abel Armstrong’s specific and sometimes quite saddening family issues, of course (with Abel having to abandon his college courses to take care of his emotionally fragile sister Tamzine, with his oldest sister Alice dying of a broken heart), but yes, Abel’s positive and filled with wonder and sweetness attitude towards life in general and that he wants to tell the new schoolmaster about his brother’s deceased wife Mercedes so that there will be someone to remember her when he, when Abel himself is gone, this sure does wonderfully and sweetly bring to mind how in Anne’s House of Dreams Captain Jim Boyd tells Anne Blythe about the love of his life, about Lost Margaret and precisely for the same reason. For two, while I certainly tend to find the entire scenario of Abel Armstrong falling in love with his brother Alec’s new wife Mercedes a bit uncomfortable, at the same time do I absolutely and totally appreciate how L.M. Montgomery never has Abel act on this, that while Abel admits to the schoolmaster how he used to despise Alec for having Mercedes as a wife, Abel and his Great Adventure equally never shows actual and physical inappropriateness but only Abel adoring Mercedes silently from a distance and while she lived being nothing more than her brother-in-law. And for three and finally, I also love love love how in both Abel and his Great Adventure and in Anne’s House of Dreams Abel Armstrong and Captain Jim Boyd’s deaths are depicted not as something tragic and devastating but as a quasi spiritual journal after both Abel and Jim have lived their lives to the fullest, finding beauty everywhere (with Abel in his garden and with Captain Jim with his lighthouse, his friends and of course his Life Book).
So yes, for Abel and his Great Adventure, my rating most definitely is a solid and glowing four stars for L.M. Montgomery’s featured narrative and I indeed do highly recommend Abel and his Great Adventure and especially so for fans of Anne’s House of Dreams.
November 27, 2024
5 stars. A young schoolmaster fuming about life ends up in a little back-country village, sure it will be a dull time. But Old Abel likes him at once and welcomes him into his garden. And maybe that summer will change the schoolmaster's views on life forever...
This story reminds me a lot of The Story of Uncle Dick , although whenever I see the title I forget what this story is about and think of Abel Blair from the Chronicles of Avonlea books. Anyways, this Abel (Abel Armstrong) makes me think of Captain Jim/Uncle Jesse. He was such a sweet, wise man, and I loved how he cared for his sister (and treated her better than everyone in the village!). I think this story is pretty quintessentially Montgomery, which so many lovely descriptions and some great thoughts...
Content: Abel confesses that as a teen he fell in love with his brother's wife, though no one ever knew.
A Favourite Quote: He never preached, but he radiated courage and endurance and a frank acceptance of the hard things of life, as well as a cordial welcome of its pleasant things. He was the sanest soul I ever met. He neither minimized ill nor exaggerated good, but he held that we should never be controlled by either. Pain should not depress us unduly, nor pleasure lure us into forgetfulness and sloth. All unknowingly he made me realize that I had been a bit of a coward and a shirker. I began to understand that my personal woes were not the most important things in the universe, even to myself. In short, Abel taught me to laugh again; and when a man can laugh wholesomely things are not going too badly with him.
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: The early sunset glow of rose and flame had faded out of the sky; the water was silvery and mirror-like; dim sails drifted along by the darkening shore. A bell was ringing in a small Catholic chapel across the harbour. Mellowly and dreamily sweet the chime floated through the dusk, blent with the moan of the sea. The great revolving light at the channel trembled and flashed against the opal sky, and far out, beyond the golden sand-dunes of the bar, was the crinkled gray ribbon of a passing steamer's smoke.
This story reminds me a lot of The Story of Uncle Dick , although whenever I see the title I forget what this story is about and think of Abel Blair from the Chronicles of Avonlea books. Anyways, this Abel (Abel Armstrong) makes me think of Captain Jim/Uncle Jesse. He was such a sweet, wise man, and I loved how he cared for his sister (and treated her better than everyone in the village!). I think this story is pretty quintessentially Montgomery, which so many lovely descriptions and some great thoughts...
Content: Abel confesses that as a teen he fell in love with his brother's wife, though no one ever knew.
A Favourite Quote: He never preached, but he radiated courage and endurance and a frank acceptance of the hard things of life, as well as a cordial welcome of its pleasant things. He was the sanest soul I ever met. He neither minimized ill nor exaggerated good, but he held that we should never be controlled by either. Pain should not depress us unduly, nor pleasure lure us into forgetfulness and sloth. All unknowingly he made me realize that I had been a bit of a coward and a shirker. I began to understand that my personal woes were not the most important things in the universe, even to myself. In short, Abel taught me to laugh again; and when a man can laugh wholesomely things are not going too badly with him.
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: The early sunset glow of rose and flame had faded out of the sky; the water was silvery and mirror-like; dim sails drifted along by the darkening shore. A bell was ringing in a small Catholic chapel across the harbour. Mellowly and dreamily sweet the chime floated through the dusk, blent with the moan of the sea. The great revolving light at the channel trembled and flashed against the opal sky, and far out, beyond the golden sand-dunes of the bar, was the crinkled gray ribbon of a passing steamer's smoke.
January 10, 2026
Reading Abel and His Great Adventure, I was struck by how gently Montgomery treats ambition. Abel’s “great adventure” is not grand in any conventional sense; it is small, local, and faintly ridiculous.
And yet Montgomery grants it full emotional seriousness.
She understands that scale is irrelevant to experience. What matters is the courage required to step outside one’s habitual boundaries.
Abel is not heroic, and that is precisely the point. His fears are modest, his hopes tentative. Montgomery does not inflate them into epic stakes. Instead, she respects the inner drama of ordinary life.
I found myself unexpectedly moved by how carefully she honors Abel’s internal shifts—his hesitations, his brief confidence, his quiet pride.
What stayed with me was Montgomery’s refusal to mock aspiration. The story contains humor, but it is never cruel. Abel’s adventure matters because it matters to him. In a literary culture that often privileges transformation through trauma or revelation, Montgomery reminds us that growth can be incremental and private.
Reading this as an adult, I felt the story reframe my understanding of bravery. Courage, Montgomery suggests, is not loud. It does not require witnesses. Sometimes it is simply the willingness to try, knowing you may fail quietly.
The story lingered because it validates modest lives without condescension. Abel’s world remains unchanged—but Abel is not. That distinction feels deeply humane.
Most recommended.
And yet Montgomery grants it full emotional seriousness.
She understands that scale is irrelevant to experience. What matters is the courage required to step outside one’s habitual boundaries.
Abel is not heroic, and that is precisely the point. His fears are modest, his hopes tentative. Montgomery does not inflate them into epic stakes. Instead, she respects the inner drama of ordinary life.
I found myself unexpectedly moved by how carefully she honors Abel’s internal shifts—his hesitations, his brief confidence, his quiet pride.
What stayed with me was Montgomery’s refusal to mock aspiration. The story contains humor, but it is never cruel. Abel’s adventure matters because it matters to him. In a literary culture that often privileges transformation through trauma or revelation, Montgomery reminds us that growth can be incremental and private.
Reading this as an adult, I felt the story reframe my understanding of bravery. Courage, Montgomery suggests, is not loud. It does not require witnesses. Sometimes it is simply the willingness to try, knowing you may fail quietly.
The story lingered because it validates modest lives without condescension. Abel’s world remains unchanged—but Abel is not. That distinction feels deeply humane.
Most recommended.
March 13, 2024
They don’t write stories like this anymore
January 15, 2025
Abel had gone on his Great Adventure.
So sweet and sad and beautiful.
So sweet and sad and beautiful.
June 25, 2025
A really lovely story. Nothing much happens in it in terms of action, but it's about the effect of one man on another.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews