Rilla of Ingleside- why not so popular?
May. 20th, 2010 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dweomeroflightI apologise to the people who were subjected to me going Molly Weasley in the last couple of days. It happens. I take after my Mum, or Anne of Green Gables. Or both. I'm the type of person who feels things way too much and analyses way too much and gets upset easily when people disappoint me, and then gets kinda red headed mad, and then get over it and feels better and moves on.
I kind of like it actually. It means I forgive pretty quick after my initial bout of bad temper, but it does mean I turn into a fire breathing dragon for a bit :P It also explains why I wish I'd known Anne. She is me. I am her. (I also wish I could meet Julie Walters. Because she's Molly Weasley. And because she's heck cool, and because we could have Harry Potter howler matches together and it would be fun :) )
It does mean that if I ever am published I will need a bloody good agent :P Otherwise I might do an Anne and piss off the proverbial Mrs Lynde.
Which brings me to what I want to talk about. Books. Because books make me happy, especially L.M. Montgomery books. The question I have for you is why are these books so not taught more. Why is Rilla of Ingleside so under appreciated? That book is seriously the best account of the WW1 home front since... since ever?
Under cutlink for reams of stuff :)
Take for example the character of Walter Blythe (Anne's most imaginative son). As a child he makes up this story about The Pied Piper and tells Anne's other children and their friends that one day The Piper will come and take them all away. I type the relevant section here :)
"I loved the Pied Piper story," said Di, "and so does mother. I always feel so sorry for the poor little lame boy who couldn't keep up with the others and was shut out from the mountain. He must have been so disappointed. All of his life he'd be wondering what wonderful thing he had missed and wishing he could have gotten in with the others."
"But how glad his mother must have been," said Una softly. "I think she had been very sorry all of her life that he was lame. Perhaps she even used to cry about it. But she would never be sorry again. Never."
"Some day," said Walter dreamily, looking afar into the sky, "the Pied Piper will come over the hill up there and down Rainbow Valley piping merrily and sweetly. And I will follow him- follow him down to the shore, down to the sea- away from you all."
Rainbow Valley 75-6
In this book Montgomery has made really a very clever metaphor for War and how it drives people apart, and I love that Una and Di were both right... those who stayed behind wished they had gone because of the social pressure, and yet it was the women who had to bear the brunt of losing their sons.
At the end of Rainbow Valley Walter hears the Piper again and he tells the girls that he and his brothers must follow its sound, around and around the world, till at last he stops and sets them free. It's some seriously awesome foreshadowing for the last book (ostensibly my favourite book out of the series other then the first).
And then of course Lucy is such a good writer that she can bring tears to your eyes. This is from the beginning of Rilla of Ingleside. 16 year old Rilla has just gone to her first dance, she and many others at the dance are too naive to understand the political situation that is going down even as they worry about wether certain boys like them or not. Then Lucy writes this, again with Walter as the instrument of truth.
"What a fuss to make over nothing," said Mary Vance disdainfully. "What does it matter if there's a war over there in Europe. I'm sure it doesn't concern us."
Walter looked at her and had one of his odd visitations of prophecy. "Before this war is over," he said, "every man and woman and child in Canada will feel it. You Mary, will feel it, feel it to your heart's core. You will weep tears of blood over it. The Piper has come- and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistable music. It will be years before this dance of death is over- years, Mary. And in those years Mary, millions of hearts will break."
I cry every time I read that chapter. Rilla of Ingleside is not the easy going romance its cover makes it out to be; instead it is a brutal account of what it was like for the women who stayed behind in fear, knowing that at any moment their lovers, their brothers, their husbands, their friends could be dead. It's a novel that talks about how society is torn apart by war, about how people we have known since Anne of Green Gables days die, suffer, and pay over the pain of war. It is ostensibly a novel about Rilla growing up, but it's historical backdrop makes it so much more then that.
I for one, will never forget the letter that Rilla receives from Walter just before he dies in battle where he tells her that the Piper is letting him go, but he will never return home. She wishes to keep the letter for herself, but then she remembers Una, poor Una who had always loved Walter and he her, though they had never made this public. The chapter where Rilla gives the letter to Una is one of th most heartbreaking things I have read in a novel since... well ever.
The ending paragraph goes something like this.
"Una knew that love would never come into her life now- it was buried forever somewhere under the blood stained soil somewhere in France. No one but herself and perhaps Rilla knew it- would ever know it. She had no right in the eyes of the world to grieve. She must try and hide her pain as best as she could- alone. But she too would keep faith."
And the story of Jem's faithful Dog Monday also gets me every time. When Jem goes to war, his dog refuses to stay at home, instead waiting at the train station where his young master left day in day out for four years. Jem is missing, presumed dead. The village of St Mary Mead are sad because they know that they can never explain to a dog that his Master might never be coming back.
Then the war ends, victory is announced. Troops return home. Jem never comes back. The dog is so worn down with living out in the open waiting eagerly for his master to come home that he is old, tired and blind. He no longer bothers to bark cheerfully when someone new returns home. He has finally given up. Then a train comes in. A man steps off in soldiers uniform. The station Master does not recognise him. The man is scarred, is limping, sun tanned and very skinny. But Little Dog Monday knows. He gets up and licks the soldier with joy. The end of the chapter read.
"The station agent had heard the story of Dog Monday. He knew who the returned soldier was. Dog Monday's long vigil was ended. Jem Blythe had returned home."
I cry buckets every time I read it.
So why is this book not more respected for an account for the home front then what it is? Is it a case of bad marketing? Of women's accounts not seen as being as important as a man's? Of a female chick lit author writing the novel? Of left over colonial snob spillage (these novels are all Canadian after all)?
I don't know. But if everyone read Rilla of Ingleside, I'd guarantee that they'd get a better understanding of WW1 and what it did to those who stayed behind. Seriously. It's that good. It's one of the most emotional novels I've ever read despite only being about 200 pages long. It's also one of the most difficult novels I've ever read. Lucy spares no details and these are characters that we have known for 6 books already. It's a book that has stayed with me for a long time, a book that no doubt will stay with me forever.
In other news: all of this fan fiction negativity makes me want to write a River/Doctor fan fic. It will happen. I promise you all :P
I kind of like it actually. It means I forgive pretty quick after my initial bout of bad temper, but it does mean I turn into a fire breathing dragon for a bit :P It also explains why I wish I'd known Anne. She is me. I am her. (I also wish I could meet Julie Walters. Because she's Molly Weasley. And because she's heck cool, and because we could have Harry Potter howler matches together and it would be fun :) )
It does mean that if I ever am published I will need a bloody good agent :P Otherwise I might do an Anne and piss off the proverbial Mrs Lynde.
Which brings me to what I want to talk about. Books. Because books make me happy, especially L.M. Montgomery books. The question I have for you is why are these books so not taught more. Why is Rilla of Ingleside so under appreciated? That book is seriously the best account of the WW1 home front since... since ever?
Under cutlink for reams of stuff :)
Take for example the character of Walter Blythe (Anne's most imaginative son). As a child he makes up this story about The Pied Piper and tells Anne's other children and their friends that one day The Piper will come and take them all away. I type the relevant section here :)
"I loved the Pied Piper story," said Di, "and so does mother. I always feel so sorry for the poor little lame boy who couldn't keep up with the others and was shut out from the mountain. He must have been so disappointed. All of his life he'd be wondering what wonderful thing he had missed and wishing he could have gotten in with the others."
"But how glad his mother must have been," said Una softly. "I think she had been very sorry all of her life that he was lame. Perhaps she even used to cry about it. But she would never be sorry again. Never."
"Some day," said Walter dreamily, looking afar into the sky, "the Pied Piper will come over the hill up there and down Rainbow Valley piping merrily and sweetly. And I will follow him- follow him down to the shore, down to the sea- away from you all."
Rainbow Valley 75-6
In this book Montgomery has made really a very clever metaphor for War and how it drives people apart, and I love that Una and Di were both right... those who stayed behind wished they had gone because of the social pressure, and yet it was the women who had to bear the brunt of losing their sons.
At the end of Rainbow Valley Walter hears the Piper again and he tells the girls that he and his brothers must follow its sound, around and around the world, till at last he stops and sets them free. It's some seriously awesome foreshadowing for the last book (ostensibly my favourite book out of the series other then the first).
And then of course Lucy is such a good writer that she can bring tears to your eyes. This is from the beginning of Rilla of Ingleside. 16 year old Rilla has just gone to her first dance, she and many others at the dance are too naive to understand the political situation that is going down even as they worry about wether certain boys like them or not. Then Lucy writes this, again with Walter as the instrument of truth.
"What a fuss to make over nothing," said Mary Vance disdainfully. "What does it matter if there's a war over there in Europe. I'm sure it doesn't concern us."
Walter looked at her and had one of his odd visitations of prophecy. "Before this war is over," he said, "every man and woman and child in Canada will feel it. You Mary, will feel it, feel it to your heart's core. You will weep tears of blood over it. The Piper has come- and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistable music. It will be years before this dance of death is over- years, Mary. And in those years Mary, millions of hearts will break."
I cry every time I read that chapter. Rilla of Ingleside is not the easy going romance its cover makes it out to be; instead it is a brutal account of what it was like for the women who stayed behind in fear, knowing that at any moment their lovers, their brothers, their husbands, their friends could be dead. It's a novel that talks about how society is torn apart by war, about how people we have known since Anne of Green Gables days die, suffer, and pay over the pain of war. It is ostensibly a novel about Rilla growing up, but it's historical backdrop makes it so much more then that.
I for one, will never forget the letter that Rilla receives from Walter just before he dies in battle where he tells her that the Piper is letting him go, but he will never return home. She wishes to keep the letter for herself, but then she remembers Una, poor Una who had always loved Walter and he her, though they had never made this public. The chapter where Rilla gives the letter to Una is one of th most heartbreaking things I have read in a novel since... well ever.
The ending paragraph goes something like this.
"Una knew that love would never come into her life now- it was buried forever somewhere under the blood stained soil somewhere in France. No one but herself and perhaps Rilla knew it- would ever know it. She had no right in the eyes of the world to grieve. She must try and hide her pain as best as she could- alone. But she too would keep faith."
And the story of Jem's faithful Dog Monday also gets me every time. When Jem goes to war, his dog refuses to stay at home, instead waiting at the train station where his young master left day in day out for four years. Jem is missing, presumed dead. The village of St Mary Mead are sad because they know that they can never explain to a dog that his Master might never be coming back.
Then the war ends, victory is announced. Troops return home. Jem never comes back. The dog is so worn down with living out in the open waiting eagerly for his master to come home that he is old, tired and blind. He no longer bothers to bark cheerfully when someone new returns home. He has finally given up. Then a train comes in. A man steps off in soldiers uniform. The station Master does not recognise him. The man is scarred, is limping, sun tanned and very skinny. But Little Dog Monday knows. He gets up and licks the soldier with joy. The end of the chapter read.
"The station agent had heard the story of Dog Monday. He knew who the returned soldier was. Dog Monday's long vigil was ended. Jem Blythe had returned home."
I cry buckets every time I read it.
So why is this book not more respected for an account for the home front then what it is? Is it a case of bad marketing? Of women's accounts not seen as being as important as a man's? Of a female chick lit author writing the novel? Of left over colonial snob spillage (these novels are all Canadian after all)?
I don't know. But if everyone read Rilla of Ingleside, I'd guarantee that they'd get a better understanding of WW1 and what it did to those who stayed behind. Seriously. It's that good. It's one of the most emotional novels I've ever read despite only being about 200 pages long. It's also one of the most difficult novels I've ever read. Lucy spares no details and these are characters that we have known for 6 books already. It's a book that has stayed with me for a long time, a book that no doubt will stay with me forever.
In other news: all of this fan fiction negativity makes me want to write a River/Doctor fan fic. It will happen. I promise you all :P
