Kilmeny of the Orchard is a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is the story of a young man named Eric Marshall who goes to teach a school on Prince Edward Island and meets a mute girl that has perfect hearing named Kilmeny. He sees her when he is walking in the woods and hears her playing the violin. He visits her for a long time until he falls in love with her. When he proposes she rejects him, even though she loves him in return, believing that her disability will only hinder his life if they were married, despite his protests that it wouldn't matter at all. Meanwhile, Eric's good friend David who is a renowned throat doctor, comes to the island and visits Eric. He examines Kilmeny, and says that nothing will cure her but an extreme psychological need to speak. This need comes soon when Neil Gordon, who is in love with Kilmeny and madly jealous of Eric, comes behind Eric with an axe, meaning to kill him. Kilmeny is nearby, and without thinking, she yells to Eric to look behind him: she can now speak. Neil runs away on a ship, and Kilmeny and Eric get married.
About the author
Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE (November 30, 1874 - April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. She published 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success; the title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. Most of the novels were set in Prince Edward Island, and those locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site - namely Green Gables farm, the genesis of Prince Edward Island National Park. She was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.
Montgomery's work, diaries, and letters have been read and studied by scholars and readers worldwide. The L. M. Montgomery Institute, University of Prince Edward Island, is responsible for the scholarly inquiry into the life, works, culture, and influence of L. M. Montgomery. (wikipedia.org)
