Reading this book after so many years is like visiting a childhood haunt after many years to find only that it was not so big, not so beautiful, not so miraculous, not so mysterious, as it was then. It is like spending your early life thinking your parents are the height of perfection, compared to the day they begin to have visible (sometimes glaring) flaws. I know that this all comes full-circle in adulthood and that the day returns when you look again at your parents, at the old childhood haunt, in wonder and gratefulness. But as a reader of Anne of Green Gables, I am afraid I am smack-dab in the teenage years. Then: no one said anything better than L.M. Montgomery. No one saw what she did in nature, no one understood people the way she did, no one understood me better than she did. That was the world I wanted to live in, Prince Edward Island, nature and small society, fully equipped with imagination. Now: I am galled by the selfish prejudices. The only people worth knowing are the imaginitive ones, but what gets so annoying is that they all have the same imagination. Every single protagonist she ever writes of personifies a tree, has the same tastes (sometimes even so specifically as what thickness bread should be); each faces the defeat of mistaken dreams, each carries a certain pride about themselves, and each one is spiteful towards the exact same types of personalities. As a child I loved L.M. Montgomery's opinions - they were my own. Her characters' experiences of being dreamy, imaginitive and often ridiculed for it were my experiences. She seemed to get it. Now I want other things in a writer. I want the writer to see more than I see in human nature, not less. I don't want a writer only to see my point of view - I recognize that I need more than just the same ways of seeing the world. Was Montgomery capable of writing other than of herself? Part of why I feel frustration in revisiting the Anne-world again is that it used to fit so well, and now it no longer does. It's like the perfect pair of jeans you had at age 14 or that party dress from the 80s that was your favorite. You want to go back and feel the times past as they felt then, and belong to a world that felt just about perfect when you were there. Or maybe we go back in our memories to the old places and the old times because what we really want is a perfect place of peace, happiness, security, and they were closest to us as children.
So, after reading the Anne of Green Gables, first 3 books for book club I decided I wanted to read some of the later books in the series. I have enjoyed them. I think Anne's House of Dreams is my favorite. I'm currently on the last of the "Anne" titled books and there is something that is funny/frustrating to me.Anne and Diana are talking and it mentions how Diana is 'matronly' looking i.e. chubby. (Now remember this is like 15 years later, so the girls are 30-ish.) And how Diana has always been not-thin etc. Also both Anne and Diana have now had SEVERAL children.Anne and Diana are spending the day together remembering their youth."Don't talk as if 'our day' were ended, Diana. We're only fifteen years old and kindred spirits. The air isn't just full of light...it is light. I'm not sure that I haven't sprouted wings.""I feel just that way, too." said Diana, forgetting that she had tipped the scale at one hundred and fifty-five that morning.It then goes on to talk about how Diana kept eating 'slivers' of chocolate cake. And finally Diana ... "picked up the plate which held the remainder of the chocolate cake...looked at it longingly...shook her head and packed it in the basket with an expression of great nobility and self-denial on her face.Granted - this book was written a long time ago, and obviously people were skinner then. I guess I am just frustrated to have such a negative picture of being 155. Of course this may have hit a nerve with me since I am trying to loose weight after having Josh, but still, I would love to be 155. Aargh!Also strangely in this series there is very little mention of pregnancy. Even among people talking to each other. When the first baby was due in House of Dreams it talked about how Anne was looking forward to a 'much expected time'. And she would be 'busy during the fall." But never came out and talked about what was going on. Anne and Gilbert didn't even tell their kids when Anne was going to have another, just sent them all to neighbors when the baby was due. How could this happen? I wonder if this was just because the books were written for children, or was life really like that with no mention of pregnancy except a 'delicate issue' here or there? Weird.
What do You think about Anne Of Ingleside (1984)?
Tôi cứ ngỡ cuốn sách ngay trước tập này, "Anne và Ngôi Nhà Mơ Ước" là tập cuối cùng trong series Anne tóc đỏ. Và sau khi đọc cuốn sách này, tôi mới biết "Anne dưới mái nhà Bên Ánh Lửa" được viết sau tập trước đó hơn 20 năm, có lẽ Montgomery cũng đã có ý định dừng series Anne tóc đỏ ở Ngôi Nhà Mơ Ước, nhưng có lẽ vì quá quyến luyến với Anne nên bà quyết định viết thêm.Đây có lẽ là tập chuyển tiếp, mang tính giới thiệu những nhân vật mới và từ từ xa cô bé Anne ngày nào, Anne giờ đã là vợ, là mẹ của 5 đứa con. Có lẽ vì thế nên cuốn sách thiếu sự tập trung vào nhân vật, kể quá nhiều chuyện để giới thiệu các con của Anne. Dù không thể phủ nhận, cuốn sách vẫn đáng yêu, thơ mộng như những tập trước, dù cốt truyện không thú vị bằng.Và dĩ nhiên tôi sẽ đọc tiếp những tập sau của series dù biết chắc, câu chuyện của cô bé Anne đến đây là ngừng lại.
—Huy
I've read all these books while growing up and loved them all and this book is no different, If you are like me and have often wondered just what kind of children that spunky redhead Anne would come to have then read this and you will find out! Anne takes a back seat in this book as we are introduced to her children neighbors and friends, I've always found that Lucy Maud Montgomery was in her element writing about children, she has this abilty to transport me back to my childhood where im able to feel the simple magic in the everyday that we adults take for granted, Anne and her family will always have a special place in my heart and my book collection and these books make the perfect bedtime storys to read with your family, they are about a time that was more simple where family came first.
—Emily
This is my first time re-reading this book in quite a few years. Usually my re-reads of the series stop after book 3, 4 or 5, because I hate to see Anne grow up. It pains me to give any book in the series, which I consider my all-time favorite series, anything less than 3 stars, but this has always been my least favorite installment. Too many ellipses and too much repetition. Also, Anne's children are much less interesting than she was as a child. Still have fondness for the book for giving me more Anne and Gilbert, but it really doesn't measure up to the rest of the series for me. I do enjoy the older versions of Anne's children in Rainbow Valley and especially in Rilla of Ingleside, so I just needed to struggle through this one in order to get to that point in my re-read.
—Leslie
