Rilla of Ingleside Review
"Rilla of Ingleside" is the moving eighth novel in Lucy Maud Montgomery's superb "Anne of Green Gables" series. The onset of the First World War overtakes the happy family of Anne and Gilbert Blythe in the peaceful Prince Edward Island community of Glen St. Mary. Anne's sons and the sons of the neighboring Meredith family are all too soon off to war with the Canadian Army.
Left behind to cope are the women of the Ingleside household: Anne Blythe, maid of all work Susan Baker, boarding schoolmarm Gertrude Oliver, and Anne's fifteen-year old daughter Rilla. They must keep up the homefront while suffering through difficult war news and the long intervals between letters from Europe.
The story centers on Rilla, who finds romance on the last night of peace with Kenneth Ford, to whom she makes an adult promise as he ships off to war. Rilla, the least ambitious of the talented Blythe children, suddenly finds the grit to care for an abandoned war-baby and to lead the local Junior Red Cross chapter. She will console a favorite brother accused of cowardice and the silently suffering girl he leaves behind. She will arrange the quick wartime marriage of two friends. And she will find the strength to stand with a beloved mother about to experience her greatest tragedy.
By turns whimsical, tragic, humorous, and heroic, "Rilla of Ingleside" is some of the very best of Montgomery's honest, life-confirming prose. Few readers will be unmoved by the last letter of a Blythe son in the chapter "And So, Good Night" or by the ending, as Rilla waits to learn her fate with the man to whom she believes she is engaged.
"Rilla of Ingleside" is very highly recommended to fans of the "Anne of Green Gables" series.
Rilla of Ingleside Overview
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: World War, 1914-1918; Prince Edward Island; Shirley, Anne (Fictitious character); Orphans; Redheads; Young women; Family life; Juvenile Fiction / General; Juvenile Fiction / Classics; Juvenile Fiction / Historical / Military
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Related Products
- Rainbow Valley (Anne of Green Gables, No. 7)
- Anne of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables, No. 6)
- Anne's House of Dreams (Anne of Green Gables, No. 5)
- Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne of Green Gables)
- Chronicles of Avonlea (L.M. Montgomery Books)
Customer Reviews
Rilla of Ingleside - jayden robyn -
I thought this was a nice ending to "Anne of Green Gables." At first, I thought I wasn't going to like it as Rilla came off as a giggly, carefree girl, which was rather annoying. But after the war came, she got much better, and I ended up liking this book better than Rainbow Valley, but I like the books following Anne the best (House of Dreams is my favorite).
A Great Close to the Series - Susan B. Evans - Rosenberg, TX USA
Rilla of Ingleside is the final book in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series. The story is of Rilla, Anne and Gilbert Blythe's youngest daughter. It has been nearly ten years since the events of Rainbow Valley took place, and Rilla is fourteen. Europe has joined in World War I and many boys from Canada are going to war, including Rilla's brothers and the Meredith boys. With her sisters and friends away at college, Rilla is left at home with her parents. Over the next few years she grows from a fun-loving child into a more mature young woman.
Rilla of Ingleside is not much of an Anne book in the classical sense - there is not much Anne in the story, as was the case with the last few books in the series. However, taken alone Rilla of Ingleside is a very interesting and well-written novel. L.M. Montgomery's account of World War I from the homefront and out of the eyes of Rilla Blythe is breathtaking. The tragedy of war is illustrated second-hand, through the effect it has on the women waiting for their sons and husbands at home.
Rilla of Ingleside is a realistic and emotional journey through the minds and hearts of the people left behind in war - friends and family waiting, with lives put on hold. Though it is heartbreaking at times (as stories set in times of war tend to be,) it is expressive and penetrative and gives the reader an authentic look at the Canadanian homefront during World War I. Rilla of Ingleside is a beautifully written and powerful novel.
An excellent story - -
Nancy in Seattle, WA : The grown family of Anne Shirley and the effects of WW I. This is a moving story and well written.
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