Series: Anne of Green Gables #6
Author: L.M. Montgomery
Publication date: 1939
Genre: Classics, Young Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction
Book Description: Anne is the mother of five, with never a dull moment in her lively home. And now, with a new baby on the way and insufferable Aunt Mary Maria visiting—and wearing out her welcome—Anne's life is full to bursting.
Still, Mrs. Doctor can't think of any place she'd rather be than her own beloved Ingleside. Until the day she begins to worry that her adored Gilbert doesn't love her anymore. How could that be? She may be a little older, but she's still the same irrepressible, irreplaceable redhead—the wonderful Anne of Green Gables, all grown up. She's ready to make her cherished husband fall in love with her all over again!
Thoughts:
Well, Anne had no life other than bearing children. Again it irks me the wrong way. She spends her life taking care of her children and gossiping with the other old maids of her town. She does not seem to have strong friendships anymore, her friends again are passing and we have only one in each book, and then the next one the person completely disappears or is shown in such a passing manner that I no longer pay attention to them as they show up.
Remember that I said I miss the independent and willful Anne? Well, she is not getting any better. The time has passed and her life is very domestic and predictable. Gilbert is still held in high esteem and he is very busy, he can't be bothered to pay attention to his wife or meet her emotional needs, I mean she keeps getting pregnant so I guess that's as far as his duties extend.
While I was reading the book, it felt meh, nothing much was happening and the characters were acting in a way that irked me, but as time passed I started to dislike it more.
This is not the Anne we enjoyed in the first few books. All personality and whimsy we fell for was washed out and replaced with a matronly woman with nothing better to do than invent troubles for herself and whine at her husband. She is more and more the classical old woman who has nothing happening in her life, but the strong independent woman we were expecting is more remote than ever.
As you may have guessed, I am not pleased with the way this series is turning out. We used to have this crazy bold and brilliant girl...and now we have this washed-out mother. Instead of following Anne and her life, we get a series of almost-vignettes where each of her six children goes on an adventure and learns a life lesson.
And yes, some of the adventures are fun. But at the same time, I didn't really care for the children. I picked the series because I love Anne, but the more time passes we see her less, now the only time she comes up in the story is to scold or offer a life lesson to her children. I want to see Anne as a person, not only in her role as a mother or jealous wife.
This story was pretty forgetful, it was quick and I took the audiobook format instead of trying to force myself to go through it in physical format. The narrator did a decent job, I was able to listen at 3x speed so I got through it fast as I was doing house cleaning, but I am not sure I will be returning to reading the next few ones, the audio format is the way to go for me.
The only thing in my mind after a few weeks of finishing the book was that Gilbert can't be bothered to help his wife out with the house or children and instead of helping he is making her life harder. He supports the stay of his Aunt Mary Maria, whose sole purpose in the house is to critique and make Anne look bad as a housekeeper, mother, and wife. The fact that she spends all her time belittling Anne is a sore spot. But Anne cannot do anything because well is Gilbert's house and that's HIS aunt. Aunt Mary Mari feels with all the authority to bring her two cents to the table, her opinion and comfort are much more important than Anne's. Gilbert does not do a thing, he does not have time to listen to the house chatter, and he needs rest and peace of mind when he's home.
Gilbert is quickly becoming a man I dislike, he sees a wife as the person who needs to hold the house and family together. He does not seem to be interested in helping her at all and then he is offended that she doubts his affection for her. Also, the way he proves he still cares for her is lame and shows no real affection, he still makes no effort to help raise the children nor show support towards Anne against his family.
I will continue the series, but my high hopes for loving it have completely vanished.
I used this book in the challenges:
Around the World: Canada.
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Classics
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