Rilla of Ingleside – by L M Montgomery

17 11 2024

The final book in the Anne of Green Gables series, this felt quite different to the rest, in that it’s set from the eve to the end of the First World War. Like the previous book, while Anne is still in this, the focus is not on her, this time we’re mainly following Rilla, her youngest daughter, who is now 15 – she wasn’t in Rainbow Valley much as she was too young to play out with the older children, and so they are young adults.

When war starts, the oldest Blythe and Meredith boys enlist, and as time passes, some of the others get old enough to head off too, leaving behind the young women, some of whom have become sweethearts. Early on, Rilla, who ’til now has been rather self-involved, comes across a newborn baby whose mother has died, and whose father is away at war, and so she takes him in to raise herself, which obviously comes with its challenges.

I found it really interesting that a man in the village who is somewhat pro-German is referred to as a pacifist. He’s obviously seen as an awful person, but to me, pacifist is something really quite different!

It’s a book that have a real heaviness to it, but still has it’s moments of levity (and yet more Methodist bashing!), I really loved this book, and watching Rilla grow.

And now as I’ve finished the series I’m just sad that there are no more books for me to discover. I’ve enjoyed the characters of this series so much, Anne is obviously the main body of the stories, and even though these last two haven’t been about her so much, the books are still as wonderful.

As per usual, some quotes I noted:

  • “Why couldn’t they have called her by her first name, Bertha, which was beautiful and dignified, instead of that silly “Rilla”?”
  • “Some calls are visits, and some are visitations, […] dear.”
  • “He is […] very nice and clever, and would be quite handsome if it were not for his nose. It is a really dreadful nose.”
  • “I don’t wonder babies always cry when they wake up in the night. Everything presses on my soul then and no cloud has a silver lining.”
  • “We are told to love our enemies, Susan” said the doctor solemnly. “Yes, our enemies, but not King George’s enemies, doctor dear.”
  • “I used to hate Methodists, […] but I don’t hate them now. There is no sense in hating Methodists when there is a Kaiser or a Hindenburg in the world.”
  • “”Do you know, Mrs Blythe […] what I would like to do to the Kaiser if I could? […] I would like to turn the Kaiser into a good man – a very good man – all at once, if I could. That is what I would do. Don’t you think, Mrs Blythe, that would be the worstest punishment of all?” […] He would understand how dreadful the things he has done are and he would feel so terrible about it that he would be more unhappy and miserable than he could ever be in any other way. He would feel just awful – and he would go on feeling like that forever.”
  • “If the Almighty had meant us to fly he would have provided us with wings.”
  • “Some men, I am told, consider a little preliminary courting the proper thing before a proposal, if only to give fair warning of their intentions.”
  • “Compared with Germans, even Methodists seem attractive to me.”
  • “There is nothing like acting sensibly in an emergency.”
  • “I am going to take a honeymoon to celebrate the peace.” “A honeymoon, Susan?” “Yes, […] I shall never be able to get a husband, but I am not going to be cheated out of everything and a honeymoon I intend to have.”

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Rainbow Valley – by L M Montgomery

1 11 2024

Gosh, over five years since I finished the main section of Anne of Green Gables books, I recently found the last two books which focus more on her children in a charity shop for 50p each, so it’s time to properly finish the series!

Anne is in this book occasionally, and when she does pop up, is still her wonderful self, but the focus is more on the Meredith family, which is the town’s new widowed minister and his four children, who are the same age as Anne’s four oldest children, and make firm friends with them, as well as a girl called Mary who they find hiding in their barn having run away and not eaten for days. Mary is taken in by the Meredith children (or the “manse” children), and with their father so deeply engrossed in his work, he doesn’t even notice for days! The book follows the various escapades of the children, as well as the impact on their father.

A couple of things really tickled me: first was the absolute hatred the author seems to have for Methodists – there are so many throwaway comments from various characters in the book despairing of them, for no given reason! For example: “Fortunately, all the people the Merediths have offended so far are Methodists.” Secondly there’s a key character in the book called Rosemary West – how was L M Montgomery to know that many years later there’d be a famous serial killer with this name!

Another thing that seems bizarre reading it over 100 years after it was published, is the absolute horror the characters recoil with when someone dares to say the word “darn”, and then the n word is totally permissable!

Right at the end of the book there’s a bit of foreshadowing of the coming First World War, which I believe is the setting for the next and final book which I intend to dive straight into now I’ve finished this one, but first, here are some of the lines from the book that made me turn down page corners:

  • “A manse cat should at least look respectable, in my opinion, whatever he really is. But I never saw such a rakish-looking beast. And he walks along the ridgepole of the manse almost every evening at sunset, Mrs Dr dear, and waves his tail, and that is not becoming.”
  • “I’ve always thought graveyards must be delightful places to play in.”
  • “A handsome rooster like Adam is just as nice a pet or a dog or cat, I think. If he was a canary nobody would wonder. […] I never liked dolls and cats. Cats are too sneaky and dolls are dead.“
  • “Oh, father only said that in the pulpit, he has more sense than to really think it outside.”
  • “Your wife never had a new hat for ten years – no wonder she died.”

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Anne of Ingleside – by L M Montgomery

20 01 2019

After two years, I’ve finally finished the main part of this series of books! There are two more that follow, but their focus is on the children, no more “Anne of….”, so I sort of consider this a job done!

That said, even thought this is an “Anne of” book, the focus really is on the children – Anne and Gilbert have six children including a set of twins, all with their different escapades, and not a huge amount of time spent on Anne other than when the children take their problems to her to solve. For the most of the book, Anne has become a flawless woman with her days of escapades and learning about herself long gone – but there is a really nice moment near the end where we find she’s not perfect after all, and she struggles with something so completely relatable to us all, it’s nice to see she’s still got a realistic side to her.

Still very enjoyable, warm and fuzzy, and an easy read.

As with the previous books, this one still has some lovely one liners – here are a few of my favourites:

  • “‘Praying’s good. I lost a dime once and I prayed and I found a quarter. That’s how I know.'”
  • “‘Hasn’t the world got its face washed nice and clean?’ cried Di, on the morning sunshine returned.”
  • “‘God doesn’t make bargains, He gives… gives without asking from us in return, except love.'”
  • “‘If a minister preaches a sermon that hits home to some particular individual people always suppose he meant it for that very person,’ said Anne. ‘A hand=me-down cap is bound to fit somebody’s head, but it doesn’t follow that it was made for him.'”
  • “‘David is going to be married at last,’ said Miss Cornelia. ‘He’s been a long time making up his mind which was cheaper, marrying or hiring.'”
  • “‘The same summer will never be coming twice'”
  • “Anne knew quite well that this idea was absolutely unreasonable, but when was jealousy ever reasonable?”


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Anne’s House of Dreams – by L M Montgomery

9 07 2018

This is now book five in the Anne of Green Gables series. **Spoiler Alert (for previous books)** Anne and Gilbert are finally together, and the book begins with their wedding, sends them off to their new home in Four Winds, and spends the first couple of years of married life with them.

As they’ve moved to a new area, most of the characters are new – but of course Marilla pops in from time to time. There’s a house up the road where another couple live, but circumstances are unusual, there’s Captain Jim who runs the lighthouse, and a few others to get to know and love (including Miss Cornelia who every other sentence seems to say “isn’t that just like a man?!”.

The book has its highs and lows, I got close to tears (but didn’t cry!) twice, but mixed with that is plenty of joy and humour. I wouldn’t recommend joining these books mid series, but if you’ve read the four preceding this, definitely carry on and pick this one up!

Again the book is chock full of quoteable bits – here are some of my favourites:

  • “‘Anne was always a romantic, you know,’, ‘Well, married life will most likely cure her of that,'”
  • “It’s rather hard to decided just when people are grown up,”
  • “I saved his life, and when you’ve saved a creature’s life you’re bound to love it. It’s next thing to giving life.”
  • “God sees no difference between the voice of a crow and the voice of a nightingale.”
  • “Job! It was such a rare thing to find a patient man that when one was really discovered they were determined he shouldn’t be forgotten.”
  • “I even enj’y the disagreeable things. It’s great fun thinking they can’t last.”
  • “A woman cannot ever be sure of not being married till she is buried.”
  • “But it ain’t our feelings we have to steer by through life – no, no, we’d make shipwreck might often if we did that. There’s only the one safe compass and we’ve got to set our course by that – what it’s right to do.”
  • “Hair is deceitful and noses and eyes change, and you cannot tell what is going to come of them, but ears is ears from start to finish, and you always know where you are with them.”
  • “Politics is for this world, but religion is for both.”


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Anne of Windy Willows – by L M Montgomery

28 10 2017

Book four chronologically in Anne’s life, though this one was actually written 20 years after most of the others. A newly engaged Anne moves to Summerside to become principal of a high school and lodges with two widows in a house called “Windy Willows”. A lot of the book is written as her letters to Gilbert, maybe a half and half split with that and general narrative. She spends three years there while Gilbert is at medical school, and doesn’t get off to the easiest start.

The majority of Summerside either seem to be the Pringle family or have some Pringle blood of them of some sort, and they seem to gang up against Anne initially. But Anne being Anne, she finds her way! From there we meet lots of different people over the three years, very few characters get featured the whole way through other than the little girl, little Elizabeth, who lives next door with her Grandmother and “the woman”, who feed and clothe her well enough, but don’t show anything by way of affection, so in time Anne befriends her and that relationship blossoms beautifully! Elizabeth goes by many different names, depending on how she is feeling: Betty, Beth, Elsie, Bess, Elisa and Lisbeth. “But not Lizzie; I can never feel like Lizzie.”

Anne seems to be not a matchmaker as such, but definitely gets involved in pushing a couple of couples forward in their relationship who have for various reasons not got engaged or married yet. Somehow it’s written so that you feel it’s entirely justified and gives each couple a happy ending!

My only real frustration with this book was a couple of times when we meet someone who is meant to be annoying and talking non stop without Anne or anyone getting a word in edge-ways. But the way it’s written you end up reading pages and pages of this irrelevant annoying waffle and actually don’t care! It makes the point well, but did make me want to skip pages at times.

This book was publish 3 years before World War 2, so it was sad to read the following: “It’s impossible to think of Canada ever being at war again. I am so thankful that phase of history is over.”

Of course, these books always provide some wonderful one liners, maybe not as many as in the other books, but still!

  • “I’ve always liked washing dishes. It’s fun to make dirty things clean and shining again.”
  • “[Babies] are what I heard somebody at Redmond call ‘terrific bundles of potentialities’. […] But I think I’m glad Judas’s mother didn’t know he was to be Judas, I hope she never did know.”
  • “If we were all beauties, who would do the work?”
  • “But there’s one consolation: you’ll be spared an awful lot of trouble if you die young.”


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Anne of the Island – by L M Montgomery

13 04 2017

After a year’s break it was about time to read number three in this series. Anne is now 18 and heading off to Redmond University on the mainland. The book covers her four years there. She arrives with three from Avonlea – Gilbert, Charlie and Priscilla, and quickly makes friends with a girl called Phil – Stella from Queen’s (I think) also joins them from second year.

We still spend time in Green Gables in the holidays, and as far as the book goes, maybe half of the narrative! So there are still wonderful quotes from Davy, to keep the childish delights from Anne in the first book alive and well.

Through the book Anne gets a few marriage proposals, and one serious boyfriend – but no spoilers here! You’ll have to read it! Phil is a little boy crazy, and this is the first time the books really cover that side of things to this level, she’s quite a lot of fun! We also cover a death too soon in this book, which I guess you’d pick up from the quotes below… again, no spoilers.

Picking up the book after such a long gap was tricky in places because it doesn’t really recap, (I’m still not sure who Mr Harrison is who they keep referring to), it would have been nice to have a couple of reminders occasionally!

As before, here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:

  • “We are all servants of some sort, and if the fact that we are faithful can be truthfully inscribed on our tombstones nothing more need be added.”
  • “Oh, I’m not afraid but that I’ll go to heaven, Anne. I’m a church member.”
  • “Heaven must be very beautiful, of course, the Bible says so – but, Anne, it won’t be what I’ve been used to.“
  • “Do you think we’ll never laugh in heaven?” – Anne
    “Oh – I – I don’t know, it doesn’t seem just right, somehow. You know it’s rather dreadful to laugh in church.” – Diana
    “But heaven won’t be like church – all the time.” – Anne
    “I hope it ain’t, if it is I don’t want to go.” – Davy
  • “All life lessons are not learned at college.”
  • “I love her best when she is asleep and better still when she is awake.”
  • “I could be sorry for it afterwards, couldn’t I?”
  • “Can’t a man laugh and laugh and be a Christian still?”
    “Oh, men – yes. But I was speaking of Ministers, my dear.”
  • “When I was a girl it wasn’t considered ladylike to know anything about mathematics, but times have changed. I don’t know that it’s all for the better.”
  • “Oh, I dare say we all pray for some things that we really don’t want, if we were only honest enough to look into our hearts, I’ve a notion that such prayers don’t rise very far. I used to pray that I might be enabled to forgive a certain person, but I know now I really didn’t want to forgive her. When I finally got that I did want to I forgave her without having to pray about it.”
  • “I love [cats]. They are so nice and selfish. Dogs are too good and unselfish. They make me feel uncomfortable. But cats are gloriously human.”


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Anne of Avonlea – by L M Montgomery

23 04 2016

Having read Anne of Green Gables for the first time ever recently, I appear to have embarked on a journey that may last through all the books, book three has now been ordered, but this review is for the second in the series. I finished it while on holiday last week, so it’s already a bit faint in memory, but that’s why I turn page corners down 🙂

This book starts with Anne age 16, and starting teaching in the school she’s only just attended, so she’s teaching her former classmates as all age groups learn together. Having lost a major character at the end of the previous volume, Marilla takes 6 year old twins Davy and Dora into her care. Dora is angelic to the point of dull, Davy is possibly more reckless than Anne was when we first met her!

Here are some of my favourite quotes.

  • “Have you ever noticed, that when people say it is their duty to tell you a certain thing you may prepare for something disagreeable? Why is it that they never seem to think it a duty to tell you the pleasant things they hear about you?”
  • “It does people good to have to do things they don’t like – in moderation.”
  • “You’re never safe from being surprised till you’re dead.”
  • “It’s really splendid to imagine you are a queen. You have all the fun of it without any of the inconveniences and you can stop being a queen whenever you want to.”
  • “Punishments are so horrid and I like to imagine only pleasant things. There are so many unpleasant things in the world already that there is no use of imagining any more.”
  • “Life is rich and full here – everywhere – if we can only learn how to open our whole hearts to its richness and fullness.”
  • “Don’t you know that it is only very foolish folk who talk sense all the time?”
  • “I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures.”
  • “Of course, I knew there are no fairies; but that needn’t prevent my thinking there is.”
  • “It seems it’s dreadful to have your feelings hurt. It’s better to knock a boy down that hurt his feelings if you must do something.”
  • “That’s a lovely idea. Living so that you beautify your name, even if it wasn’t beautiful to begin with.”
  • “I think the little things in life often make more trouble than the big things.”
  • “I’m so glad you’re here. If you weren’t I should be blue – very blue – almost navy blue.”
  • “A broken heart in real life isn’t half as dreadful as it is in books. It’s a good deal like a bad tooth. […] It takes spells of aching and gives you a sleepless night now and then, but between times it lets you enjoy life and dreams and echoes and peanut candy as if there was nothing the matter with it.”
  • “That is one good thing about this world – there are always sure to be more springs.”
  • “It’s always seemed to me that the reason two women can’t get along in one house is that they try to share the same kitchen and get in each other’s way.”
  • “I’ll wash my face before I go courting. And I’ll wash behind my ears too, without being told.”
  • “I wish people could live on pudding. Why can’t they Marilla? I want to know. […] I’d like to try that for myself.”
  • “Oh sometimes I think it is of no use to make friends. They only go out of your life after a while and leave a hurt that is worse than the emptiness before they came.”
  • “I don’t like to be surprised. You lose all the fun of expecting things when you’re surprised.”
  • “When all’s said and done, Miss Shirley, ma’am, there’s many a worse thing than a husband.”
  • “A wedding ain’t much cheerfuller than a funeral aafter all, when it’s all over.”

anne of avonlea


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Anne of Green Gables – by L M Montgomery

10 02 2016

If you haven’t read this book, read this book!

I had the pop up versions of this when I was little, and the VHS, because Anne of Green Gables is where my middle name came from, but I never read the actual book, or, as it turns out – books! The second book in the series is ordered and due to arrive tomorrow 🙂

Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are an older brother and sister who decide to adopt a boy to help on the farm, when he arrives, it turns out it’s actually a girl, it’s Anne. Anne lives in a world of her own imagination, doesn’t stop talking, and is very keen you know that it’s Anne with an E.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBGB6srEYnC/?taken-by=inekeclewer

Anne gets into all sorts of trouble, never intentionally, but living under strict Marilla’s eye, it takes a while to tame her. She also hates her red hair, and Gilbert Blythe.

I folded down a tonne of page corners in this book, some of my favourite lines are below, all bar one are from Anne herself:

  • “Am I talking too much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn’t talk? If you say so I’ll stop. I can stop when I make up my mind to it, although it’s difficult.”
  • “Now you see why I can’t be perfectly happy. Nobody could who has red hair.”
  • “It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
  • “Looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them”
  • “I know very well when we grow up that Diana will get married and go away and leave me. And oh, what shall I do? I hate her husband – I just hate him furiously.”
  • “It wouldn’t do, I suppose, for a minister to have a regally lovely wife, because it might set a bad example. Mrs Lynde says the minister’s wife over at Newbridge sets a very bad example because she dresses so fashionably.”
  • “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
  • “I really think I’d like to be a minister’s wife when I grow up, Marilla. A minister mightn’t mind my red hair because he wouldn’t be thinking of such worldly things. But then of course one would have to be naturally good, and Ill never be that, so I suppose there’s no use in thinking about it.”
  • “It is ever so much easier to be good if your clothes are fashionable.”
  • “It’s always wrong to do anything you can’t tell the minister’s wife.”
  • “I don’t want to cheer up. It’s nicer to be miserable!”

    • And then just one from Mrs Lynde:

  • “It’s a great blessing not to be fat, Marilla. I hope you appreciate it.”

anne of green gables


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