Title: Anne of Ingleside
Author:
L.M. Montgomery
Read
by: Barbara Barnes
Publisher:
Dreamscape Audio
Length:
Approximately 11 hours and 40 minutes
Source:
Purchased from Amazon.com.
Anne
of Ingleside is the sixth novel of the Anne of Green Gables series. Two years ago, I started to listen to the
audiobooks of this series as I have always loved these novels. For some reason, I stopped at book five, but
with the craziness of the world these days, I went back to this series that
always makes me happy and decided now is the time to finish listening to the
audiobooks.
In
Anne of Ingleside, the story is still about Anne and Gilbert, but the focus has
started to shift to their six children: Jem, Nan, Diana, Walter, Shirley, and
the newest arrival, Rilla. As I’ve
gotten older, reading the books is a different experience than when I was
younger. This book always fell through
the cracks for me as a teen as I was looking more for the romance and action of
the other novels. Now as a mother
myself, I enjoyed and understood many parts of the story that I didn’t as a
teen. I also loved the individual
experiences of the kids as well. I feel
like L.M. Montgomery remembered what is was like to be a child and how
something that seems small for an adult, can be everything to a child.
At
the start of the novel, Gilbert’s Aunt Mary Maria has come to stay for two
weeks, but the two weeks soon stretches into a year. Gilbert doesn’t want to kick out a relative,
but Aunt Mary Maria Blythe has something negative to say about just about
everything. With Anne having Rilla
during Mary Maria’s stay, it adds an extra stress onto all of the family
members. I thought these sections were
hilarious. Especially now as an adult I’m
had Aunt Mary Maria’s of my own in my family that visit and have nothing nice
to say. I just can’t imagine an entire
year of it. The birthday party that put
an end to her visit was hilarious. I
felt for Anne who is just trying to be nice, but there is no pleasing the Mary
Maria’s of the world.
I
loved the scenes where people were telling stories. In particular Walter listens in to all of the
stories about the inhabitants in town. I
was Walter as a youth and loved to sit around and listen to the stories my
Grandparents and Great-Grandparents had to tell. This reminded me of them.
The
kids learned many important lessons and had adventures during this novel and I greatly
enjoyed them. I felt bad for Jem who had
bad luck with dogs and for Diana who had bad luck in friends. Anne and Gilbert’s marriage matures and they
face their own insecurities. I thought
it was a very honest look at marriage at their fifteenth anniversary being at
seventeen years myself. I also enjoyed that
characters from the previous novels visited or were mentioned.
Anne
of Ingleside was written after the final two books in the series: Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside. I admit that the end where Anne laments about
how the children are growing too fast and the book had a foreshadowing of Walter’s
fate really struck me. It brought a tear
to my eye.
Barbara
Barnes was a good narrator and brought unique voices to the characters. This was a very enjoyable audiobook.
Overall,
Anne of Ingleside is a good book that continues Anne’s story while starting to
tell the story of her children. The book
made me really happy. It’s a great story
to listen to when times are troubled.
This sounds like such a good story, Laura. I am glad you enjoyed listening to it. Lovely review!
ReplyDeleteI may be one of the few who have not read this series. I must look out for them.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely pick up this series - it is wonderful!
ReplyDelete