A review by uncle_snail
Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery

4.0

While this was still a wonderful book, it seems like an awkward transition from Anne's life to the life of her children. If reading this as the 6th book (before Rainbow Valley), this is the first time we *really* meet any of Anne's Children, and now we are hopping back and forth between them in each chapter. Perhaps they are better introduced in Rainbow Valley, the book that was originally intended to be read next. A better reader might be able to create a cohesive idea of each in their mind, while I honestly don't even remember all of their names. By the end of the book, I have some ideas of personality, and I do like some of these stories, but many of this book's events are pitiless destructions of Anne and her children's feelings. It has a very different feeling in my mind to the previous books where all of the trials are either romantic, hilarious, or moral-producing.
That being said, it struck me how much Montgomery portrays each book in the way someone of Anne's current age may have seen it. I have never been a parent, so perhaps I am wrong, but Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Ingleside are both books about young children and the scrapes in which they are entangled. However, the first book reads like it is full of wonder and adventure, from the perspective of a child. Anne of Engleside is children's life from the perspective of an adult. The way the words are woven evokes the same sorts of emotions I imagine a person might feel at each stage of life. One might say she endows each book with the "soul" of that portion of life which it is meant to represent. I feel the same way about the college and young career books. These novels grow with Anne.
Although this is safely my least favorite book so far, it is clear that Montgomery is an amazing author perfectly suited to my fancies.