This I think was one of the best Anne of Green Gables books! I l truly fell in love with it.
Plot
Anne and Gilbert are preparing to say their vows, and then soon the happy couple will journey to Four Winds Harbor where Gilbert is to become the new doctor. Here Anne makes new friends and experiences the joys and sorrows of life.
Morality
Anne and Gilbert are not poor or rich, but very happy and pleased with life. Some of their friends like Miss Cordelia are prejudiced against Methodists; Miss Cordelia is also given strongly to gossip. Some minor characters go to church but get drunk occasionally. But that is about all.
A young woman whom Anne befriends is married to a man who, prior to becoming mentally retarded years previously, was abusive. A major plot point of the story deals with this, as the woman (with her husband still in the house) boards a young man, and falls in love with him (and he with her). He does not know that she is married, and she tries to suppress her feelings as soon as she recognizes them. Anne bemoans the fate that has kept this perfect couple apart, and has tied this lovely woman to misery. While the man shows no repentance for falling in love in the first place, he is sorry to have caused her pain by it, and both of them try to forget each other.
Secondly, Gilbert discovers a way that this woman's husband could be cured. There follows many heated discussions about whether it is more right to give everyone the best possible chance at a full life (by restoring the man's reason), or more right to protect others at someone's expense (by keeping him an imbecile so that Leslie, his wife, will not be subjected to his abuse). In the end, the book comes down firmly on the side of life, trusting providence to work it out.
Spiritual Content
Anne and Gilbert are Methodists. Anne talks about how she wonders if God still cares about her, and other talk about God. There is little real spiritual content, however.
Violence
See Morality.
Drug and Alcohol Content
There is some talk of a few men in Four Winds who have too much to drink and do crazy, but funny, things.
Sexual Content
See Morality.
Crude or Profane Language or Content
None.
Conclusion
This book was beautiful, a story made for readers to fall in love with. It was so touching that it made me laugh and cry. Some of the sorrows that Anne encounters are deeper than in previous "Anne" books, but otherwise there is little to keep this novel from being read by younger readers.
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