Anne of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables Novels (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: what?
Review: You can tell Maud wrote this book when depressedbecause it almost tries to hard to be happy. In many ways it is a feminist's nightmare. At the end maud confronts her old Redmond class-mate Christine. And snubs her because she is childless! She is afraid that Christina is prettier than her, etc, and that Gilbert has forgotten about her. We are lead to believe that a woman is nothing without children, that her only aim in life is her children. However it is interesting to read about the birth of Rilla. That's probably the most interesting part in the book. Anne does not really have much of a role throughout the novel. It is only stories of her children. I enjoyed finding out more about them, but there were some problems. I know this book and Anne of Windy Poplars were written after the other books in the series and this may be the reason. Nan was imaginative in this one and Di, Gilbert's favorite, was the practical one. In Rainbow Valley Di is the imaginative one and Nan the practical one. There is very little of Di, the red-headed twin, in this book. If you thought there was little of Gilbert in the previous books, then be prepared for next to nothing of him in this one. He is totally seperated from his family, all he does is work. I would like to see him interact more with the children, etc. Aunt Mary Maria makes life hell for them for awhile, but in my opinion she leaves too soon for things to become too interesting. We needed some more conflict, perhaps if Aunt Mary Maria stayed and Anne and Gilbert's marriage became threatened by her....if we had been taken into Gilbert's mind: Ok, so now he has to choose between his wife and his kin who according to the book he cannot bear to bar from his house. (That is why he does not bar the horrible aunt Mary Maria out.) In addition, he character was not developed enough. There must have been something good about her! The book gives us the impression that it is trying to be too cheerful. I know L.M. need not write like this, just read "Emily's Quest" for example.
In short this was my least favorite L.M. book ever. I know she wrote this and Anne of Windy Poplars at the urging of her publisher and so I forgive her.