A review by sonofthunder
Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

4.0

I didn't remember this book very well and couldn't recall how I liked it. Re-reading...I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much this one swept me away!! This "honeymoon" book, as I like to call it, describes the first couple years or so of Anne and Gilbert's marriage. They indeed find their own "house o' dreams" and it is utterly delightful, as one would expect! But apart from Anne and Gilbert (one confession, I never really get a good read on Gilbert's character. So many of Montgomery's other characters are so well drawn, but Gilbert's kind of fluctuates and I don't feel I ever really understand him...except in his love for Anne, of course!), there are so many beautifully realized characters here. Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia and Leslie Moore...I felt a bit like I'd just moved in myself and found myself entranced at meeting so many vivid personalities! There is much beauty and love and joy in this book, but there is also profound tragedy. I appreciate the fact that Montgomery does not try and tell a story where everything is happy all the time, but acknowledges the fact of pain and sorrow and loss. Through these tears the beauty shines through all the more. And as always, Montgomery's descriptive powers rise to the occasion in a grand way. Reading of the billowing trees and the lovely flowers and the salt tang of the sea...I breathe in deep and I almost imagine myself on the shores myself. A truly wonderful book.