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jougetsu September 23 2016, 10:31:43 UTC
I think the only reason I can tolerate Gilbert in the books is that Jonathan Crombie's performance was pretty likable (and Crombie was specifically not basing his Gilbert on the books so that probably went long way).

I re-read a lot of Anne this year too and wow I hate Mrs. Barry a lot more than I remember. She basically only lets Anne play with Diana because she thinks Diana is too bookish. I assume that if Diana was more friendly with Jane/Ruby/Josie she probably would've told Marilla to keep the orphan off their farm. Not to mention it was Mrs. Barry's separation of the friends that led to Anne getting obsessed with Gil. Truly she is the villain of the piece! I kid, I kid.

I always felt Paul could've been an interesting character if he wasn't so perfectly precocious. Davy! Everyone's already said everything that needs to be said about him. Poor Dora was never really appreciated by Anne.

House of Dreams is one of my favorites, but it's the only one of their time in Four Winds that I truly like. Rainbow Valley isn't really about the Blythes and Anne of Ingleside is intolerable. I keep thinking it'd be interesting to write an AU where Anne and Gilbert stayed in the Avonlea area (Carmody maybe?), but then there'd be no Leslie or Cornelia.

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evelyn_b September 24 2016, 02:40:54 UTC
JOUGETSU! Hi! I haven't gotten to Anne of Green Gables yet (saving it for last because it's the best) but there was a striking moment at the end of Island, when Diana's first child is born, and Diana resolves that his first memory of her will be a sweet one, because her own first memory of her mother is of the latter slapping her face for something or other. :( "Of course I probably deserved it, and she was a good mother," she says.

I didn't remember that line about Diana being too bookish, but I'm looking forward to rediscovering my grudge against Mrs. Barry. Did she keep Diana from going to Queens/continuing with her schooling in the book, or was that just in the TV movie?

I was shocked when I opened up Rainbow Valley this morning and Anne & Gilbert were returning from a trip to Europe! I understand why LMM wouldn't want to write Anne Abroad, but I'm sorry just the same that it doesn't exist. I always complain about the later Annes but if there were seven more I would read them all. One thing I have been enjoying is the way echoes of Anne's orphan past keep turning up and causing trouble. Lying Jenny Penny with her mesmerizing eyes, and smart, difficult Mary Vance out of Hopetown Asylum -- "If I can't tell lies, what's to become of me?"

I don't love Anne and Gilbert as parents - they feel real only when something has gone wrong, like when Jem disappears and everyone is scared. Anne's kids are perfectly good LMM child characters -- I like all of them better than Davy and Paul, for example -- but in relation to their parents they tend to go a little flat imo.

Paul's too sweet and too precocious for me; he never feels genuinely childish and complicated the way Anne and Emily do in their different ways. He's like a mediocre girlhood novelist's ideal of childhood, and very odd to encounter after a book full of Anne, who is definitely idealized as "home children" go but still very real. (Davy is the equally mediocre comic caricature of childhood). Probably I'm being too uncharitable here, so I should make sure to state this is just an opinion and I'm sure there are arguments to be made for both Davy and Paul.

Leslie and Cornelia would definitely be missed. Along with the incredibly sad Joyce chapter, the scenes with Anne and Leslie are some of the best in the series. Anne can always be counted on to crank up the romantic friendship to maximum volume and then break the dial. <3

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scripsi September 24 2016, 06:53:01 UTC
I love Anne of Green Gables. And also Rilla of Ingleside, which of course isn't an Anne-book, not really.

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jougetsu September 24 2016, 07:38:41 UTC
Ouch, I forgot that line about Diana's first memory of her mother. I remember as a child being disappointed that Anne didn't stay in Avonlea and her children be besties with Diana's. As an adult I realize that probably would've been pretty boring as Montgomery clearly felt she exhausted the Avonlea story beats and moving Anne away created more drama.

Found the line!

"This is my little girl, Diana," said Mrs. Barry. "Diana, you might take Anne out into the garden and show her your flowers. It will be better for you than straining your eyes over that book. She reads entirely too much-" this to Marilla as the little girls went out-"and I can't prevent her, for her father aids and abets her. She's always poring over a book. I'm glad she has the prospect of a playmate-perhaps it will take her more out-of-doors."

Sullivan casts the blame on Mrs. Barry for Diana joining the Queen's class, but the book just says "Diana Barry did not, as her parents did not intend to send her to Queen's." Considering her earlier denouncing of too much book reading and that Montgomery flat out says she's a small-minded prejudiced woman I can see why Sullivan took that tack.

I get that Mrs. Barry is meant to represent the forces of ignorance in a small community showing that people can be prejudiced and antagonizing without being Gothic villains. Still it's pretty frustrating to have this epic friendship built up, sabotaged, and then sort of put away after book three. On the other hand it is more realistic the way Montgomery wrote it.

Both Rainbow Valley and Ingleside reference their cool trips abroad and I too wish we got to hear about them a bit more even though Montgomery couldn't/wouldn't write about those trips. It's also rather interesting that Anne is a bit alienated from Four Winds society because she and Gilbert are so worldly compared to their neighbors.

I don't love Anne and Gilbert as parents - they feel real only when something has gone wrong, like when Jem disappears and everyone is scared.

YES! On a very critical re-read of Ingleside this year I finally put my finger on why I don't like them as parents: they're too perfect. Anne always understands the children and always says the right thing at the right time. Gilbert is slightly more flawed but it defaults to a very dull Edwardian era middle class father stereotype. Which makes no sense because neither of them grew up in a stable two parent home so wouldn't they naturally make mistakes? Even people who did grow up in a traditional ideal home make parenting mistakes all the time. What makes Marilla and Aunt Elizabeth such great characters is that we see them learn as they struggle to be surrogate parents. Anne and Gilbert don't struggle, they're just Super Awesome with No Effort.

The problem with Anne's brood is not only do they fall flat contrasted with their parents they also are not nearly as interesting as Mary and the Manse Children. Rainbow Valley is only tangentially about the Blythes and Ingleside has some funny anecdotes but never really gels to form a whole. It doesn't help that Montgomery was very tired of the Anne universe by the time she got to the children and it shows on every page. (As an aside I really loved the saga of Aunt Mary Maria because showed everyone as flawed, real people trying to deal with a difficult relative rather than be just Family Circus style twee vignettes). But as you've said the Blythe children are still more interesting than Davy and Paul.

I'm going to be awful and admit that the only way I find Paul interesting is if he grew up to realize he was An Invert. Gasp.

Leslie has to be the best single book character. I mean yeah she's alive in the other books, but they never talk onscreen again which is a shame. I guess because the West sisters became the Tragedy Ladies du jour (and I adore them), but the Blythe children always talk about their visits to the House O'Dreams and we never see them. I have too many feelings about all these characters.

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