Anne of the Island (original 1915; edition 2007)

Tis Anne, what not to love? ( )

This is a review I wrote in 2007.

The 3rd Anne book. Anne's story continues in Anne of the Island as Anne and her friends grow up and set out on their individual paths.

The book opens as Anne's best friend, Diana Barry, gets married to her sweetheart Fred, and Anne is to move away from the island to go and study for her BA at Redmond College, with school friends Gilbert & Charlie and her old chum from Queen's, Priscilla.

Anne is still the same eternally sweet and thoughtful Anne, capable of still making the hilarious Anne-ish mistakes she's become renowned for by book three! Romance blossoms at Redmond too, as Anne meets the "man of her dreams", the poetic and dapper, handsome Roy Gardner. The girls meet a third bosom friend, Phil (or Philippa), and "Anne of the Island" shares in the adventures of all three over their three years at Redmond, not forgetting holiday times for Anne in Avonlea as well.

The Anne books are wonderful stories for all ages from 8+. If you haven't read any before, start with number 1 which is Anne of Green Gables. I can't recommend them enough. ( )

At the heart of this exquisite episode into Anne's life is a love story, but it's not merely of romance. Anne falls in love with college and the pursuit of intellect, and that's what makes it one of my favorite books in the series. She finds her college friends, and they form an intimate circle. She starts to write, though this gets downplayed as the book continues--which is odd, since this is one of her dearest wishes. And, yes, she learns what it means to be in love, not just in the fairy stories, but for real.

Let's get spoilery, though. Proceed only if you want to be spoiled.



In the past, I've given Anne a hard time about refusing Gilbert the first time, but rereading it since I've been married has given me a little perspective. I have the feeling that if Gilbert had been alive 100 years later, that proposal would not have taken place, because the pressure to marry would have been less existent and he would have seen how very friend-driven Anne was. I think he fell into the trap of social conditioning. Anne, as it was, was not ready to marry *anyone* at that time in her life, and I don't think she would have been happy had she accepted Gilbert then. She had to realize of her own accord that she was in love with him, and to his credit, he backed off once she said no and only tried again when given a friend's encouragement that Anne would possibly be more receptive.

I also think that Royal Gardner exists to show that a *physical* ideal is not the same as your *actual* ideal, because good grief, that man sounded hideously boring. I believe, too, that Anne needed a relationship with a flat and uninteresting character to contrast Gilbert's vibrant and supportive personality. Had she married Roy, she would have been thrust into the role of society wife, for which she was entirely unsuited and unprepared. And that's an alternate-universe fanfic I would be kind of interested in reading, now that you mention it. ( )

Anne of the Island is the third novel in the Anne of Green Gables Series by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Plot:
Anne is finally ready to go to college – and Redmond beckons. Together with Gilbert, Charlie and Priscilla, they go to Nova Scotia to study, while Diana, Marilla and the twins remain back in Avonlea. Many things change for Anne, she makes new friends like Philippa (called Phil) and studies hard, while Gilbert becomes more insistent in his pursuit of Anne – much to her worry.

Reading the Anne of Green Gables series is really wonderful escapism – there is such a warmth and utterly humanistic core to the books, it’s simply a pleasure to fall into Anne’s world.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2020/09/17/anne-of-the-island-lucy-maud-montgomery/ ( )

More like a 3.5. A fairly slow read for me, but I still love the story and characters, and I will continue on with the rest of the series in the future. Read my full review here. ( )