Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
The names, for me, were yet another aspect of this story that made it seem so obviously an adult trying to be child-like. These names seemed all too literal to be the mark of an imaginative child.
I wondered whether the author changed her mind about Diana, perhaps thinking that at first she would be difficult as the "bosom" friend that Anne sought. And I still think it's a little open to interpretation given Anne's inclination for dramatics: was the friendship really so close, or was it all part of a dramatic pretence by Anne that became a habit?
As for intellectual equals, for much of the book Anne didn't really seem like a studious child except as we are explicitly told, and knuckling down to study seemed at odds with her easily distracted nature in other things - more in line with an adult trying to impart a good moral to young readers than a reflection of the character. Anne's behaviour seemed more to suggest a future as an actress rather than a scholar.
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I have to agree that much of the product of Anne’s much-vaunted imagination seemed rather tedious to me. I can well imagine finding her tiresome, which I think relates to what qualifies as a kindred spirit for Anne. It’s the chicken and the egg; what all her kindred spirits have in common is that they think Anne’s wonderful, so do they think she’s wonderful because they’re kindred spirits, or does Anne think they’re kindred spirits because they think she’s wonderful? Unfortunately, this tendency only gets worse as the books progress. Diana also suffers a mental decline, I’m grieved to report.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I suspect that Anne had been reading Longfellow:
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Oh, ugh, but no doubt she did. Talk about someone who has not stood the test of time. At that, he fell out of favor pretty rapidly, but it lasted out his life.