The Journey Begins

"I do like a road, because you can be always wondering what is at the end of it" ~ The Story Girl

Now I know that this is not yet Monday, but seeing as I will be pulling an all-nighter Monday night to complete an essay for my class, you will please forgive me for posting this early.

The Journey Begins is the first 1-hour episode of the Road to Avonlea tv series.  Here we meet a young, headstrong, romantic Sara Stanley.  She is sent by her widowed father from her home in Montreal, to go and stay with her mother's relatives for a while in P.E.I.  Her father's motives are selfless - he is caught up in an embezzlement scandal and, though innocent, he wants to spare his daughter the stress.  And so she and her cousin Andrew from Toronto join their family for an indefinite visit - the Kings.  Alec and Janet King, and their three children Felicity, Felix, and Cecily, and two maiden aunts, Hetty and Olivia.

The Journey Begins begs its inspiration from several sources.  First and foremost, it is based on L.M.Montgomery's "The Story Girl."  The Story Girl is a book told from the perspective of Beverly King, who travels with his brother Felix to PEI for the summer break to visit their family in PEI.

The character of Beverly King in the book has been re-christened Andrew King in Road to Avonlea, minus the brother.  In the episode, Andrew says his father is in South America - well in the novel, he is in Rio de Janero.  In the novel, Beverly's cousins were Dan, Felicity, and Cecily.  In the tv series, they dropped Andrew's brother, and called Dan Felix, and made him younger than Felicity: Felicity, Felix, and Cecily.  Peter Craig, the hired boy, is in both the episode and in the book.  And in the opening episode we meet, very briefly, a girl called "Clemmy," who, as it turns out from the story lines of later episodes of the series, is based on the book's character called "Sara Ray."  (There are also characters called Aunt Olivia and Felix in the book: Chronicles of Avonlea.)

And Sara Stanley.  How can we forget her?  Yes, she is the in novel, as heartwarming and bewitching as ever.  Her circumstances are somewhat different, however.  For one thing, she is living with her Aunt Olivia and Uncle Roger who, like the Matthew and Marilla of Anne of Green Gables, lived together in the family house.  There was no Nanny Louisa or Aunt Hetty, although her father is Blair Stanley.  She is 14 in the book, a little older than in the series, but then since she stays for a longer time in the series, it works out well that she was cast younger. 

I believe that Marilla was, in a way, the inspiration for the creation of Miss Hetty King, though Hetty King's character is much more proud and slightly less sensible than our beloved Miss Cuthbert. 

It should be noted that other characters in the first season are all from The Story Girl as well - Peg Bowen, and Jasper Dale and Aunt Eliza.  And of course we have the appearances of Mrs Lynde and Marilla from Anne of Green Gables (in later seasons, Muriel Stacey, Davy and Dora will appear from one of the Anne books as well).

The first episode of Road to Avonlea is one that will spirit you away to bye-gone-days, and remind you of all that is good in the world.  And, if you are anything like me, it will also get you hooked on the series!  Road to Avonlea is in itself a masterpeice of writing, of taking element of Montgomery's stories and vignets and weaving them into a new, but oh-so-familiar story.  But none of it could have been possible without Montgomery's own genius.  So cheers to Montgomery and the Road to Avonlea screen-writers: They remind us of why we live.