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!
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment