[Victoria]

Originally Posted by issybird

Oh, Victoria, I meant to say upthread that while I loved Anne of the Island, I thought Anne of Avonleawas much weaker. It covered only two years with no plot whatsoever and Davy and Dora bored me. The Cousin Olivers of Anne of Green Gables! And some of the later books, I won’t name them, were seriously bad by any standard, although two of them had merit while flawed. But I also know you can’t blame a working stiff for cranking out what will sell!

Yes, Davy and Dora felt out of place to me too, but I still enjoyed the book. However my sister, who has read all things Montgomery, told me LM didn’t like the second book herself, and worried when it was published that “it isn’t any good”. Apparently she felt the first book of Anne and the first book of Emily were the best of the two series.

She had many people financially depending on her, even cousins, so did have to write what would sell. But her publishers also pressed for more Anne books, when she would have preferred to explore new directions.

Originally Posted by gmw

Yes, I agree about the Haunted Wood. Certainly children can work themselves up to being scared, and I think that's probably what was meant, but it didn't really come over very well.

One thing that jarred for me was the insistence at the end of the liniment cake incident that Anne didn't make the same mistake twice when it seemed to me that the liniment cake and the cordial incidents were effectively the same. And there were various others where the real mistake was Anne letting her mind wander, a mistake that happened repeatedly.

Mind you, repeated or not, it did all lead up to the very funny line:

She did have some very funny lines, didn’t she? I think from a child’s perspective, mistaking cordial and mistaking liniment could be seen as two separate mistakes. But I agree that the author borrowed from herself.

Speaking of overdone, I found Anne’s despair over Diana’s future wedding a bit hard to swallow this time.

Originally Posted by gmw

......It says a lot about Anne, and indeed it exposes the ambiguity of the character: sometimes it is unclear whether Anne is truly upset, or happy, or whatever, or whether she is making the most of the dramatic moment. Sometimes, it seems, that even Anne doesn't really know, as with her ongoing grudge against Gilbert.

Yes, having Anne cling to her grudge against Gilbert seemed more manufactured this time around. Surprisingly the grudge worked when I was young, though, and was a chief source of suspense and agony. Would he return her true feelings when she finally revealed them?

Originally Posted by issybird

....In fairness to Anne, some of her incidents were entirely Marilla’s fault. What was with Marilla’s failure to label things properly and store them in the appropriate place? That accounted for both the cordial incident and the liniment cake incident. If Anne had done either, Marilla would have been quite stern!

The whole amethyst brooch incident too! It was terrible. But they also reveal Marilla’s character development. Imagine the challenge of her and Matthew adopting an orphan when they’re 60ish years old. Who worried about storage and labeling when they didn’t expect a child to ever step inside the house?

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Oh I do envy you the opportunity of having a Francophone education, Victoria! Well worth having the occasional wobble in English spelling or grammar.

And I agree with issybird - never regret that your nomination was successful. Even where we don’t enjoy the book as much as you do, the discussion is interesting, and can lead in all sorts of directions, as with your Acadian history find.

Yes, I was made welcome and was very fortunate. Crossing the language lines was a rare privilege at that time. The other two English kids found the transition too difficult and left a few months later, so no more were admitted. However, they made an exception and allowed my two younger sisters when they reached school age.


If anyone is interested in more background, I’m told that this is an excellent, very well researched biography. I haven’t read it myself, because I really want to keep Anne and the Montgomery of my youth https://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Maud-Mon...al-text&sr=1-1