MATERIALIZING OF DUNCAN MCTAVISH, THE (The Road to Avonlea, No 4)

Rating:
Summary: Marilla Cuthbert makes up an old beau, who suddenly appears
Review: WARNING: Although this is the 4th book in "The Road to Avonlea" series, the story takes place AFTER the 5th book, "Quarantine at Alexander Abraham's." Since it does matter somewhat to the telling of this particular tale, you will want to read the next book first.

Early on with the television series "Avonlea" the idea was clearly to adapt some of Lucy Maud Montgomery's better stories from the two "Chronicles of Avonlea" collections. While something was lost in the translation of "Old Lady Lloyd" from story to television, "The Materializing of Duncan McTavish" and "Quarantine at Alexander Abraham's" are superb adaptations. What they both share in common is that they used familiar figures in Avonlea from Sullivan Production's classic "Anne of Green Gables" movies: Marilla Cuthbert and Rachel Lynde, respectively.

Sara Stanley is not sure she is going to enjoy her first time at the Avonlea sewing circle, since she really does not know how to snow. But then something quite interesting happens. When all the ladies are talking about who had how many beaux way back when, Sara asks Marilla Cuthbert "Did you ever have a beau?" Having endured a lifetime of slurs because she never had a beau, Marilla defiantly declares "I had one once." In for a penny, in for a pound, Marilla weaves a fantasy about her beau whom she named Duncan, because it is her favorite name, and McTavish, because she sees an advertisement for McTavish Porous Plasters. Everyone is suitable shocked and Marilla cannot imagine what came over her. But as Marilla knows all too well, "if you do wrong, you will be punished for it sometime, somehow or somewhere." Who should arrive in town but Duncan McTavish, to sell his Porous Plasters, and Sara Stanley knows Fate has brought the two former lovers together again. Of course, this is news to the amazed and confounded Duncan McTavish.

I usually do not give 5 stars to a novelization, but Heather Conkie wrote both the teleplay and this storybook and she did a marvelous job of taking Montgomery's short story "The Materializing of Cecil" in the "Further Chronicles of Avonlea" and working it into the "Avonlea" series. Furthermore, any opportunity to have Colleen Dewhurst play Marilla again is to be cherished. "The Materializing of Duncan McTavish" was a first rate episode and Conkie proves in this novelization how well she understands the characters and the story.