Alas, I have now finished all of the Anne Shirley books and what wonderful escapism they’ve been. Yet they’re not without their shadows: Matthew Cuthbert dies suddenly at the end of the first book, Anne’s first baby dies as a very young infant, and this final book is impacted by the Great War.
Rilla of Ingleside is for Rilla, Anne’s youngest daughter, a coming of age story. At the beginning she is a girl of fifteen and by the end a young woman of nineteen. Her brothers and fiancé have gone to fight in the Great War. The ending is upbeat and makes us feel good. Yet there are ups and downs throughout the story and we get much detail about what is happening on the war front.
L. M Montgomery was way ahead of her time. Yes, she has a shifting point of view and very occasionally she takes on an authorial role and lectures the reader but only a little compared with other writers of her time. She achieves as well if not better than many 21st century writers a strong sense of time and place. Her characters are rounded and believable. We are close to them and have empathy for them. There is plenty of story as well.
