L.M. Montgomery’s Short Story ‘The Letters’

“A Lady Reading a Letter,” circa 1662, by Gerard Terborch. A young woman learns to care about having a good life, in "The Letters." Wallace Collection, London. Public Domain

Though letters often carry boring business transactions, annoying advertisements, and convenient coupons, they can also carry joyful news and hopeful beginnings.

In L.M. Montgomery’s short story, “The Letters,” Isobel Shirley receives letters that carry messages of friendship and love. These letters carry her through a dark time and hold the promise of a wonderful future.

Isobel Shirley was the only child of Mr. Shirley, a very stern man who “had never forgiven [her] for two things. [She] had cost [her] mother’s life and [she] was not a son to perpetuate the old name and carry on the family feud with the Frasers.” Though he spurned her, she loved her father with a dear and loyal devotion.

Isobel grew up with no playmates and was very lonely. The one young man she fell in love with turns out to be Alan Fraser, the son of Malcolm Fraser, her father’s enemy.

Her father has died and left her alone. Now she sits in an empty house, feeling “the grip of a bitter loneliness [this] evening—so bitter and so insistent that [she] feels [she] cannot face the future at all.” Winter is approaching.

Mysterious Letters

As she contemplates the November evening with sadness and despair, a letter arrives. Though it’s addressed to her, the letter bears no indication who it’s from. Isobel feels bewildered, for the letter has no date or signature.

This mysterious letter from the inscrutable writer possesses warm sentiments and encouraging words to lift her spirits: “I know what your sorrow is, and I think I know what your loneliness must be. ... I know what your father’s helplessness and need of you meant to you. ... Courage will come to you with the kind days. You will find noble tasks to do, beautiful and gracious duties waiting along your path.”

Isobel’s heart stirs with hope and courage at these beautiful, kind words. She can’t guess who could have sent such a letter, though she recognizes that it’s a man’s handwriting. She knows very few people, and even fewer men who would write to her.

Love in Letters

Isobel feels emboldened by the letter and promises herself that “[she] will take up [her] life as something to be worthily lived for all good, to the disregard [her] own selfish sorrow and shrinking. [She] will seek for ... tasks which will lessen the pains and perils of humankind.” She wishes to live up to the faith of her new friend and does so.

With newfound dedication, Isobel begins to place herself more actively into the community. All the while, she receives more letters, that grow more loving. Yet, she can’t respond because she doesn’t know who it is—until she sees the same handwriting on a letter in her lawyer’s office.

Through this story, Montgomery demonstrates the power of not only letters, but also love, especially loyal love. Such love enables the writer to profess, as J.R.R. Tolkien says: “I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”

Letters can encourage and support the reader with renewed hope and joy for the future. These are the best love letters.

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