Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anne's daughter Rilla endures the sorrows of World War I, September 1, 2001
It is certainly hard to begin reading "Rilla of Ingleside," knowing it is the eighth and final book in the Anne of Green Gables series. When it was written in 1921 it was actually the sixth book that L.M. Montgomery wrote in the series. Years later she would add "Anne of Windy Poplars" as the "fourth" book and "Anne of Ingleside" as the sixth, pushing this one to eighth place. The title character is Rilla, born Bertha Marilla Blythe (named for Anne's mother and the old maid who adopted the red-headed orphan), the youngest of Anne and Gilbert's daughters. The novel is set about a decade after Montgomery's previous Anne novel, "Rainbow Valley," which was more about the four children of the new widowed minister John Meredith, who become good friends with the Blythe kids. Most of the novel is set during World War I, which is one of the most interesting aspects of the story for me. As the novel begins Rilla is almost fifteen years old, with bright hazel eyes and a dazzling smile. Rilla is still looking forward to her first romance and for her the most important thing in the world is going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from Kenneth Ford. But the story takes a dramatic turn as the shadow of the World War reaches all the way to Ingleside. Her brothers, her friends and her beau go over the ocean to fight in France and Rilla brings home an orphaned newborn in a soup tureen and organizes the Junior Red Cross. Everything takes on new meaning when there is a war going on, waiting to hear from the battlefields of France and Susan wondering when America is finally going to get involved so the Allies can win and the boys can finally come home. American involvement in that war was pretty brief, so what I found fascinating is to see that war from the Canadian perspective, as it drags on year after year. Young men get killed in a war and that tragedy touches the Blythe family. Then more bad news comes from France, bringing home the nightmare even more. Yet Montgomery creates the possibility of hope in the figure of a faithful dog, waiting at the train station for his master to return. Rilla is not the only one waiting for someone to come home: Una Meredith and Mary Vance are waiting as well. "Rilla of Ingleside" was published in 1921, which means that L. M. Montgomery provided a contemporaneous account of the war as seen from the home front. We learn of what is happening second-hand as we see the impact of the war on the mothers, sisters and girls who were left behind to worry about Paris being shelled by the Germans along with the fate of the Empire and their loved ones. This gives "Rilla" an emotional depth unmatched in Montgomery's work, and also sets up the tragic aspects of the story. While this might be a bit sobering for younger readers, by the time they get to this final novel I believe they will be well prepared. There are certainly comic aspects to the story, but this an emotional tale that provides a satisfying conclusion to the story of Anne Shirley and her family.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great war books, September 29, 2005
This review is from: Rilla of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables, No. 8) (Paperback)
"We give more than them. They only give themselves. We give them." So said Rilla Blythe once, and pretty much sums up all the suffering that the womenfolk left behind at home to 'work and wait' for their men at the front undergo. RoI is featured around pretty young Rilla Blythe, as flippant and fun-loving as fourteen-year-olds can be. The novel starts out innocently enough; Rilla and her siblings attend a lighthouse dance, and handsome Ken Ford is infatuated with Rilla. Nobody cares about what's happening outside Prince Edward Island..or indeed, even in the next town. But in the midst of the enjoyment, World War I is looming up, and very soon boys are in khaki and on their way to the bloody battlefields in France. Inner strength is tried and hearts are wrung during the four long years that follow as the women watch friends, husbands, lovers and brothers put their lives on stake for the 'ashes of their fathers and the temples of their gods'. Sadly, Rilla of I. has been overlooked by many when considering all the wonderful war books written. Maybe because of the title, which sounds very chick-flickish. If it had been called 'All Quiet on the Canadian front', perhaps more notice would've been taken of it. RoI is a clear, realistically insightful, thought-provoking work on what the people on the homefront go through during a war. All the anxieties over a telegram, taking up jobs that only men handled before, saying goodbye to the men leaving... LMM has beautifully portrayed how the initial excitement and complacency over the war simmed down to stoic endurance through the four years. Yet, in the midst of all this emotion, there is still the trademark LMM humour. Rilla reflecting that Fred Arnold's nose would be unbearable 'across the breakfast table'. Mr. Pryor being nicknamed 'Whiskers on a Moon' because of his fat face. Rilla bringing home an orphaned war baby in a soup tureen. There is never a dull moment in RoI. The only nitpick I have with this novel is that there is so little of the Merediths and characters like Jem, Nan and Di Blythe whom I grew to love during 'Rainbow Valley'. But it is such a powerful, moving book that it merits every bit of the five-star rating. This is L.M. Montgomery at her best.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THe most heart warming book I have ever read, February 23, 2001
By A Customer
Rilla Of Ingleside, the 8th book of the Anne of Green Gables series is my ultimate favorite of them all. Though every book was enchanting, each carrying beautiful stories, I feel that Rilla of Ingleside overflows in greatness. I have read this book time and time again and each time I laugh and cry for the beautiful characters and their lives that are so deeply touched by the Great War. Rilla is a girl like many who due to greater circumstances must grow up in a world of fear and fighting, and so she becomes a woman obtaining great character, love and wisdom. The story is beautiful and portrays what many must have gone through during those trying times. Anne in this novel, is not the headstrong girl that she was before, but is a woman and a mother who shows greater courage than in any other book. With all her sons at the front she is still the strongest and most loved kindred spirit. The book shows not what life was like at the front but what life was for those who had to stay behind. This book shows the greater courage that it took to stay at home, to fear the daily news, to hope in tomarrow and to "keep faith."
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
