Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
I enjoyed the development of their friendship in this book in spite of Anne’s best efforts to crush it with her unforgiving temper and competitive spirit.
|
Me too, and she certainly did do her best to drive him away. Gilbert was a very forgiving fellow!
For me, it was a delight reading this again. I read it first as a child, and absolutely adored it. I loved the whole Anne series, along with most of Montgomery’s other books. I read it for a second time about 35 years ago, and the only impression I remember from the rereading was surprise to find myself laughing.
This was my third reading, and I found Montgomery’s description of daily life in the small farming community very interesting. There were many parallels with my own childhood. In particular, village life and characters, and also how every little brook and field had it’s own name and character. Granted I grew up just a few hours away from Cavendish (Avonlea) but there was a separation of half a century, and my community was primarily French Acadian. Maybe farming communities are similar, whenever and wherever they are.
This time around, I was surprised to see that the book is mostly a series of little vignettes. The mistaken perspective I’d retained from my childhood was that it was a long involved novel.