Jane of Lantern Hill is a book by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 - April 24, 1942) was a Canadian author, best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables. ...

Plot summary

Jane Victoria Stuart, called Victoria by her family, lives in Toronto Ontario, with her mother, grandmother, and aunt. Her grandmother is very strict and is jealous of anything that her daughter Robin (Jane's mother) loves. Jane does not like having to live with her grandmother and wishes she and her mother could escape. Her only friend is Jospehine Turner, Jody for short, an orphan who lives next door in the boarding house and is a servant. Jane also likes to cook, but she is not allowed to by her grandmother.

One day, a letter from her estranged father arrives, asking that Jane stay with him for a summer on Prince Edward Island, her birthplace. Janes is very reluctant about going, but one of her uncles says it is best if she goes. At the Island, her Aunt Irene meets her and Jane takes an instant dislike to her. The next morning, she meets her father for the first time and loves him from the start. The two buy a little house on Lantern Hill and Jane sets up housekeeping. Jane soon becomes friends with all the neighbors, such as the Snowbeam family and the Jimmy Johns (to distingish them from a James Garland and a John Garland). She also gains backbone and upon her return to Toronto, is able to stand up to her grandfather.

The next summer, Jane returns to the Island and is reunited with her father and friends. There she has many adventures, such as finding a lion that escaped from a circus and fearlessly locking it up in a barn. When she receives a letter from Jody, saying that she will be sent to an orphange, Jane talks with the Titus ladies, a pair of sisters who want to adopt a child. Intiallly they say no, but after having second thoughts, they decide to adopt Jody. Upon Jane's return to Toronto, she tells Jody the good news and Jody soon leaves for the Island, promising to see Jane in the summer. In the meantime, Jane finds out precisely why her parents have separated and discovers that her grandmother was against their marriage. When her mother returned home for a visit after some arguments, Jane's grandmother convinced her to stay.

One day, Jane receives a letter from Aunt Irene saying that Jane's father is going it Boston, likely to get a divorce from her mother, and will likely remarry. Jane is shocked by the news and immediately hops on a train back to the Island. She has to walk three miles from the station in the cold and wet to the house on Lantern Hill, where her father assures her that he is not going to get a divorce or remarry. He is going to Boston, but only to meet with publishers about a book of his that's been accepted. She then catches pnuemonia and her father sends a telegram to here mother. Robin, ignoring her mother's command of staying in Toronto, goes to the Island to be with Jane. Jane's parents make up and the book ends with Jane mostly recovered and making plans for her reunited family.