The Story...Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: The Pringles. They're known as the royal family of Summerside - and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds that she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty - and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside's strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles is only the first of her delicious triumphs.
A Reader's Experience...
Now that Anne has completed college, it is a real pleasure for me to be meeting her as an accomplished, independent, working adult. Once again, she stays true to the character built up in the previous novels - wise, intellegent, imaginative, and charming. While Green Gables remains her dear, forever home, it is touching that her heart remains open and continues to grow with new dreams, new adventures, and new friends around every bend in the road. As a reader, I am gripped by every amusing surprise, touched by Anne's ability to charm and forgive, and inspired by her relationship with Gilbert through a challenging separation.
I love the surprise outcomes to which Anne finds herself responsable for, both unexpected and unintentional. Somehow, she provides the missing link to solidify and mend a great number of relationships, becoming in word and action exactly what each dilemma needs to become ironically resolved. The Taylor Family of Cyrus, Trix, and Esme are a good example of how Anne brings out the uncharacteristic side of the former, to the benefit and amusement of his daughters. The Nelsons are another, Hazel Marr another, and Franklin Wescott and his daughter yet another. Then there is the more sensitive case of Lewis Allen and Jim Armstrong, affected by tragedy and brought together through chance, as well as Elizabeth's reconciliation to her father - another touching instant of hope and promise which truly affects Anne throughout the novel. Anne has a knack for bringing about the desired effect, although certainly not in the way in which she intended, and she repeatedly risks her own embaressment in order to help others.
Anne also posesses the attitude, charm, and skill to win over even her worst and most resistent enemies. The Pringles as well as Katherine Brooke and Mrs. Gibson are prime examples, not to mention the widows and Rebecca Dew who she lives and bonds with for her three years in Summerside. Anne's sensitivity, gentleness, and carefree zest for life work to bring out the best in those around her, and she never gives up on people when she feels in her bones that she has what it takes to affect them. She is bold and courageous in this sense, and it is inspiring how she is willing to look beyond how others appear on the surface and get to the heart of the matter.
Through Anne's letters to Gilbert, we get the sense that the childhood sweethearts have blossomed in to adult commitments. Although engaged, they both put off marriage in order to persue a career and keep their relationship alive over time and space. Their dreams of making a life together and vision for their future are sustained, and Anne seems to realize that their marriage is worth waiting for. They are content to develop seperately before developing together, and the anticipation keeps them both going. I think their case lends truth to the proverb "absense makes the heart grow fonder". I also think that it allows the reader to anticipate their union in the coming novels.
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