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A review by carologirl
Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I first read this novel when I was Rilla's âge at the end, 19, and living in that "French city with a name impossible to pronounce, that those heathens Runs dared bomb the church", (the martyr Reims cathedral, in the immortal words of Susan Baker.
Perhaps by fear that each reading wouldkill dear Walter again , it was the only one I had never reread till now, ten years later.
Well it was as sad and poignant as I remembered, and I did cry again. Rilla is a sweet girl, the portrait of the Canadian home front movingly detailed. I've grown up and lived all my life in those places laboured by bombs and trenches and the idea of so many young men from away, sometimes beyond the seas, dying here for the ideal we hopefully, somehow, someway still live on, never fails to deeply move me. I don't mind LMM's text to be offensively pro-war to modern ears. Written in 1921, it gives a beautiful meaning to the infinitely painful sacrifice suffered just three years prior. That meaning was needed to merely survive the sheer horror of it then.
Points docked for the needless death of a cat (no, even the most understanding 21th century ears can't find it splendid or sweet as initially described) and mostly the lack of romance between Rilla and her barely there love interest, present in the first chapter and dancing one dance with a fourteen yo before reappearing magically in the last chapter fully enamored. Not convincing, especially not when LMM offered us so many believable romances before and the Anne and Albert multi-novels storyline.
Karen Savage's reading is perhaps a bit too fast paced for my taste, but clear and full of feeling, giving each character their own voice. Absolutely lovely, and I'm thankful for all her work on LibriVox.
Praying that this isn't prophetic reading as, in February 2025, the current state of the war on Ukraine feels dangerously close, when followed from France. Rilla of Ingleside should firmly stay a historical novel, and it's sad I can relate too well to anxiously waiting international negociations and war declarations, and learn so much foreign geography by moving (now virtual) pins on a map to symbolize battle grounds. Hopefully, the likeness will stop there.
Perhaps by fear that each reading would
Well it was as sad and poignant as I remembered, and I did cry again. Rilla is a sweet girl, the portrait of the Canadian home front movingly detailed. I've grown up and lived all my life in those places laboured by bombs and trenches and the idea of so many young men from away, sometimes beyond the seas, dying here for the ideal we hopefully, somehow, someway still live on, never fails to deeply move me. I don't mind LMM's text to be offensively pro-war to modern ears. Written in 1921, it gives a beautiful meaning to the infinitely painful sacrifice suffered just three years prior. That meaning was needed to merely survive the sheer horror of it then.
Points docked for the needless death of a cat (no, even the most understanding 21th century ears can't find it splendid or sweet as initially described) and mostly the lack of romance between Rilla and her barely there love interest, present in the first chapter and dancing one dance with a fourteen yo before reappearing magically in the last chapter fully enamored. Not convincing, especially not when LMM offered us so many believable romances before and the Anne and Albert multi-novels storyline.
Karen Savage's reading is perhaps a bit too fast paced for my taste, but clear and full of feeling, giving each character their own voice. Absolutely lovely, and I'm thankful for all her work on LibriVox.
Praying that this isn't prophetic reading as, in February 2025, the current state of the war on Ukraine feels dangerously close, when followed from France. Rilla of Ingleside should firmly stay a historical novel, and it's sad I can relate too well to anxiously waiting international negociations and war declarations, and learn so much foreign geography by moving (now virtual) pins on a map to symbolize battle grounds. Hopefully, the likeness will stop there.