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A review by eleart
Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
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? No
3.5
This is a weird one for me, because there's elements of it that I really like (the house of dreams, Leslie, Captain Jim, the sea and the lighthouse, miss Cornelia, the emotional weight) and structurally I think it's much more accomplished than the first three, in vein of the later-written Windy Poplars (my favourite). But this one has always been and apparently remains the one where I start to feel inexorably alienated from Anne.
The later books focus on the children as main characters (if memory serves), and I was quite looking forward to this one as the last Anne book about Anne, but I had forgotten the way she slips away from me in this book. As a kid, I think that's no wonder, but I am a little surprised to find that this continues to be the case even as I am now around the age Anne is in this book and in a similar phase of life. But I think what bothers me is that the characters settle into heteronormative narratives and gender roles so comfortably that they become largely unreachable to me. Gilbert especially becomes immediately infuriatingly patronising, but so does Anne become entirely wrapped in and depicted through her dreams of motherhood. My favourite bits tend to be the ones not about that, such as with Captain Jim, or Leslie, or at the shore – the call of the sea, which this book captures so vividly.
I know the book is a product of its time, but something about the Anne I love best dies at the house of dreams. We grow apart in a way so fundamental I could feel it even as a child, before it happened, before I could name any of the matters leading to it. It's sad and bittersweet.
The later books focus on the children as main characters (if memory serves), and I was quite looking forward to this one as the last Anne book about Anne, but I had forgotten the way she slips away from me in this book. As a kid, I think that's no wonder, but I am a little surprised to find that this continues to be the case even as I am now around the age Anne is in this book and in a similar phase of life. But I think what bothers me is that the characters settle into heteronormative narratives and gender roles so comfortably that they become largely unreachable to me. Gilbert especially becomes immediately infuriatingly patronising, but so does Anne become entirely wrapped in and depicted through her dreams of motherhood. My favourite bits tend to be the ones not about that, such as with Captain Jim, or Leslie, or at the shore – the call of the sea, which this book captures so vividly.
I know the book is a product of its time, but something about the Anne I love best dies at the house of dreams. We grow apart in a way so fundamental I could feel it even as a child, before it happened, before I could name any of the matters leading to it. It's sad and bittersweet.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Child death