History Literature / JaneOfLanternHill

* CinderellaCircumstances: Jane's friend Jody, the sweet, beautiful orphan girl used as a maid-of-all-work for the boarding house next door.

* IAmNotPretty: Jane starts out like this thanks to her rock-bottom self-esteem. (Like L.M. Montgomery's other heroines, it's implied she's pretty in an unconventional way.)

* EvilMatriarch: Jane's grandmother, so much. Jane's own description is of her stalking the elegant family home like a 'bitter, vindictive queen'.

* GildedCage: Jane's mother's life in the mansion on Gay Street. Her mother lavishes her with all the physical trappings of maternal care, but Jane senses Robin is still unhappy despite all her expensive clothes and the parties she goes to.

''Jane of Lantern Hill'' is Creator/LMMontgomery's last novel. Jane Stuart lives with her mother and wealthy grandmother in the city of Toronto. She is miserable under her grandmother's tyrannical rule, all of her talents smothered and any friendships snuffed out. Nonetheless, Jane dreams of happiness for herself and her beautiful but spineless mother Robin, helpless under her possessive mother's influence.

* AliceAllusion: Jane dreamed of going into a mirror until she was ridiculed for vanity for sitting in front of them.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Jane's grandmother, whose very correct, conventionally ''grande dame'' facade slips whenever her iron hold over her daughter is threatened, even by Jane.

* EvilMatriarch: Jane's grandmother, so much. Jane's own description is of her stalking the elegant family home like a 'bitter, evil queen'.

* GildedCage: Jane's mother's life in the mansion on Gay Street. Her mother lavishes her with gifts and attention, but Jane senses Robin is still unhappy despite all her expensive clothes and the parties she goes to.

* InHarmonyWithNature: One of Jane's many stifled talents that emerge only when she heads East. She turns out to be a great gardener, and has a particular affinity for the moon. There's also the famous sequence wherein she finds and leads an escaped circus lion home (granted, it's specified as old and toothless, but still...)

* OrphansOrdeal: Jane's friend Jody, albeit unusually for Montgomery not a central plot driver.

Having always been told he was dead, it comes as a great surprise to Jane to learn that her father Andrew Stuart is actually alive and well and living in Prince Edward Island -- and he wants to meet her. Reluctant, sure she's going to hate the Island and hate her father and hate everything about it, Jane sets out -- but as soon as she arrives there, it turns out that she and her father are true kindred spirits, and Jane's summers on PEI become a seemingly unlimited opportunity for personal growth, wonder, and joy.

* [[TurnOutLikeHisFather Turn Out Like Her Father]]: Her grandmother objects to this in Jane,and succeeds so thoroughly that Jane even doesn't like the notion she gets her chin from her father, at first.

* {{Arcadia}}: Prince Edward Island, per all of Montgomery's works.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Jane's grandmother, whose very correct, conventionally ''grande dame'' facade slips whenever her hold over her daughter is threatened, even by Jane.

* CloseKnitCommunity: The little PEI community Jane and her father move into.

* GildedCage: Jane's mother's life in the mansion on Gay Street. Jane senses she is unhappy despite all her expensive clothes and the parties she goes to.

* INeverGotAnyLetters: From Jane's father, to her mother begging her to return to him. Turns out dear old Grandmother saw to that.

* OrphansOrdeal: Jane's friend Jody -- not, unusually a central place in the plot.
* ParentalFavoritism: Jane's grandmother, toward her mother.

''Jane of Lantern Hill'' is Creator/LMMontgomery's last novel. Jane lives with her mother and wealthy grandmother in the city of Toronto. She is miserable under her grandmother's tyrannical rule, all of her talents smothered and any friendships snuffed out. Nonetheless, Jane dreams of happiness for herself and her beautiful but spineless mother. It comes as a surprise, to say the least, to learn that Jane's father is alive and well and living in Prince Edward Island -- and he wants to meet her. Reluctant, sure she's going to hate the Island and hate her father and hate everything about it, she sets out -- but once in on the Island, it turns out that she and her father are true kindred spirits, and Jane's summers on PEI turn into a magical opportunity for growth, wonder, and joy.

This is a little odd among Montgomery's books for striking a tone somewhere between the whimsical coming of age of ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'', et alia, and the sometimes desperate need for love and beauty in the lonely, adult ''Literature/TheBlueCastle.''

* AliceAllusion: She once dreamed of going into a mirror until she was ridiculed for vanity for sitting in front of them.
* {{Arcadia}}: Prince Edward Island
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The grandmother
** Aunt Irene, Andrew's simpering hypocritical sister. She is rightly described as "sweet poison" by one of the neighbours.
* CinderellaCircumstances: Her friend Jody
* CityMouse: Jane
* CloseKnitCommunity: PEI
* EvilMatriarch: The grandmother
* ExtremeDoorMat: Jane's mother who cannot stand up to her mother and earlier couldn't stand up to her meddling sister-in-law Irene. She finally grows a backbone when [[spoiler: she defies her mother and goes to Prince Edward Island when Jane nearly dies of pnemonia]].

* FeminineWomenCanCook: Jane picks up cooking easily.

* GreenEyedMonster: The grandmother.
* HonoraryUncle: Little Aunt Em -- to everyone. Also Uncle Tombstone, whose real last name is Tunstone.
* HopelessSuitor: The Jimmy John's hired man, Step-a-yard, is in love with Miss Justina Titus, but knows that it's hopeless since she's faithful to the memory of Alec Jacks, who was killed in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* InHarmonyWithNature: Jane is a great gardener, and has a particular affinity for the moon.
* INeverGotAnyLetters: The grandmother saw to that.

* MyBelovedSmother: The grandmother, again.
* OrphansOrdeal: Her friend Jody -- not, unusually a central place in the plot.

* ProperLady: Jane.
* [[TurnOutLikeHisFather Turn Out Like Her Father]]: Her grandmother objects to this in Jane. Jane even doesn't like the notion she gets her chin from her father, at first.