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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
Easily the best book of the series. The backdrop of WWI intertwines expertly with characters and plot, trending towards a beautiful tapestry wavering back and forth between tatters and completion.
It's been so many years since the first time I read this book, and I'm still not over how perfect the ending is.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have always loved this romantic ending to the Anne series. This reread happened as I was listening to American Midnight by Hochschild, a nonfiction look at the suppression, censorship and violence that happened in the US before, during and after WWI. With that in the background, this story seemed less romantic and more like pro-war, pro-natalist propaganda. Still romantic but with a darker edge.
This is why I like returning to beloved books. Because I've changed and learned, they change, too.
This is why I like returning to beloved books. Because I've changed and learned, they change, too.
emotional
funny
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Heavier in tone and subject matter than any of the previous Anne books, this final installment had me on the verge of tears a number of times. Rilla is such a sweet heroine and I loved getting to see her survive the anguish of the WWI years. I do wish Anne was a bigger character in these final books, but this book was much more enjoyable than Rainbow Valley.
I have a lot of thoughts about this book and not all of them are of praise.
This book is, as I've heard, the book L. M. Montgomery was pressured to write by her publisher, who saw a demand for novels centered around the war. Montgomery had to mess around with the timeline of the whole series to fit into WW1. Throughout the previous 7 books you have no hint of a set year, until Rilla turns 15 in 1914. But there are hints of the general era (or decade) in Anne of Green Gables the very least, I believe Anne was growing up in Avonlea in the 1890's (hence her longing for puffed sleeves), which definitely doesn't make her an aging matron by WW1. With this new timeline, which pushes Anne's girlhood a bit back, Anne becomes a trailblazer of sorts, graduating as BA only a few years after the very first woman in Canada, which also doesn't make sense, as it is made quite clear that there are girls quite commonly at Queen's and at Redmond.
I appreciate this book's effort to show the womens' side of the Great War and I don't share other readers' opinions that the book shows women only complaining, sitting around, knitting and moping. The book clearly shows women stepping up into managing positions, organising Aid meetings, recitals, charity funds, keeping their community morally uplifted, replacing men in some jobs like bringing in the harvest or keeping shop and joining the VAD.
As per usual I didn't enjoy Montgomery coming up with more random neighbour characters so she has something to write about and Susan's tirades are just so annoying I had to skip them a couple of times. It's interesting though to see the (idealised, surely) spirit of this time through this book and what made people join the war effort and keep patriotic values. The way Whiskers is ostracised for his pacifism is just appalling to me, he's seen as a German supporter for being against the war!
It just broke my heart to read of the race PEI participated in to send the most boys to the front from all provinces (relative to their population size). As if human beings with ties, families, different stories were mere numbers, mere sacrificial offering for some greater good. That was just ridiculous and farmers were just as needed at their farms as were soldiers on the front, so I don't understand the scorn the Blythe women had for other families that didn't send their men off.
More interesting commentary was around the Conscription of 1917 and women's vote - only women above 21 with husbands or brothers on the front could vote.
I feel sorry for Rilla throughout the book because she seems so lonely. One would've thought Anne and Rilla's relationship would grow fonder thanks to Rilla being her only child left at Ingleside, but Anne rarely shows up for Rilla and doesn't know much about what's going on in Rilla's life. One can't help but wonder what does Anne do all her days, since she has Susan to do all the cleaning and cooking and there are no children to attend to anymore. I never understood that starting from Joyce's death up until Rilla's coming of age and no part of any of the books explains this, as Anne slowly vanishes from the later novels. I would've liked to see Anne forming stronger bonds with her community, her children and taking her spare time to pour it into her writing ambition (if there's any left in her). Rilla seems to engage the most with Ms. Oliver and with Susan, neither of them being her relatives nor peers. We know nothing of her relationship with her other siblings besides Walter or with any of the Meredith children, Carl is only mentioned as her childhood playmate and Una shows up only to receive Walter's letter from her.
Rilla seems so much more like an only child with no friends, something L. M. Montgomery knew more about from her own childhood than she knew about being the prettiest and youngest daughter of a large loving family.
It's also very odd that Montgomery chose to pair off the Blythe, Meredith and Ford children romantically, it seems so odd to me that there are so many matches in one group of childhood friends in a community with plenty of other young people. I think one or two couples would do, but the rest is just odd. I see no special chemistry between Rilla and Kenneth, he's just the alluring older boy from the big city, her brothers' friend, on whom any 14-year-old girl would have a crush and to him she is his friends' little kid sister who grew up and got so pretty she outshone the other girls at one party. Nevertheless they still had potential and it would've been nice to see their relationship develop through letters, but Montgomery never showed that in the book like she didn't show Anne and Gilbert's love enfold in Anne of Windy Poplars. Either Montgomery wanted to stay away from the cheap and sleazy romance genre, keep it children friendly, she didn't know how to write love letters or her publisher told her to exclude these parts - a Montgomery scholar would probably have these answers.
This book is, as I've heard, the book L. M. Montgomery was pressured to write by her publisher, who saw a demand for novels centered around the war. Montgomery had to mess around with the timeline of the whole series to fit into WW1. Throughout the previous 7 books you have no hint of a set year, until Rilla turns 15 in 1914. But there are hints of the general era (or decade) in Anne of Green Gables the very least, I believe Anne was growing up in Avonlea in the 1890's (hence her longing for puffed sleeves), which definitely doesn't make her an aging matron by WW1. With this new timeline, which pushes Anne's girlhood a bit back, Anne becomes a trailblazer of sorts, graduating as BA only a few years after the very first woman in Canada, which also doesn't make sense, as it is made quite clear that there are girls quite commonly at Queen's and at Redmond.
I appreciate this book's effort to show the womens' side of the Great War and I don't share other readers' opinions that the book shows women only complaining, sitting around, knitting and moping. The book clearly shows women stepping up into managing positions, organising Aid meetings, recitals, charity funds, keeping their community morally uplifted, replacing men in some jobs like bringing in the harvest or keeping shop and joining the VAD.
As per usual I didn't enjoy Montgomery coming up with more random neighbour characters so she has something to write about and Susan's tirades are just so annoying I had to skip them a couple of times. It's interesting though to see the (idealised, surely) spirit of this time through this book and what made people join the war effort and keep patriotic values. The way Whiskers is ostracised for his pacifism is just appalling to me, he's seen as a German supporter for being against the war!
It just broke my heart to read of the race PEI participated in to send the most boys to the front from all provinces (relative to their population size). As if human beings with ties, families, different stories were mere numbers, mere sacrificial offering for some greater good. That was just ridiculous and farmers were just as needed at their farms as were soldiers on the front, so I don't understand the scorn the Blythe women had for other families that didn't send their men off.
More interesting commentary was around the Conscription of 1917 and women's vote - only women above 21 with husbands or brothers on the front could vote.
I feel sorry for Rilla throughout the book because she seems so lonely. One would've thought Anne and Rilla's relationship would grow fonder thanks to Rilla being her only child left at Ingleside, but Anne rarely shows up for Rilla and doesn't know much about what's going on in Rilla's life. One can't help but wonder what does Anne do all her days, since she has Susan to do all the cleaning and cooking and there are no children to attend to anymore. I never understood that starting from Joyce's death up until Rilla's coming of age and no part of any of the books explains this, as Anne slowly vanishes from the later novels. I would've liked to see Anne forming stronger bonds with her community, her children and taking her spare time to pour it into her writing ambition (if there's any left in her). Rilla seems to engage the most with Ms. Oliver and with Susan, neither of them being her relatives nor peers. We know nothing of her relationship with her other siblings besides Walter or with any of the Meredith children, Carl is only mentioned as her childhood playmate and Una shows up only to receive Walter's letter from her.
Rilla seems so much more like an only child with no friends, something L. M. Montgomery knew more about from her own childhood than she knew about being the prettiest and youngest daughter of a large loving family.
It's also very odd that Montgomery chose to pair off the Blythe, Meredith and Ford children romantically, it seems so odd to me that there are so many matches in one group of childhood friends in a community with plenty of other young people. I think one or two couples would do, but the rest is just odd. I see no special chemistry between Rilla and Kenneth, he's just the alluring older boy from the big city, her brothers' friend, on whom any 14-year-old girl would have a crush and to him she is his friends' little kid sister who grew up and got so pretty she outshone the other girls at one party. Nevertheless they still had potential and it would've been nice to see their relationship develop through letters, but Montgomery never showed that in the book like she didn't show Anne and Gilbert's love enfold in Anne of Windy Poplars. Either Montgomery wanted to stay away from the cheap and sleazy romance genre, keep it children friendly, she didn't know how to write love letters or her publisher told her to exclude these parts - a Montgomery scholar would probably have these answers.