Rainbow Valley Review
"Rainbow Valley" is the seventh novel in Lucy Maud Montgomery's superb "Anne of Green Gables" series. Red-haired orphan Anne Shirley has been married to Doctor Gilbert Blythe for fifteen wonderful years; they and their six children and unique maid of all work Susan Baker live in the house called Ingleside, in the village of Glen St. Mary on Prince Edward Island.
As the story opens, Gilbert and Anne, just returned from Europe, reassemble their family at Ingliside. Mrs. Marshall Elliot delivers the latest gossip to Anne, including the news that the preacher's manse is newly occupied by absent-minded widower Reverend John Meredith, his four children, and an aging housekeeper.
In the wooded play space they call Rainbow Valley, the adolescent Blythe and Meredith children are quick to bond and as quick to get involved in escapades together. The four Meredith children, who are raising themselves, are forever offending local sensibilities; the Blythes will try to help.
"Rainbow Valley" is a change of pace in the "Anne" series, as Anne and Gilbert step into the background to allow Montgomery to work her considerable narrative magic with the Blythe and Meredith children. The principal drama will be the effort by many hands to remarry Reverend Meredith to a suitable woman who can mother his children. In the end, the meekest Meredith child will make the quietly heroic sacrifice that saves the day.
"Rainbow Valley" is highly entertaining and highly recommended to "Anne" fans.
Rainbow Valley Overview
CHAPTER I. HOME AGAIN
It was a clear, apple-green evening in May, and Four Winds
Harbour was mirroring back the clouds of the golden west between
its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on the sand-bar,
sorrowful even in spring, but a sly, jovial wind came piping down
the red harbour road along which Miss Cornelia's comfortable,
matronly figure was making its way towards the village of Glen
St. Mary. Miss Cornelia was rightfully Mrs. Marshall Elliott, and
had been Mrs. Marshall Elliott for thirteen years, but even yet
more people referred to her as Miss Cornelia than as Mrs.
Elliott. The old name was dear to her old friends, only one of
them contemptuously dropped it. Susan Baker, the gray and grim
and faithful handmaiden of the Blythe family at Ingleside, never
lost an opportunity of calling her "Mrs. Marshall Elliott," with
the most killing and pointed emphasis, as if to say "You wanted
to be Mrs. and Mrs. you shall be with a vengeance as far as I am
concerned."
Miss Cornelia was going up to Ingleside to see Dr. and Mrs.
Blythe, who were just home from Europe. They had been away for
three months, having left in February to attend a famous medical
congress in London; and certain things, which Miss Cornelia was
anxious to discuss, had taken place in the Glen during their
absence. For one thing, there was a new family in the manse.
And such a family! Miss Cornelia shook her head over them several
times as she walked briskly along.
Susan Baker and the Anne Shirley of other days saw her coming, as
they sat on the big veranda at Ingleside, enjoying the charm of
the cat's light, the sweetness of sleepy robins whistling among
the twilit maples, and the dance of a gusty group of daffodils
blowing against the old, mellow, red brick wall of the lawn.
Anne was sitting on the steps, her hands clasped over her knee,
looking, in the kind dusk, as girlish as a mother of many has any
right to be; and the beautiful gray-green eyes, gazing down the
harbour road, were as full of unquenchable sparkle and dream as
ever. Behind her, in the hammock, Rilla Blythe was curled up, a
fat, roly-poly little creature of six years, the youngest of the
Ingleside children. She had curly red hair and hazel eyes that
were now buttoned up after the funny, wrinkled fashion in which
Rilla always went to sleep.
Shirley, "the little brown boy," as he was known in the family
"Who's Who," was asleep in Susan's arms. He was brown-haired,
brown-eyed and brown-skinned, with very rosy cheeks, and he was
Susan's especial love. After his birth Anne had been very ill
for a long time, and Susan "mothered" the baby with a passionate
tenderness which none of the other children, dear as they were to
her, had ever called out. Dr. Blythe had said that but for her
he would never have lived.
"I gave him life just as much as you did, Mrs. Dr. dear," Susan
was wont to say. "He is just as much my baby as he is yours."
And, indeed, it was always to Susan that Shirley ran, to be
kissed for bumps, and rocked to sleep, and protected from
well-deserved spankings. Susan had conscientiously spanked all
the other Blythe children when she thought they needed it for
their souls' good, but she would not spank Shirley nor allow his
mother to do it. Once, Dr. Blythe had spanked him and Susan had
been stormily indignant.
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Customer Reviews
Disappointing - Susan B. Evans - Rosenberg, TX USA
Rainbow Valley is the seventh book in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series. It could almost be a stand-alone novel as there is very little of Anne, Gilbert, or their children. If you can get past the disappointment of not seeing very much of the Blythe's then you might enjoy Rainbow Valley. The story revolves around the Meredith's, the four children of a widowed Presbyterian minister. Anne and Gilbert's children play small parts, mostly in the background of the story.
Although the Meredith children certainly can be described as unusual, I didn't find anything particularly interesting about them. I'm afraid that L.M. Montgomery simply ran out of unique characters by the seventh book. I feel let down that the series has turned so far away from Anne. It makes me wonder if Montgomery believed that our adventures end when we grow up and get married. A spirited woman like Anne would definitely continue to grow and evolve as a person.
Taken outside of the series, Rainbow Valley is a beautifully written story - with the same graceful turns of phrase as the rest of the series, and full of drama and comedy. But when judged against it's predecessors it is a disappointment - with lackluster characters and a flat plot line. Quite uninteresting.
wonderful book - Jimmie C. Parker -
All the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery are wonderful. It was such a innocent time in history.
Very good, wholesome reading - CM - USA
This novel is one of the best of the "Anne" series. The plot moves, the characters are well portrayed, and romance keeps the suspense up and the reader engrossed. It is so wonderful to read something written about the turn of the century that isn't full of the filth of so much of today's fiction.
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