A Tangled Web

By LM Montgomery

Follow the tangled web of relationships and emotions of the Dark and Penhollow families in this endearing classic, from the author of Anne of Green Gables. Aunt Becky's will is proving problematic. She has left the most precious of her possessions, an antique jug, to one of her beneficiaries - but has stipulated that the person may only be identified after a year has elapsed, once all of the family members have striven to live up to Aunt Becky's ideals. But the Dark and the Penhallow families are complex and numerous indeed - over three generations, sixty members of the Penhallow family have married sixty members of the Dark family, creating a tangled web of relationships and emotions. What lengths will family members go to to win the heirloom and can anyone live up to what Aunt Becky would have wanted…? The tumultuous and intertwined personal and love lives of the Penhallows and Dark smakes makes for entertaining reading in this cleverly crafted novel, characterized by Montgomery's piercing evaluations of character and skill of description.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hesperus Press Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781780942995

Reviews for A Tangled Web

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

My, that's stupid. Petty, nasty, gossipy, silly people; "romances" that are mostly love at first sight - except the ones where first sight has worn off and the lover come to their senses. Petty fights and silly feuds. Margaret and Brian are good, and Lawson. But the rest of it is pointless and silly and... I'm rather sorry I wasted my time on it. The descriptions of the scenery were lovely, as usual - but they're not really the focus of the book.

[atimco-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I don't think L. M. Montgomery could have been very happy during the writing of A Tangled Web. It seems every other character has a secret, passionate love for someone other than his or her spouse for the entirety of their marriage. The few "good" characters we're supposed to sympathize with are a bit flat. In fact, the whole story is a bit flat, revolving as it does around the bequest of a treasured family heirloom and the family politics and jockeyings that accompany such an event. And when the last couple sentences of the book include what is today a highly charged racial slur, the vague sour taste of the whole story is reinforced with a vengeance.

[amelish · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Genteel, Canadian-spinsterly version of a potboiler, with some surprisingly lovely descriptions of the sky.

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the few L.M. Montgomery titles that I did not read in my childhood, A Tangled Web was a double treat, in that it contained so many well-loved Montgomery "types," but was also wholly new to me. The simultaneous feeling of friendly familiarity and excited discovery that I experienced while reading it made it the ideal book in which to lose myself for a few wonderful hours.Chronicling one year in the life of the interrelated Dark and Penhallow clans, whose many scandals, quarrels, and love affairs are brought to the fore when family matriarch Aunt Becky refuses to disclose who is to inherit the old Dark jug (a much-coveted heirloom), A Tangled Web offers a rich tapestry of stories, each entertaining in its own right, and all woven together in a moving portrait of extended family life on Canada's Prince Edward Island.Here the reader will encounter the beautiful Gay Penhallow, merry and young, who is convinced that her love for her fiancé Noel Gibson will last forever - until he is stolen away by her femme-fatale cousin Nan. Here are Peter Penhallow and Donna Dark, who have hated each other all their lives because of their fathers' quarrel, until a chance meeting causes them to fall instantly and violently in love. Here too are Joscelyn and Hugh Dark, inexplicably separated on their wedding night; Little Sam Dark and Big Sam Dark, two bachelors who part ways over religious principle and a naked statue; lonely little Brian Dark, who longs for a mother; and wistful, poetic Margaret Penhallow, who longs for a child... All these quandaries, and more besides, are happily resolved by the end, as Montgomery brings her many story-lines together in a satisfying and very appropriate ending. Naturally, the Dark jug goes to the right person!That said, although I am a devoted fan of Montgomery's work, and enjoyed A Tangled Web, I think the contemporary reader will be quite uncomfortable, as I was, with two glaring instances of racism in the book. The first was Little Sam's "harmless hobby" of collecting skulls from the local Indian burial ground and posting them on his fence, and the second was the unfortunate use of the word "n*gger" at the very close of the story. It's possible that Montgomery was simply trying to convey the "courseness" of the characters involved, and I'm sure an argument could be made that this is how people "back then" thought and spoke. I wouldn't say that the inclusion of these two elements ruined the novel for me, but they certainly inserted a most unwelcome and ugly tone in an otherwise pleasant book.

[lkernagh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

[A Tangled Web], first published in 1931, is considered one of the few books published by Montgomery that was written for a predominantly adult audience.The premise of the story is an interesting one - two families, the Darks and the Penhallows, comprise an extended clan that has seen no fewer than 60 marriages between the two families in three generations. Aunt Becky, the outspoken 85 year old matriarch of the clan, decides to host a levee where she reads her will and announces all bequeathed items to the family members gathered. Well, not all of the items. The name of the family member to inherit the family jewel, an heirloom jug that has been in the family for over 100 years that all of the family members covet, is to remain a secret for one year. When Aunt Becky dies one week after her infamous levee, the clan rises to the challenge, with what appear on the surface to be self serving motives, in their attempt to live up to Aunt Becky's beliefs and win the jug. What ensues is an entertaining glimpse into family rivalry, bickering, love matches, family secrets and struggles to abstain from certain vices. Set on Prince Edward Island in 1926 and 1927, I found this story to be a fun romp through the lives of the Darks and the Penhallows during their year of improvement and self discovery. Montgomery portrays the characters in a manner that is at times laughably ridiculous while still remaining appealingly charming. Keeping in mind that the story was written some 80 years, with different value systems and beliefs in place, I felt the book still has a lot to offer today's more contemporary reader. In a nutshell - Quite fun!

[jphilbrick_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I liked this a lot. There were some characters I wish there had been more depth on, like Brian, but overall I liked the range of characters. I could have done without the last chapter, however; the Sams were my least favorite pair (in terms of their reconciliation) and the last paragraph left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Overall, though, I really liked it!

[stewartry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

L.M. Montgomery was very very good at several things, and one of those was keeping a secret from her readers, building suspense until she finally decides to reveal all – which is always done in a satisfying manner. And she never does it better than in A Tangled Web – through the petty jealousies and deep passions and squabbles and allegiances of the tale of the Darks and the Penhallows runs one of the best tantalizers I've ever seen: why did Joscelyn leave Hugh the night of their wedding and refuse to ever return to him? I don’t know if the reality of what happened quite lives up to the anticipation – but it’s believable, in its way, and in order for the situation to be resolved requires some excellent plotting. And the anticipation is delicious. I love the character Oswald Dark – what a being he is. Were I to indulge in fan-fiction about L.M.M., I think I’d center on him. But … there is a fly in the ointment, which I'd forgotten until I came to it - how could I forget that last line of the book? Avoid if possible. It’s an unnecessary stain on a lovely book, and a true sign that while a lot of things have changed for the worse since L.M.M. wrote, not everything has. Even given the fly, this is one of my favorites among L.M.M.'s books.

[rainbowdarling · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was hard to get into at first, being unlike so many of L.M. Montgomery's books. It doesn't focus on any one character, and the characters, on the whole, are rather more dark than the characters of many of the other novels.I liked the differences in this story versus books like Anne of Green Gables. Having more characters seemed like it would make it so that no one character was interesting, whereas in fact it was all of them who ended up being interesting to me (for the most part). Montgomery's talent in writing about people who really seem like real people, even 100 years later still astounds me, and her talent showed through in this novel.