About the Book
-
Author:
- L.M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
- Genre:
- Classics
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: It’s Anne Shirley, Mo’Fo’s!
BFF Charm: Clearly, You Haven’t Seen My Previous 1000 Posts…
Talky Talk: Happy Family
Bonus Factor: Walter!, Baby-Making!
Relationship Status: ‘Till Death Do Us Part
Cover Story: It’s Anne Shirley, Mo’Fo’s!
If anyone made fun of me for reading this book because of its cover, I might just pop ’em over the head with my slate.
The Deal:
Anne and Gilbert, and their six children live at Ingleside, in Four Winds, with Susan Baker, the darling old maid who moved in with the Blythes to help out after Anne lost her first baby, back when they lived at the little House of Dreams, and who has stayed since, always calling Anne ‘Mrs. Doctor, Dear’, and always cooking up some pie for Gilbert. This family of nine (give or take a few cats, the occasional dog, Aunt Mary-Maria and one cock-robin) simply live their lives, and we get a picture window view.
BFF Charm: Clearly, You Haven’t Seen My Previous 1000 Posts…
I am my Anne Shirley’s and my Anne Shirley is mine. In this installment, we get to see Anne, the mother –oft through the eyes of her children. She does not come up wanting.
How many times in this book did I wish I was her neighbor, or her bosom friend from over the harbor, who could come over at a moment’s notice, champ cans in hand! We could while away the hours sipping our cocktails and eating pies that Susan made for us, watching the children play in Rainbow Valley. I would have lent a very sympathetic ear when she was feeling neglected and taken for granted, and we could share knowing smiles over the ladies’ gossip at the quilting circle. Which, come to think of it, is kind of how I live now, minus the children and the having someone bake for me and the quilting.
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Two words: the anniversary. When Anne begins to think, after 15 years of marriage, that perhaps Gilbert is slipping away from her –just like a man– and finds herself terribly jealous, just as she was back in college days, and of course we all know it was a big misunderstanding, and Gilbert would never fall for that stupid old Christine, anyway… le sigh.
What also upped the swoon factor in this book was the starry-eyed Blythe kids. Their innocent romanticism of life sparked something in me, but more on that later.
Talky Talk: Happy Family
I’ll have one order of the Blythes, with a side of ornery townsfolk, a mean old aunt, a small dish of gossip and one pointless matchmaking, please!
Since I got all of my feminist disappointment out in my review of Anne’s House of Dreams, I was able to fully embrace this chapter in Anne’s life, without even a speck of cynicism. While I may have just scanned this book when I was 11, (looking for something romantic or exciting to my 11-year old sensibilities) I enjoyed reading it now like it was the perfect wine. I totes swirled the words around in my mouth to savor them.
Bonus Factor: Walter!
I love all of the Blythe children, I do. I love Jem’s internal rants when he’s sure nobody loves him, and Nan and Di’s troubles in finding good friends. But WAAAALLLTEEERRRRRR!!!!! From his erroneous introduction (“This one is God, and this is My God”) of the two porcelain dogs, Gog and Magog, his harrowing journey home the night Rilla was born, to his poetical take on everything under the sun, that boy has my heart. Remember when he brought the toads into the cellar, and Susan caught one and put it outside, and he feared he may have unwittingly separated a toad family?
“Susan, I’ve got to find that toad,” said Walter desperately. “Susan, just think how you would feel without your husband, if you had one.”
Bonus Factor: Baby-Making
Most often, I’m quite happy with my dog. I just never seem to be sure enough that I want to have children to follow through. However, reading this book made me want to get with the baby-making! Sure, I’ve thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have kids to read Harry Potter to?’ but that didn’t ever seem reason enough. Reading about the wholly fantastic imaginations of the Blythe children, and their interactions with their mother and father sparked a completely romantic and illogical desire in me to have a whole passel of my own, and quick. I even had a discussion with my husband about it.
Relationship Status: ‘Till Death Do Us Part
I solemnly vow, before God and the readers of this blog, to love, honor and cherish this book, in sickness and in health, through the good times and the bad, for as long as we both shall live.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received neither money nor cocktails for writing this review (dammit!). Anne of Ingleside is available now.
