Title: Rilla of
Ingleside
Author: L.M.
Montgomery
Read by: Emily Durante
Publisher: Tantor
Media, Inc.
Length:
Approximately 10 hours and 20 minutes
Source: Downloaded
through Overdrive from the Kewaunee Public Library
Rilla of Ingleside
is the eighth novel of the Anne of Green Gables series. It is also my favorite besides the first
novel, Anne of Green Gables. I really
feel that L.M. Montgomery started and ended this series with a bang. Just as a warning, I am going to discuss major
plot points and deaths in this novel – spoiler alert!
Rilla is the
youngest of Gilbert and Anne’s children.
She is fifteen years old, and unlike her five older siblings, she doesn’t
seem to have a purpose or drive to her life.
She decides to take a year off before “college” (Queens – which I think
is equivalent to high school now). World
War I starts at this time and her oldest brother Jem signs up right away. She
has a flirtation with Kenneth Ford, and she promises not to kiss any other man
while he is gone during the war. Does
that mean she is engaged? Rilla’s
favorite brother Walter is given a white feather (means coward) when he doesn’t
join up right away due to health problems.
He doesn’t want to go to war but goes anyway after being pressured by
society into doing so. And then he
tragically dies. As a teenager reading
this book, it was my first look at WWI and Walter’s death shattered me. I’m still sad about it as a forty-two year
old adult. Rilla’s romance with Ken was
also romantic, but my favorite storyline of all is when Rilla adopts and raises
a “war baby” whose mother has died, and his father is overseas fighting. Raising the baby really helps Rilla to grow
up and realize what is important in life.
Rilla of Ingleside
is different than the rest of the novels in the series as it is set firmly
during World War I and talks about real life historical events. The other novels are vague with timelines and
don’t discuss politics or real-life events.
I was interested to find out that this was the first novel written by a
Canadian about the civilian war experience.
It is also the only Canadian novel written from a woman’s perspective about
WWI by a contemporary. I have also read
Willa Cather’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel on WWI, One of Our Own. I prefer Rilla of Ingleside. I think having read through the entire
series, seeing the changes it makes on the characters and their world makes
more of an impact on the reader.
I also like how
this novel was told through Rilla’s point of view and that we got to see Anne
and Gilbert as parents. If you look back
at my review of Rainbow Valley, I was not happy that the point of view and
story shifted to the Meredith children rather than the Blythes.
The book still has
plenty of Montgomery’s traditional humor, mostly at housekeeper Susan’s
expense. I love the scene where Kenneth
Ford has come to talk to Rilla and Susan decides to help Rilla entertain by
telling embarrassing stories about them both when they were children. Or when Whiskers on the Moon proposes to her and
she chases him out of the house. I still
laugh thinking about it.
Montgomery also
writes great animals. This book had Dog
Monday, a great faithful dog that waits four years at the railroad station for
his boy Jem to return. And he somehow
knows when Walter is killed and lets out a great howl through the night. I love
this quote about Dog Monday, “He knew that not all dogs could be handsome or
eloquent or victorious, but that every dog could love.” There is also a cat Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde
who had an everchanging personality.
Montgomery also
does an excellent job of discussing grief in this novel. The novel is dedicated to Frederica Campbell
Macfarlane, L.M. Montgomery’s best friend who died during the 1918-19 flu pandemic. The pandemic is not discussed in this novel,
but grief through the loss of loved ones is discussed. I thought the discussions were frank and truthful. I also thought it was interesting how people
would judge Rilla for not grieving “enough” for her brother. Who gives people the right to judge? What is the right amount of grief? Another character is harassed for grieving “too
much” for her fiancé. It was interested
to ponder.
This was a great audiobook
and Emily Durante was a great narrator.
Overall, Rilla of
Ingleside is one of L.M. Montgomery’s finest novels. I feel like she really finished the Anne series
up in a grand fashion. I only wish this
book would have been made into a movie at some point. I’m still waiting for everyone to stop making
fifty versions of Anne of Green Gables and to actually film the entire book series. What do you think?
