This is the first L.M. Montgomery book I have read that was less then wonderful. The beginning of the book seemed to take forever. There were so many characters strung together that it became a chore to sort them out. There was only a hint of the charm I usually find in her books and that was probably the biggest disappointment. However, this book highlighted more than usual Montgomery's knack for social commentary. I loved the bridging in generations of this book and the different perspectives on life which were juxtaposed to really enhance the contrast between those who saw the turn of the century and those who barely remember the first world war.

I returned to this book over and over when I was younger. This one is witty and paints vastly different characters quite vividly. I laughed throughout the story at their loves and follies and loved each of their crazy adventures tremendously.

This is my favorite of all Montgomery's books. I love the whole Dark and Penhallow clans. I love all the little loves and hates and side stories. I love the ridiculousness of the jug. It's not perfect, in spite of my 5 stars. I do get tired of all the "damning" of things, as if it's the only way LMM could figure out how to make it aimed towards adults. The last line is almost unforgivable as well, even accounting for the differences of time and place. But oh the stories! So many different stories woven together in a tangled web. It's just awesome. And of course, the real question... Who should have gotten the jug?

مثل بقیه کتابهای ال ام مونتگومری زیبا و دلنشین بود و خوشحالم کرد، دلم نمیومد بخونمش چون میدونستم دیگه کتابی با این فضای خوب پیدا نمیکنم :(

کاشکی مترجم انقدر اسم های ساده ی شخصیت هارو سخت ترجمه نمیکرد!

Історія клану, в якому споконвіків дві родини одружуються між собою і плетуть своє павутиння. Серед них всіх тітонька Беккі, яка на смертному одрі вирішує останній раз повеселитися і тримати клан в напрузі щодо того, хто ж отримає родинну реліквію.

Події розгортаються легко та весело, читаєш з передчуттям, що все у них всіх має бути добре. Однозначно, знайомство з членами клану і їхня гонитва за реліквією принесе вам хороший настрій. Останню фразу в книжці звинувачують у расизмі, проте, мабуть, це був такий час, коли ця фраза мала б здатися дотепною.

A Tangled Web is one of L.M. Montgomery's stand-alone books. It took a little getting used to because the book follows so many people, and it was hard to keep them all straight at first. But after a few pages, the characters came to life, and I wanted to know their stories.

This is the first Montgomery book that I started and kind of didn’t want to finish. I don’t know why–maybe it was the slurry of characters that you get hit with in the very beginning. But, it was just kind of overwhelming.

The premise was promising. I mean, a whole family, all very much invested in an heirloom jug that an aunt left one of them. And they won’t know who gets it for awhile. So, they all do their best to be on their best behavior–in the hopes of getting the jug.

What’s funny, is that the “race” for the jug, leads to a domino effect in so many of their lives–events that wouldn’t have happened if not for the jug.

So, by the middle of the story, I was invested. I couldn’t help but love some of these characters as they were changed and challenged.

This is one of Montgomery’s later works and you can tell by the way she wrote her characters. Not quite as whimsical–and a little more jaded.

But, I’m really glad I read this one. It ended up being one of my favorites, regardless of the rocky start.

I hate rating a book from L.M. just 2 stars, because I love her and I think she had a wonderful imagination, telling so many stories from so many people in just one book. A Tangled Web is not different. There are so many characters, and all of them are Dark or Penhallows. But I couldn't love the book, although it definetely has L.M. Montgomery's touch.

First of all, that racist remark everybody talks about... It is unpleasant, and the same with Margaret wanting a "rosy, blond-with-blue-eyes baby". If she wanted so badly to be a mother, she should like any child.

All the love stories in the book are unbelievable. Peter and Donna... hating each other since forever, and then, the first time they met, just with one look they are completely in love. Gay and Roger... she was suffering for one year the lost of Noel, and suddenly, she doesn't love him anymore and finds out she loves Roger instead? And finally Joscelyn and Hugh... Joscelyn was such a bitch, leaving him after just hours of getting married because "she felt for another one" just by looking at him. And then, 10 years later, after seeing him so un-handsome, she realizes she loves Hugh again? She just wanted the house she lost after dumping him... I think she was the most disagreeable character in the whole book.

Another thing I alwasys love about L.M. books is that they make me care for the characters, and I laugh and cry with them. Not in this case. I did not like any of the characters... maybe Little Bryan, but that is all. It is not a bad book, but it is not great as I am used to.

Lately I have been rediscovering my love for L. M. Montgomery. Her books are witty and charming, sentimental and ironic, filled with atmospheric places and nuanced characters. "A Tangled Web" is so brilliant because Montgomery introduces a broad variety of characters; old lovers, confirmed bachelors, young girls and forgotten spinsters.

"A Tangled Web" begins when Great Aunt Becky dies. She leaves a family heirloom behind, a dark jug which has been in the family for generations. The two branches of her family, the Darks and the Penhallows, are at war with each other and both parties feel entitled to the jug.
However the heir will not be revealed until a years has passed and in those 12 months scandals occur, lovers drift apart, lovers reunite, old secrets are spilled and dreams come true.

Through a magnitude of characters, Montgomery shows characters from every stage in life and writes with a heartfelt understanding of their struggles, hopes and dreams. While many of the characters in this book are ridiculous, they are always treated with compassion. Some of Montgomery's characters has an austenesque flavor to them and the overall storyline is filled with an irony and a sentimentality that is Austen worthy.

Montgomery wrote few stories for adults, but the ones she did write were extraordinary. "A Tangled Web" is no exception.

Although in L.M. Montgomery's 1931 (adult themed) novel A Tangled Web most of the various and diverse both living and yes also long and recently deceased depicted and featured members of the Penhallow and Dark clans (and with recently deceased I also mean family matriarch Aunt Becky Dark, née Penhallow) have made me want to generally giggle (and often quite derisively) and sometimes also scream more than a bit impatiently at the Penhallows and Darks and their behaviours, their antics (via the unseen but definitely not ever silent narrator with his/her sarcastic asides and delightfully humorous descriptions of a large, well-known but obviously also eccentric and woefully dysfunctional Prince Edward Island family), I also did end up (and surprisingly for me) rather emotionally invested in especially some of the love stories presented in A Tangled Web. For even though I am usually not that much of a fan of L.M. Montgomery's romances (and was at first kind of aghast that in A Tangled Web there are actually something like four different episodes of love and courting), I did find myself actively cheering especially when Gay Penhallow not only finally and totally rejects her fickle fiancé Noel Gibson but also realises that she indeed is truly in love with Roger Penhallow (and I also do very much appreciate that L.M. Montgomery does not cast all of the blame for what happened between Gay and Noel at Gay's selfish and malicious cousin Nan Penhallow stealing Noel's affections but that she clearly points out that Noel Gibson is a spineless, self important and shallow fool of a "man" who basically in the end deserves being dropped like a proverbially hot potato by both Nan and then Gay, who finally sees the light and refuses to take Noel back when he comes calling after Nan has finally had enough of him).

And even Peter Dark and Donna Penhallow's romance and indeed Jocelyn and Hugh Dark's story do tug at my emotions (and I am glad of the happy endings) although personally I have definitely found Jocelyn as a character at best a bit frustrating (that she simply left her husband Hugh almost at the altar so to speak when she took one look at Hugh's best man Frank and fell in love with him at first sight, as yes, this not only makes me rather personally angry and annoyed on Hugh's behalf but that L.M. Montgomery also focusses mostly on Jocelyn and only rather sparingly on Hugh when she has her narrator in A Tangled Web relate their story, it does kind of feel a bit uncomfortable and monotonous as in my humble opinion in the marriage fiasco between Jocelyn and Hugh, it is not really a case of that it takes two to tango since the fault really is to be or rather should be cast mostly at Jocelyn and at her stubbornness holding on to that silly dream of love at first sight, which yes in the end is thankfully destroyed, but it does take almost the entire course of A Tangled Web for Jocelyn to finally come to her senses and return to Hugh).

Now I have read in both reviews and literary analyses of A Tangled Web that Pennyciuk Dark asking family dressmaker, old maid (and often the object of family derision and pointed nastiness) Margaret Penhallow to marry him (and mostly in order to increase his chances of obtaining that coveted jar of Aunt Harriet's) is to be approached as being rather comical. But in my opinion, while I do find Pennyciuk a rather clown-like figure in and of himself, I personally happen to consider Margaret Penhallow more tragic and sad (and not in any derisive and critical manner whatsoever, as I actually do consider her as one of the characters in A Tangled Web that L.M. Montgomery has constructed and described with the most love and personal understanding simply because her family has cast Margaret aside, that the Darks and Penhallows all seem to see her as a nothing and a nobody). And while it has certainly made me chuckle a bit when Penny Dark is strutting around like a peacock and thinking that by proposing marriage to Margaret Penhallow, he is conferring some great honour to her, that she (although it is clear from L.M. Montgomery's narrative that Margaret Penhallow really does not at all desire Penny and really does not desire marriage either) feels obligated to accept Penny's proposal, this actually kind of makes me really sad and actually more than a bit personally enraged.

Therefore, when Margaret finally gets her own home, adopts abused orphan Brian Dark and basically lets Pennyciuk Dark know that him breaking the engagement is actually totally wonderful and not at all something that will in any manner be even remotely traumatic for her, this makes the Penny and Margaret "romance" (quotes are mine) the most personally satisfying one in A Tangled Web (but not really all that comical in my opinion, just satisfying), for L.M. Montgomery allows Margaret Penhallow to find her true happiness without adult love and traditional marriage (as Margaret is able to obtain a coveted and aesthetically lovely home, with an evocatively beautiful name, she adopts dreamy and by the entire clan nastily ignored and despised orphan Brian Dark, and she obviously does NOT need either a husband or even an adult male love interest to obtain ultimate contentment and joy).

And finally, of course, L.M. Montgomery's A Tangled Web has at its main core that coveted (and described by the narrator as being pretty distinctly ugly) jug of Aunt Harriet Dark's and who will (about a year and a half after Aunt Rebecca Dark's death) finally receive it as an heirloom. And personally, I have to admit that even though the by all (or most) Darks and Penhallows desired and wanted jug is I guess the thread that holds all of the different strands and episodes of A Tangled Web together, I have found the family's almost religious obsession with said intimate object rather annoyingly strange (but I guess it kind of does underline just how into their various and almost sacred family traditions the Penhallows and the Darks are and how a family heirloom can be considered an absolute treasure even if it is aesthetically horrid and visually off-putting).

But for me, with the ending of A Tangled Web, when Oswald Dark (who is obsessed with the moon and is considered not all there so to speak even by his eccentric clan) takes Aunt Harriet's jug and smashes it, I not only laughed (and continue to laugh) out loud, I actually consider this to have been what the clan should have done with that silly jug in the first place. And therefore, with regard to going against family tradition and taking an active role against this, I for one very much believe that Oswald Dark is indeed the only truly and completely sane member of the entire family and I even also sometimes wish that he had thrown that jug and destroyed it right at the beginning of A Tangled Web and perhaps even in Aunt Becky's hallowed presence (but of course, then there would not have been the need for a story, but indeed, seeing that jug in smithereens really does make me smile with both appreciation and going against family tradition glee and makes A Tangled Web an entertainingly, satirically delightful four star reading experience).

I finally finished this! Woohoo!

Ok, a really short review:

When I started this, I was so excited. And then let down. This book wasn't at all what I expected. The first half of the book was really hard to get through. The second half picked up and I was enjoying it when I was reading it, just not as much as I would've liked.

There were so many characters to keep track of, but I did it! I think I remembered who everyone was and which stories belonged to which characters.

My favorite stories were Gay's and Roger's and Hugh's and Jocelyn's.

I must admit, the next to last chapter was absolutely hilarious! I couldn't help laughing! I added a half-star just for this chapter!

I didn't care for the language, which there wasn't a LOT of, but it just didn't fit in with a Montgomery story, in my opinion. Also, that very last line...not my ideal ending to a book. I really didn't like it.

Overall, I'm giving this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

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!