Genre: Classic
Series: Anne of Green Gables #2
Page Count: 336
Publication Year: 1909
Publisher: L. C. Page & Co.
Special Notes: I finished it last year.
Summary: Anne’s life continues to change.
I listened to the first Anne book several years ago and quite enjoyed it.
Anne has set aside the student life to become a teacher in Avonlea. This brings a new set of trials and triumphs which she faces admirably, even though mistakes often occur. While her teaching improves, the inhabitants of Avonlea experience their own small town accidents, scandals, romances and storms.
One nice thing about this book is its simplicity and tranquility. I know that no matter the drama, it’ll never become outrageously bad for the characters. Yes, people die or leave, but these events don’t pull anyone into an uncontrollable and volatile downward spiral. The people of Avonlea are what small towns should be filled with: sane, flawed individuals who aren’t secret murderers or psychos. A mark of how the times have changed is that back then it was considered shocking if a guy didn’t mention he’s married. The whole story is cozy and carefree, a nice change from my normally more tense and dramatic reads.
Another thing I like is that when someone makes a mistake, they apologize. Nasty grudges aren’t sustained and misunderstandings don’t tear people apart. Anne and Diana have kept their friendship despite being conservative and liberal, respectively. People are civilized, even when they’re nosy and unreasonable.
I actually quite like Anne. For a teenager, she’s doing a remarkable job as a teacher, a helper, and a friend. Her willingness and ability to help Marilla with housekeeping, hosting parties, and raising the adopted twins is such a wonderful thing to see. Most modern girls wouldn’t look at Anne and see a role-model but I kinda do. She’s friendly, helpful, patient, caring, and even when she doesn’t want to do something, she’ll do it. She has glaring flaws as anyone does, but at the core of things, she’s a good person.
I can not say the same for Davy, one of the twins Marilla and Anne take in. He is such a terrible kid. He’s ungrateful, careless, disobedient, and he locks his twin sister in a tool shed and lies about knowing where she is. He delights in being bad and I can’t stand him. He got marginally better by the end but if I see him again, he better be drastically different. For some reason Anne and Marilla love him more than his sister Dora.
Dora, on the other hand, is “an industrious little soul and never happier than when ‘helping’ in various small tasks suited to her chubby fingers. She fed chickens, picked up chips, wiped dishes, and ran errands galore. She was neat, faithful and observant; she never had to be told how to do a thing twice and never forgot any of her little duties.” She’s a great little child and they think she’s boring and monotonous. The injustice of it!
The rest of the cast is good. They’re a colorful collection of characters who provide a nice variety of mindsets and challenges for Anne to interact with. I especially like Gilbert and Marilla, and Mrs. Rachel Lynde grew on me.
The description is too flowery for me at times. Anne’s imagination is what makes it so and while it’s interesting to see what she imagines, I think it’s a bit much.
The dialogue is pretty good, if sometimes weird. One young boy refers to his dead mom as his “little mother” which is…um, strange. It’s funny how “lick the stuffing” and “whopper” were bad language. As I said, people were more civilized back then and it shows in how decent their language was.
This is a pleasant book. No cheap drama, no sensational but stupid thrills, it’s just the story of a young girl going through her life and learning to navigate its currents. I will be continuing with the series.
The page of girlhood had been turned, as by an unseen finger, and the page of womanhood was before her with all its charm and mystery, its pain and gladness.
Check out my rating here.