Anne of Ingleside: Celebrating 31 Years of Anne.

   How do you do,

    Well, the past month and one week has been dedicated in going over the Anne of Green Gables series and now it's finally coming to an end. Without further ado, we get into Anne of Ingleside.

   If there seems anything to the addition of this book, I would say that there was one reason for bringing up another book about Anne for Montgomery on part because the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of the first book was arriving. What better way for Montgomery to celebrate it than to have another sequel. Another reason for this also was to fill up some gaps that in the narrative of the seven books already out there now. In this case, was to add a bridge between Anne's House of Dreams and Rainbow Valley, so we can find out how Jem got Dog Monday, how the kids evolved (since they weren't the focus of the now book seven), how Rilla was born, and so on. Apparently, she didn't make the thirtieth anniversary in getting it published, as it came out in 1939 (the year World War II began).
    The book opens with Anne visiting Diana (a first as the character was practically written out of the series in Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside) because Gilbert is attending the funeral of his father. For two chapters, Anne and Diana talk while making some remembrances on the past in places their children are playing in. During their talk, we are told about an Aunt Mary Maria Blythe, who is Gilbert's aunt. I find it interesting that she practically has the same name for a first and middle name (Mary is a variant of Maria). Mary Maria moves in with the Blythes, which signals trouble. She refers to Anne as Annie, a childish name that signifies Mary Maria to see Anne as a child despite being 34 now and with five children of her own.
     Remember the Blythe children from Rainbow Valley? They are shown younger here, all as kids, with Shirley still a two year old. We even see bookish Walter as a boy as well as the impish Jem. In the picture of the novel, you can tell who is who based on their clothes: Jem and Shirley are wearing suspenders while Walter is the sweater with sailor's collar and holding a book. Nearest to Anne are Nan and Di, the twins. The image in this edition does suggest that there is a closer bound between Anne and her daughters while the boys hardly have it. Justified as Susan reared the baby of the bunch while Anne was ill, according to the back story. Not only that, is really shows how the authoress viewed the sexes as the boys' world was something not known to her in opposition of girls' (contrast to Mark Twain who knew the boys' world better than girls'; while I have managed to learn both worlds at once). In a way, this is a more formal introduction that Rainbow Valley neglected (would be redundant if Montgomery made such then and then have them reintroduced here, though).
    As to Aunt Mary Maria, the conflict sometimes stems with her and the children. For example, when Jem gets into an argument about hanging out with some boys in another part of town, Mary Maria can't help but comment on how if she had given her parents lip they'd beat her up. We'd may think that because people use to spank children as recent as the sixties this remark would seem out of place. In reality, as corporal punishment did exist in the past there were plenty of people who opposed the use of it. In fact, the British Empire saw the downsizing of its use in 1860 (before Anne was born) where a child actually died after being whipped by his school master. This caused scandal and led to it being fazed out in both Europe and North America. That did change by the end of the century when it was perceived children were becoming wild and complaints died down. At the same time, it was noted that the use of pain to correct people is a short term punishment and rarely lasts long (practically leading to years of resentment, hostility, and strange sexual preferences, as well as a sadistic notion that it's okay to hurt and humiliate others). From a psychotic standpoint, Mary Maria grew up being spanked with a birch and seems jealous that a newer generation of children are not given the thrashing when they step out of line. No doubt, the statement is also a tact on the current society, at that time; a voice from the past taking note of the present and expressing an opinion over it.
    Mary Maria also exhibits a bit of classism where in the same scene she doesn't respond when Susan speaks up in favor of Jem. It's explained on page 21 that Mary Maria knew Susan to be a servant and her place was not at the table during company, but Anne was willing to let her be because Mary Maria is family as is she. In a way, she is. However, Mary Maria sees Susan as a spinster servant who doesn't belong. If this took place in the United States where such women as Susan Baker were usually black, it'd be understandable (given the times) to some. Since there doesn't seem to be alot of women of color in Prince Edward Island, at that time, the image of someone like Culpurnia from To Kill a Mockingbird would be anachronistic.
     Mary Maria basically becomes over opinionated in alot of things. She considers Gilbert's grace to be too short, the chimneys of the house too short, and that the children all have bad manners. So, she not only stays for two weeks, but they stretch into a month, and then occupy the book. There is the retold story of Hans Christian Andersen visiting Charles Dickens, once, and crashing on his sofa, for a couple of weeks, and then after he left Dickens stopped corresponding for some reason. Dickens' daughter remarked on how the man "stayed and stayed". No doubt, something happened, maybe it was Andersen, but it is something to relate to when mentioning of Mary Maria. She "stayed and stayed" while in the Blythe house. The house does belong to Gilbert, but the man never seems to get the nerve to tell his aunt that it's not her place to be judging his child rearing. When a child goes out of line with her, he is quick to lay down the law. However, if Mary Maria says something insulting, especially with the way she treats his wife and his maid, he does nothing short of permitting it. The grace part was just the beginning. At least, Anne does speak up to her when Mary Maria calls Walter a crybaby and speaks of how two families she knew wouldn't permit it (the old "if you don't stop crying, I'll give you something to cry about" deal) and Mary Maria reacts like some modern person taken aback at a snowflake's reaction to a statement. Still, Mary Maria can't help but use the scary black man image to keep Walter in line when he goes to Lowbridge (get it? Low Bridge?). The last is racially insensitive to modern readers, I know, but it is true: people actually believed in the boogie man who was black and would come to visit bad children for a pop. Frederick Douglass even spoke of it in his autobiography. The image is racist, but not the color coding; for centuries it's been seen in Western cultures that white means purity and goodness while black is darkness and maleficence. She uses that while criticizing Anne for believing in Santa Claus.
     Walter goes to Lowbridge and encounters the Parker family, where the boys are violent and prone to fights, opposed to the sweet and delicate Alice. Walter attempts to hold his own, but Alice makes him think his mom was ill. At that, Walter makes a run for home and finds Susan to greet him. She assures him that his mother is not ill. Then it turns out Walter was out, along with most of the others, because Anne was about to give birth (once more pregnancy wasn't brought up and it just happens out of the blue). Walter then gets to see Baby Rilla, the girl we see in the next two books. With Rilla now born, the number of children in the family has risen to six.
    After Rilla's birth, Rebecca Dew and Elizabeth Grayson return, the former to become kindred spirits with Susan, while the latter is shown to have grown into a lady. Not only do they return, but it is around this time that Jem gets a dog, with Gilbert bringing it up by quoting Lewis Carroll in Chapter 18. Originally, the Blythes had a dog named Rex, who was poisoned before the novel commences. Gyp is the name of the new dog and he dies in one chapter. Of course, Jem would get a new one.

    Even with episodes with the children, Anne is still the protagonist in the novel. Episodes involving her show up now and then, especially when she sees a man die and a poem dedicated to him is published in the obituaries with an added verse. The latter provides an early case of an emoji:

"!!!" said Ingleside. (p.125)

    It is a challenge to know what "!!!" means, but I am willing to guess it means "gasp!" But if there are things to bring up, it's that Montgomery sort of repeats the story at one point. First Walter comes running home to think Anne was dying. Then Nan does the same thing from different people. This time, no new baby. For the most part, things are episodic with some things involving Anne and some things focused on her children. We have a foreshadow of Walter's death, in one chapter, to connect it to Rilla of Ingleside. Besides the loss of a pet, one of the themes in the book is about who your friends are, which is something the Blythe children learn. Di gets a friend named Jenny Penny who treats her like a little thing and laughs at her praying. Rilla grows into a little girl and we see her with her lisps. Her first words in the saga are a prayer for rain. Rilla also is asked to carry a cake and thinks it shameful.
    Yet, the real plot of the novel, surprisingly, comes near the end where Gilbert is seen seeing Christine Stuart again. It amazes Anne who believes, following a fight, that he has fallen out of love with her. Next thing you know, divorce. Turned out to be false as Christine wasn't seeing Gilbert, even if she were widowed and childless. Besides, Gilbert was worried over some patient and it was all for naught. Eventually, they come to an understanding that things have been taken for granted.
    Then the novel ties into Rainbow Valley by having Anne and Gilbert go on a trip to the medical congress (which seems to last a year if it goes by the books, as Anne is forty one then). Earlier, Anne sets up a surprise party for Mary Maria, which is something that offends her terribly. At long last, she packs up and moves out and will never be brought back again. I cannot say but it is a relief when she is gone. She embodies the over opinionated old woman, like with grannies or spinster aunts, who pass down judgements on everything while being hostile to the heroines and never once having any fun. The novel takes place over a period of six years, which is longer than in any of the other installments. By the time the book ends, Anne is forty years old and Rilla is walking and talking.

   A few thoughts to add is Montgomery has once more added a new style to the book, while removing some of the cliches that plagued the previous installments. Of course, Anne of Ingleside is not perfect. I do miss seeing titled chapters in the text that would help with citing something. The chapters here just have numbers and makes it difficult. So, we have to rely on the old fashion method of the use of pages. Anne of Ingleside ties in to the narrative where we see Anne as a mother, after Anne's House of Dreams shows her as a newlywed, Anne of Windy Poplars as a working woman, Anne of the Island as a single lady, Anne of Avonlea as grown up, and Anne of Green Gables as a child. Thus, all six stages of her life in six books, with Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside added to show her as getting over the hill and stepping aside for the new generation. So, Anne of Ingleside is a necessary addition, though it doesn't improve the quality of the sequels much. The flaws in Anne of Ingleside still include the recycled material and situations involving imaginative girls, a death, and now a birth, and the flow of words do seem to have changed. In the last, it hardly seems like L. M. Montgomery of the past, though one could say the author has matured now.

   This is the last Anne of Green Gables novel to have L. M. Montgomery's personal touch. No doubt, another Anne book would have been in the making to bring the story to the Twenties, Thirties, and now the Forties, if the readers requested it. Of course, that meant that now Anne would be an elderly woman whose red hair has turned gray and white, thus removing her one source of shame very late in life. Either that or the focus would continue on her children. Who knows, because Montgomery didn't seem to have plans of another novel in the series by then. She was also creating another set of short stories that took place in Avonlea, titled as The Blythes Are Quoted, which was rejected by a publisher in 1942. So, if the future of Anne was to be told, it would be in a series of short stories. Sadly, on April 24, 1942, before another publisher could be found to publish, Montgomery died, apparently of drug overdose. She was 67 at the time of her death. Her newest entry would be edited into the book Road to Yesterday in the seventies, but it was published in its original form more recently. In the wikipedia page, this entry makes the books of the Anne of Green Gables Series go up to nine, though most would prefer the main eight already out as they are really novels, while The Blythes Are Quoted is not. So, this concludes this journey in examining Anne of Green Gables and its sequels. Rereading them all still brings the "scope to the imagination" again just as they did for the sixteen year old boy who first read them in high school, wanted to be with Anne Shirley, and visit the world of Avonlea. Today, it's been a century and nine years since the first book was published (next year it'll be 110). Things have changed over the previous century, but we still need moments to inspire imaginations. We need people like Anne in the current time and we need more enduring charms that come with her; we definitely need something to make us think of simpler times, as there is so much "scope to the imagination" that comes with the simpler times.


Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Ingleside. (1939) Bantom Books. New York. 1992.

Anne of Windy Poplars: Montgomery Brings Back Anne.

   How do you do, 

   In case most of y'all don't know, July 26th is the feast day of St. Anne, mother of Mary, and it's time of year for all the Novenas. The nine days leading up to Wednesday are when they take place, the first of them starting on July 17th. So, it's impeccable that this entry is done on the week of St. Anne's Day.

   After a fifteen year hiatus, L. M. Montgomery churned out another novel in the Anne of Green Gables Series, which has Anne's name in the title for the first time since Anne's House of Dreams. This means that Anne is once more protagonist. Now, I must make note that what I am blogging on is the US title; in Canada it was originally published as Anne of Windy Willows, but was changed in the US editors who felt it was too much like Kenneth Graham's The Wind In the Willows. Of course, the song remains the same, either way.

   1936 was quite a year for the new Anne book: The Great Depression is underway with some signs of recovery, only to see another crash; Nazi Germany hosts the Summer Olympics in Berlin (after the controversial rearming of Germany and militarizing the Rhineland); the Spanish Civil War breaks out; Mussolini has Italy invade Ethiopia; Japan sees the February Incident that ends with the arrests of 123 conspirators (19 of whom are executed); the United States reelects President Franklin Roosevelt; the Tupelo-Gainsville Tornado outbreak does extensive damage in the South; the Tasmanian tiger went extinct after the last one died in a zoo; Joseph Stalin orders the General Purge in the Soviet Union; King Edward VIII abdicates his throne for his brother, who becomes King George VI; the BBC makes a broadcast on television; Margaret Mitchell publishes Gone With the Wind while William Faulkner gave us Absolem! Absolem!.
    If you read in chronological, as opposed to publication, order, you are indeed reading Book Four in the series. It's the interquel, technically, with Anne of the Island as its prequel and Anne's House of Dreams as its sequel. There is a three year gap in between. Now, that means there is very little tension in the story. We all know that Anne and Gilbert will tie the knot in the next book, and they are committed to each other, so how can you produce some tension. Firstly, L.M. Montgomery writes the book in a different style that in the previous six installments. Instead of titled chapters that tell one the events to come, she writes an epistolary novel where Anne writes letters to Gilbert, who is attending medical school, while she becomes principal in Summerside High School (though it breaks into the standard third person narrative later on) while Gilbert never shows up. With Diana married and with her children back in Avonlea and the rest there as well, for the first time since leaving Green Gables for college, Anne is on her own.
    In Summerside, she meets the world totally different than before, which allows the book to be different that what was experienced in Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island. Anne has gotten a job as principal in the high school and she encounters the vice-principal named Katherine Brooke. Anne takes delight that she spells it with a K, thinking it better than Katherine with a C, but Katherine proves to be something of Fredo in The Godfather Part II, she is upset that she was stepped over despite being older and more experienced than Anne. One way to snub Anne is shown when she replaces the K with a C. Katherine eventually becomes like an onion; a multi-layered character. She was orphaned like Anne, but she was raised by an uncle who payed for her learning and she feels obligated to repay him. Some of this causes her to be resentful and focus on her job more than life. Thus, Montgomery has provided a foil to Anne, who is grateful to Marilla but is still willing to put aside her work for life. However, Katherine is the least of Anne's worries.
     Enter the Pringles. No, they are not the people who created the potato chips that are stacked in cylinder cans. The potato chips you are thinking about weren't invented until 1968, so there's no chance that L.M. Montgomery named this family after it. The Pringles are a family of influence in Summerside. Some of us in towns know of such families that are like the Pringles. They are usually very rich (some nouveau riche and some "old money), had someone in the past who helped found the town, ran an successful business that basically pays for everything in the town, had someone who was a war hero, or a miser in the family who gave away his possessions to the town (like the Miser Madison gave his library to River City in The Music Man), and so on. Such families give so much to the town that the town makes them their important ones; a sort of New World gentry, or royalty. To be in the same fold opens doors in the town (or as Jumanji cynically adds, makes one a target for bullies) and even outside of town. To be friends with such families does both and their backing is often the make or break move for someone running for office. Though the last could mean the town leaders are basically puppets for such families, there is a plus side that they provide the wealth and employment in a town that otherwise would nothing but a shantytown of sharecroppers. They could do things for the poor that all of us are told to do in scripture but most can't as we are often impoverished as well (feeding the starving, clothing the naked, and so on). At the same time, having such families can be a double edged sword, as bad elements show up with them, like the recent case in the South where the heir of businessman raped a college girl and turned the tables her, permitting him to walk scant free of justice while the poor girl had to leave town and later commit suicide. The Pringles do have more respect for the system than the example used, but they could make it hard for Anne to keep her job.
    If you think back to "Dawson's Creek: Review of Commentary Part 3" where I mentioned of Principal Green running afoul of such families in one episode and was driven into resigning if he did not overturn his expulsion of a student. They painted him as an outsider with ideals of justice being not fit for Capeside (plus he was black in a town run by rich white men and women), and used the expulsion of a rich man's son as an excuse to run him out of town on a rail. Knowing that will make it easy to root for Anne as she is also from outside of Summerside and has to deal with the Pringles, who are also running the town and made up of rich people. Anne is also occupying a place of authority in the school, which is consisting of girls. Being principal of a school for girls was where Anne could get in her sex, but it would have been barrier busting if she were to be principal in an all boys school, or even co-ed. Either way, the Pringles make it clear that she is not wanted.
    What helps in rooting for Anne more is that the Pringle Family is a largely faceless entity for much of the book, only represented by the students in Anne's class. One stands out among them, Jan, to whom Anne believes could be a good student if she tries. However, Jan proves more than a handful and it gives Anne a reputation as a bad teacher to the Pringles. Eventually, that changes through a relative. Elizabeth Grayson, who is of Pringle stock. Elizabeth is lonely in school, as her mother died, leaving her with her great-grandmother and "the woman" to look after her. Anne and Elizabeth form a friendship during the course of the book where it is discovered her father is out of the country and left her to her great-grandmother when she was a baby. There were a few other things to add such as how the old woman made her walk in the dark despite being afraid of it in order to go to bed. Basically, she was starved of love in a way that Leonard was in The Big Bang Theory. Where Leonard had his science and self-love to fall back on, Elizabeth had her imagination which is about as fantastic as Anne's. In short, Elizabeth is Anne 2.0. To help, Anne brings her to Green Gables on a two week vacation and she likes it there. Later, Anne writes to Elizabeth's father and he shows up in the end to take her home. However, her guardians, the great-grandmother, believes that she has a good home with her, regardless of how Elizabeth feels. In the end, Mr. Grayson takes Elizabeth with him to Boston.
    Anne also brings Katherine to Green Gables in the book and it leads to a transformation of the character. Suddenly Katherine becomes a softer woman who has forgotten her jealousy of Anne. They then become good friends. Anne also befriends the owners of the namesake Windy Poplars, Aunt Chatty and Aunt Kate, along with Rebecca Dew. Aunt Chatty and Aunt Kate own the place which is used as resident spots for the faculty, though Rebecca Dew does most of the running. This wasn't something appointed to her but rather a case where the owners made her think she was running it in reverse psychology. The aunts living together and running the boarding house is hardly out of the ordinary for those seeing it in 19th Century lens. Some women who never married would move in with each other, and some got into Bostonian marriages, named for the book by Henry James. Rather or not they were actually Lesbians is never discussed and I can't find any reason to believe it here, either. They are likely just two widows living together for mutual advantages, just as Marilla and Rachael Lynde are living together for the same purpose. There are plenty of things that happen with this trio that Anne observes, but to cite them all here would require a much longer entry.
    I will simply say that L. M. Montgomery has it all done in a period of three years with Anne fighting an uphill battle with the power of the Pringle Family, and she comes out smelling like a rose. After the three years have completed, Anne bids Summerside adieu once more and all those who are found of Anne must wave their tearful good byes. Not one of them is going to be able to make her wedding, sadly, and I don't believe they are mentioned in Anne's House of Dreams either. But the book does try to wrap everything up like a bow in order to keep in connection with Book Five.

    To close, Anne of Windy Poplars is a good book. It is better than two of its predecessors and has a fresh new voice after Montgomery kept the Anne Books from the public for so long. The fact that Anne is dealing with the Pringles and the problem of Elizabeth and her great-grandmother, plus her dealing with Katherine Brooke, on her own and without the presence of Gilbert or any man restores the feminist side of the story, though one could argue that Mr. Grayson taking Elizabeth back into this house is a kind of cop out or deus ex machina with the man playing the rescuing cavalry. Where the last two books of the series (which were published first) seemed to reduce Anne as a character into a mother figure, this one can be refreshing to some in seeing Anne made into a strong female character. The image of Elizabeth and her house hold does involve a kind of feel that would make the book a Gothic novel, especially as the scenes of her and Anne take place at night in the start. Even the US title gives it a Gothic setting, even if Summerside doesn't invoke such. One of the best parts of the book is most of the cliches in the series are absent. We still have the lonely and imaginative girl in the midst, but the spinster lady who marries in the end is not there.
    One last thing to add is that this book, along with Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island, served as the source material for Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, produced by Sullivan as a follow up the mini-series Anne of Green Gables. I do not know if I will make a review and commentary on that, yet, but I will say that this, the best entry of the trilogy, is an impressive adaptation of a trilogy of sequels to L.M. Montgomery's masterpiece.

Rilla of Ingleside: The Grand Finale.

   How do you do, 

   Some of y'all may remember the Harry Potter books where J.K. Rowling had us all waiting to find out if Harry and Lord Voldemort will have their climatic show down through seven books, which became eight movies with Warner Brothers' touch. Or with The Hunger Games where we waited for three (four in movies) to find out if they will ever over throw Panam. L. M. Montgomery didn't plan it so, but she had readers of the time waiting for years before a more recent event like World War I entered her writing. If you were to read the completed series today, you'd may have waited through Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne's House of Dreams, Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley, and finally Rilla of Ingleside.

    In Rainbow Valley, we didn't have a clear protagonist, but instead had a bunch of children getting into trouble and causing adventures, which was sad when our main star is fading into the background. That is fixed in this book. We now have a protagonist, Bertha Marilla Blythe, or Rilla. The roly poly girl who was called "Spider" by her siblings and spoke with a lisp, is the one this book will center on as her brothers and sisters are grown up. Jem has been to college, as had Walter, and Shirley is getting into the academy. Nan and Di are also grown up. So, that puts us into learning of Rilla, in a manner of Seventh Heaven would have us focusing on Ruthie after all the Camden children have departed.
   Of course, Anne is still in the story, as she is Rilla's mother. Gilbert is still there, as is Miss Cornelia, and Mr. Douglas. We find out in the backstory that Marilla has finally died, thus ending the final link to Anne of Green Gables. No doubt, Rachel Lynde has also passed on, since nothing more is mentioned of her. It is also disappointing that Diana is rarely seen in these recent books. As to the Rainbow Valley bunch, besides the Blythe children we still have the Merediths, still have Mary Vance, and we have Owen Ford's son, Kenneth, or Ken, as he is often called. John Meredith, however, has retired as minister in the local church and his post is now occupied by Reverend Pryor, referred to as Whiskers On the Moon in the book due to his largely bald head with a mustache. According to the women, it seemed a group of boys came up with the name. From the start, the women don't consider Pryor to be fit to be elder and it won't end at this point. There's also the cat named Doc, short for Doctor Jekyll / Mister Hyde. The cats that Anne once had have died and Rilla had gotten a new one that she named Jack Frost, who then had kittens, and Doc is one them. Walter named him after Robert Louis Stevenson's book, and he shows the bipolar nature well. He goes back and forth between the two over the course of the book. Also returning is Dog Monday, the dog that Jem is attached to.

   The book opens with the same gossip that Anne absorbs before the main story begins. Susan Baker returns to read the Glen Notes, which mention the Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Montgomery lets us know that this would effect everyone, yet when the news came out hardly anyone took notice. Susan sniffs in thought that everyone is getting killed in the Balkans while the ladies agree it doesn't concern them. Thinking on recent events, I have seen real life examples of people who have heard of some tragedy overseas and not take notice, even though history is being made. Today, people are just posting selfies on Pinterest or tweeting on Twitter, while watching some favorite show on Netflix, and reading this blog, I see (just wanted to see if you were paying attention). That to me shows the sad reality; we have the technology to know of the news overseas much better than the women of Glen St. Mary did, and yet the indifference is still there.
    They all keep their minds on what's at home, especially Rilla who is going to a dance at the Four Winds Lighthouse. There, she intends on getting to dance with and even have her first kiss with Ken Ford. Of course, the whole thing doesn't turn out so well. She got a few partners until she spoke with Ken who calls her "Rilla-my-Rilla", a pet name that her brother and a friend use. Apparently, it's enough to make her fall in love with him, because that is what happens. Then, she loses her shoes, winds up dancing with others after Ken departs, and has to walk home bare footed when the party breaks up, as she left her shoes behind. (on that note, given how people had some thoughts going up when two young people disappear into the night and reappear minutes later, the missing shoes would have done some scandal). Symbolically, the loss of her shoes and having her feet all bruised can be likened to virginity loss, however, that is missing the mark: Rilla is taking her first steps on a hard road to adulthood, which is about to get even harder.
   Then came the Great War which we never get to see any of the battles or the gloom, but it does occupy the plot of the novel. For a refresher, a month after Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated, his country, Austria-Hungary, declared war on Serbia. Serbia's ally, Russia, then mobilized against Austria-Hungary, prompting her ally, Germany, to declare war on Russia, and then France as they were allies. Then Germany invaded Belgium to flank the French Army. The British then declare war to protect Belgium. Because Canada is a part of the British Empire, soon to be part of the Commonwealth, she supports England and will send her boys across the Atlantic to Europe. Germany brings in her military, largely shown with her army, while the British have an army in Europe and the Royal Navy, so the whole thing is far from even. On land, the British are vastly outnumbered and can only put in so much aid for the French. At sea, the Royal Navy is does well and blockades Germany. Both sides then get into a stalemate when the trench warfare dominates the Western Front and losses are great. Over time, the airplane is used as a weapon, the tank is introduced, and so is poison gas. Though the British score victories against the Germans, they are unable to really break the tie in World War I (it seems France and Russia fought more in Europe). Then the United States enters on the side of the Allies in 1917, sending in fresh troops to break things even in 1918, and the Great War ended with both sides agreeing to an Armistice on November 11, plus the official ending in the Treaty of Versailles in July of 1919, redrawing the map of Europe, imposing indemnities on Germany for the action, while she goes from empire to republic, which suffers economic woes in the paying of war time damages during the twenties, then the Depression in the thirties, thus paving the road to the rise of the Nazi Party, and a second world war. By then, millions of men have died, including Canada's men. So, we all know how the war will go, just as a reader of Gone With the Wind knows how the Civil War will end, but people living in the book do not and lack the overview of the reader. So, we will be sitting with them and seeing them having their lives changed by the Great War and what they do about it.
   To summarize a few things: Gilbert and Anne monitor the situation and fret, Susan Baker talks of how she could win the war for them by taking out the German Army single handedly, some of the women crochet and gossip about the war, Jerry Meredith is wounded at Vimy Ridge, Miller Douglas lost his leg at some point, Shirley Blythe flew fighters for the RAF, Walter was killed in action in the Somme Offensive, and Jem is captured in a trench raid late in the war.
  The women who talked of the Glen Notes now talk about World War I in their gossip. Miller Douglas' parents drop in, with Mr. Douglas talking of how Great Britain will settle things quickly, while his wife, who warned of the war, claims it won't be settled quickly. During the talking, one woman claims to have formulated a way to win the war and it seemed the generals weren't listening.  In a change in character, Anne doesn't resort to trying to imagine things during the years. You would think she would revert back to her girlish behavior in order to avoid thinking of her boys fighting and dying. Instead, she plays the worried mother and lets the other women be the varying sides of the issue. Susan is the more patriotic of the bunch, hoisting up the Union Jack in each new development, and would often claim to give the emperors in the Central Powers a good thrashing. The latter provokes the amusing image of the elderly woman with a broom, or cane, who is able to whip an opponent that everyone around her claims is too powerful. Think of the Madagascar films where we have that old woman beating up the lion quickly. In that example, it's meant to be joke that an old woman could over take a lion and beat him up, which actually doesn't encourage respect for elders like it was set up for. With Susan, meanwhile, it also provokes laughter since we all know an old house maid is no match for even a handful of battle hardened soldiers. If she tried charging them with a frying pan, and since they are always armed, she'll be dead before she even comes close. At the same time, the conversations concerning the names of cities they hear about are not really what we would consider politically correct. They view only English names as civilized, while anything of the foreign origin not so. This is, of course, in the 1910s, but if some talk was done today most of us would accuse the women of xenophobia. Besides, we have learned how the names are pronounced, which is more than what they did in the book.
    The drama still carries over in the story with many heart aches coming when someone dies or is captured. When Walter is killed, it is a sad chapter. Jem leaves Dog Monday at the station and the dog is seen waiting for him to return, just as Odysseus' dog waited the return of his master for a decade, finally dying when he saw him. Dog Monday lives, however. Then we come to the Pryors. Mr. Pryor, is a pacifist, which is something Montgomery seems to make the same as traitor. I have met people who oppose war, even a just one, and the idea of them being against war so they could turn coat on their country is largely an emotional response from the war supporters. Exceptions do come with this, such as in the 1960s when people opposed the War in Vietnam to the point of hampering the effort there. Of course, we don't really get to see it from his point of view, sadly, which is amazing as Montgomery has come to believe that the Great War was unnecessary by then. Instead, his image is slandered by gossip to the point the reader is forced to see him as the villain, especially when Susan claims Pryor was smiling over the sinking of Lusitania (an action that would have angered American readers who lost someone on that ship, back then). Because of that, he forbids his daughter, Miranda, from marrying Joe Milgrave, all the because the latter is enlisted (inversion of The Four Feathers where the engagement of a British officer is broken up by his resigning of commission). Then he says a prayer in a church meeting that appeals for peace, only to be tackled by Mr. Douglas; the "Old Pagan," they call him. Pryor also goes over to proposal to Susan, and is rejected with quite a reaction. All the events make the reader root against him: that he deserved to be bullied and should be driven out of the house in mad manner (and this apparently brings up a debatable question: at what point is there a limit to the commandment "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother"?). The image of him running from Susan is amusing to think of, though.
    But, Rilla tops them all!

 

   There is a noticeable passing of the torch thing in this and its prequel, Rainbow Valley, where Anne has began to step out of the frame for the main plot line and allow her children to take center stage. In this one, Rilla is the protagonist, as evidenced by the titles. Not since Anne's House of Dreams (in the 1920s, not so after Anne of Ingleside was published) has Anne's name even be placed in the title which further shows how her status as the heroine of the series has ended (even if we still call it Anne of Green Gables Series). Anne is in her fifties now and is gradually becoming an old woman (her red hair that she once hated is beginning to gray) while her daughter is coming into her own, which is how this passing of the torch is evident. By Rilla of Ingleside, Anne is no longer protagonist while her daughter has taken the mantle. Instead, Anne is just the heroine's mother. I am sure if Stephany Meyer were to make a sequel series to Twilight, Bella's daughter would take center stage while Bella and Edward are just the parents in this (assuming they stay together).
    Rilla spends the bulk of the book growing, which is a contrast to the prequel where she was hardly there at all. At the start, all she she can think of is dancing with Ken and getting her first kiss. Of course, the news of World War I breaking out ruins the night. Ken expresses favor while Rilla goes all Scarlet about it. Of course, she has to watch as the two men she loves, her brother Walter and Ken, enlist. So, it would seem that Rilla would spend her time in the novel just pining away while those two are out in the Flanders region.
    Then she brings a baby without parents in a soup tureen. I can imagine all sorts of symbolic wombs to be of use, though kitchen wear seems the last thing to think of. Of course, one could argue of the birth membrane being represented by the stew or soup in the bowl and the baby as the bits of steak. Regardless, she transports the baby after its parents have gone. The baby's mother dies while the father is in the war. So, it falls to Rilla to tend to the child, with everyone giving her advice. She names him James Kitchener Anderson, called Jims a couple of times. During the time while listening in on the war's progress, Rilla experiences motherhood, though she gets more relation from Susan than from Anne during the course of the rearing.
    When Ken appears, the presence of the baby nearly ruins their time together, but it seems Ken doesn't seem to mind. He is likely impressed with Rilla. Susan even reminds him of the way he use to be and how things with Rilla were. Then, when the chance comes, he kisses her and asks that she not let anyone else do so. This request seems much to modern women, and more so to the times of the book as everyone then asks if Rilla is engaged to Ken. It does speed up the courtship than before; Anne and Gilbert took three books to get engaged, plus one more before marriage came. Here, Rilla and Ken (I wonder if we call them KRilla or Rillaken?) go through much of the book without seeing each other. Ken and Rilla have a dance in August of 1914. Then they meet again in the Blythe House where Rilla gets her first kiss. After that, he is out in the front for the remaining half of the book. A few letters are written and Rilla has to turn down another guy who likes her in order to keep her promise. She does express regret over that she is sending a man off with a broken heart, especially since he may die.
    Rilla and her mother, and the others, see it all in the home front: the draft calls, the goods rationing, the Red Cross volunteers, and the Daylight Savings Time (with Susan refusing to set her clocks ahead, which would have led to problems of her being an hour late at everything). Like everybody else, when Cambai was fought, she and Anne "wept and prayed", to quote It's a Wonderful Life; when Jerusalem was captured they "wept and prayed again"; when the Armistice was made they once more "wept and prayed." The chapters "Victory" and "Mr. Hyde Goes to His Own Place..." handle the moments with the Armistice happening (the even that is one year away from reaching its centennial) with all the built in energy being released by the locals. Out with the rationing, out with Daylight Savings Time, and out with recruitment notices. Peace has come again and we can go back to the way things were. However, it doesn't entirely do so: Susan Baker decides to go on holiday (or "take a honeymoon" as she calls it), Mr. Pryor suffers a stroke which means a new elder is needed, and the cat ran off, never to bother anyone again with its dual personality. I do like that Susan is doing so without getting married as it breaks the cycle of spinster women who never found love yet winding up married.
    In the States, we have the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", which is a fitting song to play as the boys return in the spring of 1919. Jem returns also and is engaged to Faith Meredith. Miller Douglas returns with a wooden leg, yet he is still engaged to Mary Vance. In all the hullabaloo, we don't get any mention of the Influenza outbreak that killed scores of people. We also don't get to read of anyone's reactions to the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which officially ended World War I. The absence of the two is likely because Montgomery wanted to give a happier and more satisfying conclusion to her book after two hundred pages of agony over reading the war process (the miniseries Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story does one better and actually bring the characters into the war itself and have them running about the post-war Europe with everything around them falling). But Rilla records Jem stating that the Great War has seen to the end of the old world that they all knew and it was time to build a new one. This is echoed by that final scene in The Patriot where they start by rebuilding Mel Gibson's house. How it will be build is Jem going to college, along with others. Rilla even settles with some schooling as she has heard nothing from Ken. Jims' father shows up with a new wife in 1918 and they adopt the boy as their own again. They even take the soup tureen with them, thus Rilla gets to see the toughest thing in being a mother: letting the child go. Then comes the scene in the last page where Ken shows up and they behold each other. They see that they have both changed: Ken has seen war and lost much of his boyhood side in physical appearance while Rilla has matured and grown wiser from her silly romantic ways. So, it's no surprise they hardly recognize each other. Yet, Ken calls her "Rilla my Rilla" and Rilla's last word in the book is the slip back into her lisp. I am sure they kissed soon after and that concludes the last book in the series.



     To conclude, Rilla of Ingleside is a great improvement over Rainbow Valley. Montgomery puts away some of the cliches of the previous installments and focuses on one character, even if she hardly had much in the prequel. The introduction of the outside world events adds tension to the story and makes it a page turner. Historic wise, Rilla of Ingleside is a nice place to see in a story telling the home front of World War I in Canada. Rilla is a nice character to know and watching her blossom into a woman is noteworthy. A few flaws are in the book,
     Some research on the book has told me that what I have in the series is abridged. Sometime after Montgomery's death, it was decided the Anti-German sentiment in the book would make it dated and it was cut out. That bugs me: cutting those out because it dates the book has no logic and you might as well just cut every mention of the Germans from the book and make the war seem like something happening on another planet. Thankfully, a group of editors have published in 2010 an annotated version that restores all the deleted sections and adds footnotes and maps in there. All the new additions to the text now makes it possible to read this book in the way those of the 1920s did.
     As to the future, what is in store for Ken and Rilla? It does seem that the circle of life is continuing now that Anne has passed the torch to Rilla, but will there be a branching off into "Rilla Books"? Could it be possible that Montgomery could go until we see the tragic chapter where Anne dies and that is the end of the series? Not so. Rilla of Ingleside was published as the final book in the Anne of Green Gables series, and it stays that way chronologically. In the meantime, Montgomery had focused her talents on non-Anne books as well like Emily of New Moon, Pat of Silver Bush, and The Blue Castle. The two times she did return to Avonlea was in Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea. It would not be until the Thirties before L.M. Montgomery would bring in another installment to the Anne Books.

Rainbow Valley: The Next Generation.

   How do you do, 

   It's 1919. World War I is called the Great War and it just ended through the Treaty of Versailles. So now one would wonder what is there to write about or if L.M. Montgomery would be done with Anne for a time and get on some other project. But, in this year, with the new source of nostalgia fuel being read (the days before the war broke out) and because many readers would want to know of Anne experiencing motherhood, we are given Rainbow Valley. 

   The first thing to take note is the title. Anne's name is not in the title, so at first glance one would think it was a different book. Then you open it up and you find that Anne is in there, along with Gilbert, so it is a sequel to Anne of Green Gables. But, why is Anne's name not in the title? This is why this entry has the name "the next generation". Here, the focus has shifted away from Anne and now has gone to a new generation of imaginative children. This does rob Anne of having the status as protagonist in the story, something she had in the past.
   By now, Anne and Gilbert have additional children: sons Jem, Walter, Shirley, and daughters Di and Nan (twins) and Rilla. Jem was the baby boy born back in Anne's House of Dreams. Now he has grown into a strapping boy on the verge of becoming a man (they grow up so fast). He is now the older brother of Walter Cuthbert Blythe, the sensitive poetic boy (who gives Rainbow Valley its name) and Shirley Blythe (You can call him "Shirley"). Those are the boys while Diana and Anne are a pair of twins for elder daughters (both of whom are older than Shirley). Just to keep from confusion, they are called Di and Nan. It's interesting now that Anne had babysat twins several times in her life and now she gets to be a mother to a set of them. Finally, there is little Bertha Marilla Blythe, or Rilla, as she is called. They all live with their maid, Susan Baker, in a house called Ingleside.
   The six children have their own traits. Walter is a poetic boy who is seen as a girl by some boys in Glen St. Mary, Jem , Shirley calls Susan Baker his Mother Susan due to her nursing him when Anne was sick. The twin girls are basically Anne and Diana of the new generation, which makes it easy to know. As to Rilla, she is shown as a roly-poly girl and is called so, along with "spider", and she also lisps. Some of the Blythe children are up in Green Gables when Anne and Gilbert go on a trip to Europe, which allows them to tell the reader that not only are Marilla and Rachel Lynde doing well, but Davy has become the father to his own children. Unlike the reader, they don't have much of anything nice to say about Avonlea, which is understand about. It was just Mama's home and not theirs.
   The book also introduces the Meredith Clan, consisting of John Meredith, a new minister, and his children, Faith, Una, Mary Vance, Jerry, and Carl. It's nice to know that the Blythe children are going to be having some new friends. However, Montgomery sort of shifts the point of identification from the Blythes to the Merediths, which does make things confusing. It can also explain why it's not called "Anne of Rainbow Valley" or "Jem of Rainbow Valley". As to the children of the Meredith Clan, Mary Vance stands out among them for not having the same surname. It turns out, she was a runaway who was welcomed in by the two boys and two girls, one of whom introduces her to Missus Elliott, who adopts her. Mary Vance is a broken dove sort of girl, shown to swear and boast alot, which puts awe in the eyes of the children. She could have easily be Anne Shirley 2.0, if it weren't for the last (I mean, Anne has four letters and Mary has four letters, both Biblical in origin -- St. Anne was the mother of the Virgin Mary, after all). However, it doesn't turn out so. Instead, Mary Vance is something of a foil. Anne went through trauma and came out still innocent while Mary Vance was beaten a few times and came out mischievous.
   The Meredith Children sort of invert what The Lord of the Flies had in mind where a group of children operating without supervision of adults become akin to wild animals with stereotypical traits of natives. This is noted in their creation of the "Good-Conduct Club" where they decide to make themselves be the judges on being good or bad without the use of grown ups. It sort of works and the children keep each other in line. One could say that if given the chance, children could keep themselves disciplined without the need of adult figures doing that. However, Montgomery is not advocating it and shows how that can fall apart. Carl gets sick in one chapter and that basically breaks down the need for the Good-Conduct Club. Rev. Mr. Meredith even thinks he is not a good father.
    This one choice was to give his children a mother. That is where we meet once more two over the hill women who are not married because of circumstances. This time, they made a promise to not leave each other after the deaths of their parents. You would think they believe that to be childish by now, but they stick with it into old age. The girl that John is into is Rosemary West, the younger. Her older sister, Ellen, who is the one who forbids it. That becomes inverted later when Ellen is reunited with an old beau, Norman Douglas, who comes to court her. Eventually, the two decide they were two old for such promises and marry their men.

    Coming of age becomes the subplot for the Blythe and Meredith Children in Rainbow Valley. Jem is fifteen at the end of the book and begins studying to go to the Queen's Academy. Walter also becomes interested in Faith, which leads to him fighting a boy named Dan Reese when the latter insults her and his mother. After this fight, the bookish Walter is respected by all, which most modern readers may find off putting. It's almost as though Montgomery has decided to leave the feminist stance in the first book and is going back to traditional gender roles by this point. I'm not a feminist, after all, so it can't dominate the post. I can let some real feminist deal with that.
    Walter then speaks of the Pied Piper coming in the final chapter, which foreshadows World War I. Of course, the book takes place a decade before it broke out, so it's just a foreshadow. It's make the impression that Rainbow Valley and the next installment, Rilla of Ingleside, to be two parts of a longer novel that Montgomery decided to break in two, just as she did with Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island. Jem welcomes the arrival of Walter's Piper in the final dialogue. From that moment, the whole thing stops, which is sad as the book felt like it was finally getting something more than an episodic plot line. Of course, for the readers in 1919, this kind of story telling gave a nostalgic feel that all the installments before it lacked. In fact, Montgomery dedicated this entry to three men she knew who served and died for Canada in World War I: Goldwin Lapp, Robert Brookes, and Morley Shier. In the chapter, "Let the Piper Come", she makes another note of the First World War by saying how the boys playing about Rainbow Valley would all grow up to be soldiers and sent to Europe when the war began.
    Even with it, I do consider Rainbow Valley to be somewhat the weakest in the series. It relies heavily on recycled plot lines and characters, and it doesn't seem to have a clear idea of who we are to relate to as a protagonist, which is bad when Anne is retiring into the background at this point. Perhaps the title would have told us about the latter. In the previous four installments (later six), Anne is the protagonist which is why her name is in the title. The star is always going to be Anne and everyone else is going around her. In Rainbow Valley, that's out the window and the point of identity changes to where Anne the protagonist we had come to know and love is one of the characters revolving around a star, yet we have not one but many stars. Since this is the next generation, I would think that it should be one of her children. Instead, we get the Merediths who occupy much of the stage while the Blythe children are sidelined. At least, Montgomery changes that in the next installment. Besides, she later writes a prequel to the book, or rather interquel as its between books five and seven. The thing of recycling plot lines and traits can be justified as this whole thing was a series and things tend to get repeated in a series. Yet, it does make it harder and harder to really become invested when the same thing keeps getting repeated. The thing that Montgomery keeps repeating, of course, is that thing of unmarried women who are over forty, or thirty, who had a past love and it ended. Marilla Cuthbert started it and she was enduring as we didn't know of it until the end, but it worked for her as she was a determined woman who could handle things on her own, leaving her brother to do man's work in the process. She never marries in the series and that made it all work. The imitation of Marilla in her love life is brought up again in the series, with Ellen and Rosemary West being the latest, yet each time we meet one, they wind up married at the end of the book. First, Anne of Avonlea gave us Lavendar Lewis, the woman who loved Mr. Irving but was kept from marrying him. Of course, she gets married in the end of the book. Next, Anne of the Island gave us Janet who is kept from Mister Douglass by his mother. They get married because the man's mother is dead in the end. Anne's House of Dreams gives us Miss Cornelia whose beau kept his distance for political reasons, which stop impeding the wedding in the end. So, that's three times we have Marilla wannabes in the story who only lack the crusty exterior that defined her and they get married at the end of the book, whereas Marilla stayed single. I can't think of any excuse in all the cases: maybe L.M. Montgomery decided that one Marilla Cuthbert is enough, or Aunt Josephine, or maybe she thought that everyone should get married and tries to make it so in her books. If there is a Montgomery scholar out there who can explain it better, let him or her now speak.
    So, even if Rainbow Valley doesn't have the same strength as the earlier books, it can still be read as a nostalgic fantasy to the Edwardian period, just as Anne of Green Gables was seen to the Victorian. By this point, we are now in the early 20th Century and one can see the untouched innocence of the new century to come before everything that was to happen has happened. It's a pity we can't find such with the 21st, given how a short period came before the 9/11/01 attacks came and all. Either way, we all miss Avonlea, sitting on the front porch....

Anne's House of Dreams: Two Kindred Spirits Meet New Characters.

   How do you do,

   So, shippers out there may remember that dreadful series, Twilight where the world waited for four books before Bella and Edward get married and do it. Of course, in the television world, Boy Meets World has us waiting for three seasons before Cory and Topanga became a couple and four more would arrive before they tied the knot. Mrs. Montgomery, of course, had us waiting through Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island before we reach Anne's House of Dreams, a total of three novels to read through before we see the Anne and Gilbert ship finally set sail (four books, once Anne of Windy Poplars was published).
  We also don't have to wait too long as the book begins with Anne returning from her days as a principal and Gilbert has just graduated his medical school years. So, the first set of chapters has the preparation for the wedding and the wedding ceremony to follow. Today, weddings are lavish and often commercialized (case in point is Kate Middleton's wedding a few years ago and The Middle lampshaded some of that commercialism, once). They have the standard of everyone gathering at a church or the courthouse, bride's family in one aisle and groom's in the other, the groom comes in, the father of the bride escorts the bride (or she walks down the aisle herself), and they say their vows before the clergyman or justice. Then they go to the reception where someone gets drunk, food is wolfed down, dancing is involved, then the bride tosses the bouquet, the groom tosses the garter, and then they make their grand exit, just some place to change and then it's off to the honeymoon (don't kid yourselves, only in movies and television shows do the bride and groom depart for the honeymoon in their wedding attire). That's 21st Century in the States. With Gilbert and Anne, we are seeing a 19th Century wedding in Canada.
    The wedding is not done in the little white church or the little brown church in the vale, nor in a megachurch (since those things didn't even exist then). No, it's done at Green Gables, which is way cheaper than having it done in a church or in the court house. In fact, one should do the same and then there's enough money for more guests. The thing is also done on a smaller and more efficient setting with Minister Allan presiding, Anne comes down from the upper floor, and the birds provide the music in the yard for the reception. Anne doesn't seem to toss the bouquet here, since most of her friends are already married, but I am sure one can imagine it. The garter toss is also not mentioned, but since it was scandalous for a lady to show her ankles, then, I think Gilbert wouldn't even be able to remove it from her in the reception anyway (today, there are bridal gowns that have the hemlines go up to the knee, making it easier for the groom's probing hands to reach the garter). They still throw rice at the departing couple and Paul drives them to the station for their departure. The event is also a sad one for Marilla because Anne is leaving Green Gables forever (but I know one song that would have been of some help to her, if it was written back then, though I know she is not her real mom).
    Now comes the part those who haven't read it yet may be wondering: once Anne and Gilbert are out of Green Gables, out of Avonlea, and in the new house at Glen St. Mary, do they do it? Well, I will say that Missus Montgomery is not going to describe the consummation of their marriage because they didn't put that down on paper then (mostly among the English and Americans, it seems less so in other cultures, which is ironic as English Literature seems fascinated with sex). People didn't believe the actions husbands and wives do in their bedrooms were supposed to be known, other than getting up in the morning or getting under the covers at night. It's the same puritanism that saw Ricky and Lucy sleep in two separate beds during the show run. Today, movies and books will have it even if the characters are not married, which ruins the mystery. I know it's quite natural and all, but can any reader out there honestly think of a reason to show it? Would any of them like their time in the intimate act known through the world? It can ruin lives, you know. If you believe what goes on between a husband and wife, or two lovers, in the privacy of their bedroom stays there, good for you, though I have to ask why should the same thing be suspended on fictional people? So, let's just assume they did the deed once they were married and move on without actually seeing it.
    What we really want to see the titular house.

    The house is in a resort called Four Winds, a reference to Four Winds of Heaven, and it is located in Glen St. Mary. A nice way to start out life in a new home: by the sea. They could wake up each morning and look out the window to see the ocean and hear the cry of seagulls, plus behold the light house close by. When Gilbert and Anne first arrive, Anne spots a girl near the gates and inquires on her, but Gilbert doesn't see her. They instead go into the house and are greeted by Doctor Dave and his wife. The chapter "Captain Jim", where Gilbert first introduces Anne as his wife (the moment most women seem to have their hearts skip a beat on such introductions), is the chapter that introduces Captain Jim, the keeper of the light house near by.
    Captain Jim is not anything like Captain Hook or Long John Silver, more like Mr. Crabs from Spongebob Squarepants in human form, sans the love of money, combined with the Captain McCallister from The Simpsons. That is ironic considering that he says there are McAllisters in the country (not including Kevin). Captain Jim tells great stories, some including his passage at sea. Through Captain Jim, we hear of Cornelia Bryant, and of how a schoolmaster brought his wife to Four Winds once. This makes Anne glad to not be the first bride to come to that house.
   Cornelia visits the Blythes in September, after their arrival. One thing that happens in the introduction is that Cornelia has a low brow opinion on Methodists, especially their ministers. This is still a time when religion played a dominate role in a community and churches basically became something of an elk club. Sometimes, it basically affected opinions of you on which church you went to. Those that did not go to church were considered heathens and often were kept at bay by the rest, only keeping talk out of politeness or for commerce reasons. Being a Catholic, myself, I am sure I would have been an outsider to the Glen St. Mary community, which is mostly Presbyterian and Methodist, though they would have a reason to call on me once in a while. At the same time, Cornelia talks of the minister being such a nice guy without any back bone or talking crazy about getting people to step out of their comfort zone. Cornelia reveals that she doesn't stand men either, only Anne's husband, Dr. Dave, and Captain Jim, the latter she claims never gets mad.
    For the most part, the book's plot becomes mostly Anne sitting in on gossip with the women of the town who tell her of some story involving another here and there, which is just what was done in Anne of the Island (at least, we don't have anymore of that "Jog along, black mare" rubbish). Yet the girl that Anne saw appears suddenly in chapter ten. It turns out her name is Leslie Moore, wife of Dick Moore. The backstory is quickly revealed that Leslie was married young to Dick Moore, practically still hitting puberty, and she found her husband to be something of a tyrant. I guess one can say that she is sorry she ever got married cause the humor is off her now. So, she became a wife at age sixteen to a man who had disappeared for some time and comes back during the story, completely changed. Dick Moore (yeah, go ahead with the play on words) had gone off to Cuba on a trip, as he was a sailor also. Then he disappeared and everyone thought he died while in Cuba until Captain Jim returned with a bearded man who looked like Dick Moore, only he was a little demented. Leslie identified him as her husband, especially once that beard was shaved off.
    Such is the story of the Moores. She went from cowing under this guy to being nurse to a big baby. In the meantime, Anne does befriend her, though the beauty the woman has is enough to bring up a humorous moment between her and Gilbert. Anne is still conscious of her hair color and hearing of Gilbert admire Leslie's golden one is enough to get her upset. She even turns down his gentle talk and tells him to admire it on his own (looks like Gilbert might wind up sleeping on the couch). After that, Anne and Gilbert interact more with the Glen residents that they decide to spend their first Christmas there instead of going to Green Gables. So, Marilla, Rachel Lynde, and the twins go up to them, which a new experience for Marilla who had never gone beyond her home before. This is not unusual when one thinks of the 1890s. Back then, most people never left their states (in the US), some didn't even leave the county they grew up in, as traveling was expensive. The idea of someone traveling often and setting to another location is brand new and it was just coming into practice in the last years of the 19th Century. New Years comes and it is suggested that Anne write a book on Captain Jim. She debates on that and finally gets to it, eventually. 
    I mentioned how we don't see any sex in the book because of the Victorian belief of what goes on in the bedroom ought to stay there, and it stays that way through the book. Then, all of a sudden, Anne has just given birth to a boy. However, the baby sadly dies. Another character comes in, Susan Baker, a spinster lady who refers to Anne as "Mrs. Doctor dear". For a 21st reader, this seems condescending, but it was honorific for it as the lady couldn't simply call her Anne and Mrs. Blythe seemed too ordinary to her. The death of Anne's baby is a personal event for Missus Montgomery who also lost her first child upon birth. In this time, babies did die after birth and there were no medical devices around aid with the baby's life upon leaving the mother. If the baby didn't cry even after all that spanking, it was a sign it was dead. Today, better birthing practices have come that can ensure a baby will live, even prematurely. Birth is a dangerous time for the mothers, too. Even in the 1890s, women still died from childbirth, as the process was painful and done for centuries without drugs to numb the pain (some cultures even train women to stifle their moans or pains while in childbirth, so I heard) and arteries sometimes got cut or the womb itself, causing the mother to bleed to death. Once more, medical practices have improved to allow the birthing to be done in a safe manner.
   Though the first baby dies, do not fret for Anne becomes a mother again near the end of the book, once more with a boy, and this time the babe will live. They name him James Matthew after two old men Anne knew, though the sequels would call him by his childhood pet name of Jem (and this was before Harper Lee named the eldest of the Finch children in her book. Makes one wonder if she read Anne's House of Dreams). Susan Baker then becomes attached to the Blythes and will be there to help in raising the children who will show up in the sequels.
   As to Dick Moore, Gilbert decides to have a surgery done on his skull, though Anne goes against it and they have a disagreement over it, just so he could return to his normal self and not be demented any more. When he does this, it leads to a shocking discovery: that isn't Dick Moore but his cousin, George. It turns out, Dick actually died in Cuba from Yellow Fever and George has been impersonating him the whole time. So, there is the unfortunate implication of a woman who has been living in sin with a man who was pretending to be her dead husband (ring a bell?). At least it is not like in The Addams Family where a Nosferatu like character was sent to make all believe he was Uncle Fester and it turned out he was Fester. They both share a trait of having heterochromic eyes (each eye has a different color than the other). But, that proves okay because Leslie is in love with another man named Owen Ford. They court and quickly become engaged.
    Owen Ford is introduced as a male counterpart to Anne, being that they are both writers, though he wants to write the Great Canadian Novel (sort of like someone wanting to write the Great American Novel). As it turns out, his sole purpose, other than to fall for Leslie and court her upon learning she was free, is to write a book about Captain Jim. At the end of the book, after seeing an advanced copy of Ford's book, Captain Jim "Crosses the bar" as they say, meaning he dies. Leslie also becomes friendly with Anne after the death of her first child, claiming that she understands her, which is something I tend to question. Anne had experienced sorrow her childhood, climaxing with the death of a guardian, and only this event is why Leslie is willing to consider her a kindred spirit? Where's that scope for the imagination?
    As to Miss Cornelia, she also has a beau in form of Marshall Elliot who proposes and they agree to marry at the end of the book now that the Grits are in power (yeah, I find that amusing in my perspective) and he shaved off his beard that bothered her, because he didn't intend to do so until the Grit party comes to power. It took until the year 1896 before that happened. Miss Cornelia and Marshall Elliot getting hitched is a little out of the left field, and largely showing that Montgomery has a need to marry characters off. It's almost as though the only women allowed to remain single, even at old age, are Marilla Cuthbert and Susan Baker, neither of whom got a man by this point and it seems that they never will (Rachel Lynde is a widow and doesn't intend to remarry, either). Finally, Gilbert and Anne chose to leave the House of Dreams after being there for over a year (I guess the honeymoon is over) and they move to another house near Glen St. Mary. The Old Morgan House is where they move to as Gilbert will be close enough to his work. With that Anne's House of Dreams comes to a close.

    Anne's House of Dreams is not as bad as Anne of Avonlea though not as good as Anne of Green Gables and just barely equals to Anne of the Island. The fresh new look that comes with Anne and Gilbert marrying and moving to Glen St. Mary gives the book a feel that we have gone from one room to another in the journey of life. With this, Anne and Gilbert are the main heroes of the book while everyone else seem to be passing through. Diana, Marilla, Rachel Lynde, the twins, Mr. Harrison, and David Irving have diminished as characters in this book, largely showing up when needed, while the new characters, Captain Jim, Miss Cornelia, Marshall Elliot, Owen Ford, Leslie Moore, and George show up for us to make acquaintances with. This does reflect on what happens when one moves away from the home that one has grown up with. Suddenly one is a stranger in a strange land and meeting some unfamiliar people.
   The characters are the good parts of the book (and the chapters with the wedding are splendid and the childbirth provides sadness) but the rest hardly seem out of the ordinary. Once more, the same tropes of the Anne of Green Gables series is replayed with a spinster lady whose love has been delayed by some outside or inside obstacle, a wedding, a death of an old man, and a young girl who longs to escape the world. At least Montgomery still maintains the flair in her writings that made Anne of Green Gables enjoyable.
   One thing to add is this book is turning a hundred years old this year as it was published in 1917. Book three, Anne of the Island, was published within months of the outbreak of World War I, while Anne's House of Dreams was written and published during it. So, both books do provoke a kind of nostalgic look back to pre-war Canada. I'd like to think that Montgomery was busy writing this book in 1916, which is twenty years after the events of the book. That certainly makes a good amount of time to develop some nostalgia for peace time. I can relate to that in my current time. It's been twenty years since I was to begin 6th Grade, another transitional phase in life where we get into World History, deep science, a level of math, and start to have all those sex ed moments (provided by a group of teenagers in the T.G.I.F.). It's also been twenty years since the same boy who sat through all that was bedazzled to see the sequel to Jurassic Park come on the screen, along with Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition (before I became nostalgic for the unaltered versions), and started hearing that song from Titanic played around by many friends.
   I am sure that for the faults, Anne's House of Dreams can be a fun book to read for couples, especially those who are entering twenty years of marriage and want to look back to simpler times: even if they were in smaller houses or apartments, had less of a disposable income, yet had less responsibilities to deal with and often more time to each other. Now, to any reader out there named Anne who has just married or are getting married, you will see that in ten or twenty years (God willing and the creek don't rise), but I do believe all those Annes out there -- even if that is not your name -- who has been married for decade would defiantly agree with this. Either way, you can tell me how much scope to the imagination there is in being newlywed.

Anne of the Island: Anne Stars in the Victorian Bachelotte.

   How do you do,

   Like I said in reviewing Anne of Avonlea, the book of an orphan girl adopted by an elderly couple and grows up to be a hardworking student is something of a tough act to follow, and when it came to trying for it twice, Anne of Avonlea sort of didn't meet the same level as Anne of Green Gables. Of course, this is when book three comes in, Anne of the Island. In comparison to book number two, I would consider book number three a better improvement. 

   Now, when I say that whereas book two wasn't the literary masterpiece as book one, that book three is big improvement, that doesn't mean it will be the best yet. Anne of the Island does have its own set of flaws, including the reinventing of the wheel being reused in this installment. In someway, I like to think of Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island as two parts of a larger book that was to follow up Anne of Green Gables, making Anne of the Island as part two of this bigger book. It practically begins where the second book left off, with Anne ready to go to college which was delayed by Matthew's death and Marilla's eyesight and Miss Lavendar's wedding has just recently happened.
   One thing is carried over from Anne of Avonlea. Diana has met a man named Fred Wright and, after some courtship as a subplot to the second half of the book, got engaged to him. Diana and Fred are still engaged now, as Diana is seen twisting her ring in the first chapter. They talk of how Anne will be going to college without any friends, except of course Gilbert Blythe and Charlie Sloan. Speaking of Gilbert, he appears suddenly and has a talk with Anne shortly after, with Diana departing. They come to a bridge and Gilbert wants to tell Anne something and Anne prefers to just keep silence in the scene, which disappoints him. So begins the story arc of the third book: the love story of Gilbert and Anne (cue "Across the Stars.").

   Speaking of, the plot line of Anne and Gilbert's romance in Anne of the Island did remind me, as a teenager, of the plot line used in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones where the love story of Anakin and Padme is basically a plot formula of the girl who rejects the boy early on and decides he is Mr. Right in the end, mostly when death is involved. The plot thread to Anne and Gilbert follows in the same pattern. For the most part, Gilbert now is crushing on Anne who is totally oblivious to his feelings. He does do his part in being a friend which included walking her about campus (which fuels gossip there). When Gilbert comes to express his feelings for Anne, she rejects him and tells him she wants to be just friends. Gilbert may have wanted to be friends with her at first, but now he is no longer content with being in the friend zone, something most would feel sympathetic over. Because of this, Anne sort of stops interacting with Gilbert, once more. Of course, they are within a mile of each other after that, but unlike with the Star Wars example, Gilbert and Anne don't have the luxury of a forbidden romance. If anything, it's encouraged and when Anne rejects Gilbert everyone talks as though she led him on.
    This is largely due to the values dissonance deal. In the 19th Century, women were just beginning to enter college in some countries and many did get a career from their education, but most wound up tied down in a marriage soon after. Basically, as we would say, Anne's generation went to college to get an MRS degree. For a century after, this use to be the rule where women went to college to find a good husband, not a good career. It was only in the late 20th Century through the women's lib movement that the minority of women who remained single upon graduation and stay so for a number of years has become the majority and now those who marry right after college are considered rare. In fact, the Everything About Romance book considered this to be "Senior Syndrome" where after May graduations come June weddings. Some happen through love and others because of security involved. In the meantime, it's greatly encouraged by society for women to put off marriage while getting into their careers while the statement of obtaining an MRS Degree now seems demeaning. In the 1880s, the world was completely different. Most women were expected to become a wife and mother while the men got a trade and a diploma. In some places, they actually had colleges that were for women and another group for men, only. But, in this time period, Anne's going to college is considered a step forward as she is going against society's expectations and gets a higher education and possibly a career while the more traditional minded Diana Berry settles for marriage to Fred.
    This is how I consider this the Victorian Bachelotte as Anne gets not one but five proposals. The first is from Billy Andrews (or rather it was through his sister), a guy that Anne had befriended and got his eye soon after. Anne rejects him. I can say that looks are not really something to think on with a suitor, even if most people claim that good looking guys are able to have their way with women more so than average or ugly looking ones. Then again, the fact that his sister did the proposing for him suggests of Billy not being much of a real man in the sense who would have simply walked up to Anne and say "will you marry me?" Even if you said no, ladies, you have to admit that is much better than having someone do the proposing for him. Then comes Charlie Sloan, the boy that Anne didn't consider much in their school years. The chapter "An Unwelcome Lover and A Welcome Friend" has him asking is she could be his wife in a manner as though he were asking her to be his wing man, or something. Of course, Anne says no and Charlie accepts it by getting cold to her. Then he does what most of us are advised to do: he sought out someone who appreciated him and he then uses it against Anne. I am sure this was largely to give himself some satisfaction. Then Gilbert begins to propose, and is rejected by Anne. Next comes a man named Royal Gardiner, introduced in the chapter "Enter Prince Charming." He certainly fits the description, being that he covers Anne with his umbrella during a rain. Anne falls for him and it seems that we have a love triangle on our hands.
   Or so one would think. Gilbert actually moves on from Anne and becomes involved with a Christine Stuart (yeah, I know. That's not moving on, that's making the girl jealous). Eventually, it is announced that Gilbert is engaged to Christine and Anne is shocked at this. It is here that she realizes she does have some feelings for Gilbert and regrets how their friendship has gone. Still, she has her Prince Charming and in the chapter "False Dawn", he proposes to her. The paragraph describing the event shows that the proposal is basically what everyone expects in one: the guy bears his heart to her and brings up the ring. In short, cliche. Anne, who has always wanted the tall, dark, and handsome man for a husband and was looking forward to the perfect proposal, suddenly says it's not what she wants. After all that, she actually decides that she doesn't want a Prince Charming. Royal takes it like a gentleman and says goodbye. He then exits and never returns into her life again. With that, Anne hopes to not be proposed to again. There is a fifth proposal, which happens first, from Sam, a man who is tending to a farm owned by the Douglas family. She also rejects it.
     So, Anne resigns her fate to that of a single woman who is on her way to be a principal in another school. However, she learns that Gilbert is sick with typhoid and practically dying. This makes Anne realize that she does love Gilbert. The character arc the two have finally comes to its conclusion: Anne visits Gilbert, he gets better, and they pledge to each other. There's an interesting dialogue that comes with this that is way better than in their Star Wars counterparts:

"But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne," said Gilbert, sadly. "It will be three years before I'll finish my medical course. And even then there won't be diamond sunsets or marble halls."

Anne laughed.

"I don't want diamond sunsets or marble halls. I just want you." ("Love Takes Up the Glass of Time." pg. 243.) 

    I really can't think of a better conclusion to this saga. Someone play Taylor Swift now (yeah, I know, that's from the movies that Sullivan had produced in the 1980s. If y'all like, I'll do a review and commentary on each). Anne and Gilbert have now come a long way since the first book when Gilbert was pulling on Anne's hair and calling her "carrots." They went through the period where Anne didn't speak to Gilbert who tried to win her forgiveness, did become friends when he gave up easy path, they did things together for AVIS, went to college, and now they had become lovers, the last concluding as becoming engaged. In Victorian literature, the love story either ends with the lovers dead (or at least one of them) or with them getting married, generally. Here, since it will be three years before that happens, Montgomery lets that wait for the next chapter (or rather, the next book, because the scene happens in the final chapter of the book). But, I will say that one other couple does get married.
    Diana and Fred tie the knot in the chapter "Diana's Wedding" which is a good enough stretch of time in the book for it. A few chapters later, Diana becomes mother of a baby girl that she and her husband named Anne Cordelia, in honor of Anne and her alternative name. At this point, Anne is still thinking of Gilbert with Christine and now Diana is gone. Anne, of course, wishes people didn't have to grow up and get married. At the end of the book, it turns out the engagement was just hearsay. Christine is engaged to another man and he was only keeping things platonic with her. Jane Andrews also gets married. Ruby Gillis is engaged, but she comes down with tuberculosis, or galloping consumption as they called it. Poor Ruby dies midway into the book at a young age, which was not that unusual back then. So, in all people marry or die and that makes up the plot line of the book. Most of it is dominated by a single plot thread, as opposed to the mostly episodic storyline that was in the first two books. However, a few episodes do venture into the book now and then.

   Anne is still a dreamer and she dreams of writing in this book. In someway, this is L. M. Montgomery writing of her early days as a writer in these chapters and she provides it in Anne's first story, "Averil's Atonement." From the chapter of the same name, Anne writes of the girl Averil who is courted by many suitors from the dashing Perceval Dalrymple to the villainous Maurice Lennox, with all the characters listed in bold letters. She chooses Perceval in the end while Maurice is killed off to save the lovers from his rage. This doesn't please Diana or Mr. Harrison, who both agree that he is twice the man Perceval is. While Diana is gentle on her criticisms, Harrison tells Anne that she writes too flowery, her characters are not relateable, and her dialogue is not natural. No doubt, Montgomery may have heard such directed at her when she was younger. I like how Harrison says that if he wrote of villains, he would give them a chance.
   As you would expect, Anne doesn't become a best seller at the start. Her story is rejected by publishers just as she rejects suitors. Then, one day, she is told that she is being given some money for a baking powder product because of a product placement. It turns out Diana had placed it in there while entering Anne's story for a contest for Rollings Reliable. No doubt, the story caused an increase in sells for that baking powder along with Anne getting some extra money. While Anne is appreciative for her publishing, she takes the Rollings Reliable deal as though her child was tattooed, which I sympathize as the event is clear cut commercialism. It's just like in today's movies where you'd see candy made famous by a movie or a couple of cars are used in another to make it seem cool (I'm looking at you, Spielberg) only Anne doesn't consider it good for sells. Thankfully, she'll do better next time.
   Another stand alone plot that is done in a chapter concerns Anne and a cat, that she names Rusty. When the cat decides to stay with Anne, she and the others realize the only humane thing to do is to drug it with chloroform (yeah, you read that right; poison the cat). Fortunately, the deed is carried out but it doesn't result in the cat's death. Instead, it lives and Anne takes in the cat, leading to the possibility of Anne becoming a cat woman (until she accepts Gilbert, that is). Paul, Davy, and Dora return in the book, though they are mostly reduced as characters. Paul develops some in revealing that he can't find the Rock People anymore, to which Anne tells is the price of growing up. There comes a time in a boy's life that his imaginary friends fade away and he begins to believe that they never existed. Now Paul will have other things on his mind as he gets bigger, his school work, his future ambitions, and, some day, girls (if Montgomery was going to make him gay, she wouldn't make it so obvious, y'all).
   Yet, story arcs that take many chapters still dominate the novel. While Anne is in college, she is boarded with a few girls, which is akin to being placed in a dorm. Here, an old character from Anne of Green Gables returns, Priscilla Grant. With her is a new character named Philipa Gordon, named Phil for most the book. Phil becomes Anne's opposite, though they share one thing in common: they came from Nova Scotia. This leads to something that is novel to anyone outside of Canada. In the first book, we hear of liberals called "Grits" (yeah, I still think of the breakfast corn meal in seeing that, or the acronym for "Girls Raised In the South", as opposed to a the plural form of Grit). Here, there is the term "blue blood", which is an older term that goes back many centuries. A person who is a blue blood normally means someone with pure blood of a certain ethnic or racial group. They can also be people who have generations of unsoiled ancestry lines in a particular area. Most of us find that strange since the United States and Canada are not as solid standing as they use to be. I have a friend, call him Sir X, who just married another friend, call her Lady Y, who was from out of state and they are living in Texas, now. As far as I know, Lady Y had ancestors who hung around the Carolinas, but are likely from elsewhere. The same with Sir X. I, myself, have a family whose members settled in Texas after their parents spent a few years in Mississippi and Arkansas, and before that they had families that were in the two mentioned states all the way back to the mid-19th Century. Then there's the bloodline, which has been added with ethnic lines that are in contrast to one's family name. It can lead to some surprises in one's family tree, as one commercial I know of showed. In the 1880s, when Anne of the Island took place, up in Canada, much of this movement of people and mixing of groups was almost unheard of. And for Anne, to be a blue blood doesn't seem that much of an honor and she denies this during her stay.
    The girls start out in a boarding house, but they take up residence in a cottage on their second year, Patty's Place they call it, which a much wiser move economic wise than using apartments, in my opinion. Not naming names but I have been around a university town for a couple of years and I can tell you that there is some mixed priorities with it: they build these new condominiums with swimming pools and gyms near shopping centers, which is geared to the students of the said university while most of the natives (year long residents) are still living in trailers, their parents' home, or some cheap apartment, if they have any shelter at all. I am sure anyone reading this knows how it is with most university towns. So, during the second and third year, it's Anne, Phil, Priscilla, Stella Maynard, and Rusty the cat, plus Gog and Magog, as Montgomery puts it. Phil gets several boyfriends during the course of the time and she can't decide which one will be her husband. However, she plays a hand in the Gilanne ship. She wrote to him on how nothing was happening between Anne and Gardner.

   While an improvement over the second book, Anne of the Island has its flaws. It too makes the mistake in reinventing the wheel. This time it involves Mr. Douglass and a woman named Janet. As with Miss Lavendar and Mister Irving, we see a woman who is now a spinster and wanting the love of a man from her youth, yet they were kept apart. This time, it's in form of the man's mother, which brings the idea of a family matriarch who seems spiteful and jealous of a younger woman taking her son who is practically a Mama's Boy. Of course, Montgomery must not have had something else to do with her in this point and has her killed off and then the couple can live happily ever after.
  One thing that is irksome is in the chapter "Mrs. Skinner's Romance" where Anne hitches a ride with an old woman on a cart. The woman narrates her tale to Anne as they ride along, during which is the repeated phrase "Jog along, black mare." This gets repeated to the point of redundancy and cuts into the flow of the narrative, and Montgomery never explains why the horse needs to be told to "jog along." Not only that, doesn't Mrs. Skinner know the name of her horse? It also makes it hard to keep up with the story she narrates to Anne in the chapter.
   These are just a few, but the rest the reader of the book may find. Anne of the Island also has a nostalgia filter about it when one notes the year of its publication: 1915. By now, Canada is in World War I and this allows what would have then been called the Anne of Green Gables trilogy be a much stronger look back to simpler times, especially to the older generation. Now that the centennial of America's entry into the same war is here, I will of course jump on ahead, or rather do the publication date order, and get to book five of the series, instead of book four, in the next entry. Now, I am positive I know what your question next is: since you read this when Attack of the Clones came out and had the stories side by side, which of the two do you like most? The Star Wars fan in me would favor Episode II, yet I do see the love story of Gilbert and Anne to be superior to that of Anakin and Padme in every shape and form. Of course, you can read the book for yourself and compared that to the way it was handled: but Montgomery knows how to set up the process of two platonic friends who become lovers, and eventually have them marry, in her novel much better than most movie makers can in a two hour film (that is basically how a love story is generally done: strangers > acquaintances > platonic friends > close friends > dating > lovers > engaged > married, and it all takes time). Sometimes, I wish L. M. Montgomery wrote the movie's script or the novelization (if only that were possible). But, alas, Missus Montgomery has been dead since 1942 and there is no likely reason she would have helped with writing Star Wars. Sure, she may find some parts of it romantic, but she would quote Anne and say "there's no scope to the imagination in this."


Montgomery, L. M., Anne of the Island. (1915) Special Collector's Edition. Bantom Books. New York. 1998.