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.").
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:
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.
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.
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