Book Review: Rainbow Valley
Jan. 8th, 2024 06:33 pmAs a child, I never made it far enough in the Anne of Green Gables series to read Rainbow Valley. I read it for the first time a couple of years ago, when ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
littlerhymes and I did an Anne of Green Gables read-through. But although I read it so recently, somehow I managed to forget entirely about Mary Vance, the orphan child whom the minister’s children find hiding in barn and take in for two weeks before their absent-minded father wakes up to the fact that a strange child seems to have taken up permanent residence in the manse.
For all the book is technically about Anne’s children, it’s really far more about the Merediths, the children of this vague and detached minister. (I suspect that Montgomery may have got a bit bored of writing about Anne at this point, because she’s forever whisking Anne and Gilbert out of the way on a visit just when the action reaches a critical point.) Mrs. Meredith died a few years ago, and although the children are basically good-hearted, they are forever shocking the congregation by such antics as taking in the slangy Mary Vance or playing in the graveyard next to the manse.
Although I forgot Mary Vance – I can’t understand how I managed this. There’s a scene where she chases little Rilla Blythe through the town flailing dried codfish! You’d think that would stick in one’s mind… Anyway, as I was saying, though I’d forgotten Mary Vance, I did remember Mr. Meredith’s courtship of Rosemary West, who refuses him because she and her sister Ellen had sworn to each other never to marry but to live together always. Ellen West insists that Rosemary must keep the promise, only to turn around and get engaged herself a year later!
Rosemary releases Ellen from her promise at once, of course. But then Rosemary refuses Ellen’s invitation to move into Ellen’s new home after the wedding, so then Ellen breaks her engagement because she won’t leave Rosemary to live alone… They would probably still be mired in this misery if sensitive little Una Meredith, under the impression that Rosemary refused her father because the Meredith children were such scapegraces, cut through this Gordian knot by coming to promise Rosemary that they would all be very very good if only Rosemary would marry Mr. Meredith.
One might imagine this might remain a source of friction between Rosemary and Ellen forever after, but then again, all’s well that ends well. And maybe it is just as well. During the first phase of their courtship, both Rosemary and Mr. Meredith were convinced that this second love, though sweet, could never live up to their first romance. (Rosemary had a sailor fiance who died tragically at sea.) But then Rosemary refused Mr. Meredith, and in so doing revealed to them both how deeply they truly loved each other! Of course perhaps they might have realized after a few years of marriage, but then again, maybe not. Maybe just as well to go in already knowing that a second love, though of course not the same as a first, can be just as deep.
littlerhymes and I did an Anne of Green Gables read-through. But although I read it so recently, somehow I managed to forget entirely about Mary Vance, the orphan child whom the minister’s children find hiding in barn and take in for two weeks before their absent-minded father wakes up to the fact that a strange child seems to have taken up permanent residence in the manse. For all the book is technically about Anne’s children, it’s really far more about the Merediths, the children of this vague and detached minister. (I suspect that Montgomery may have got a bit bored of writing about Anne at this point, because she’s forever whisking Anne and Gilbert out of the way on a visit just when the action reaches a critical point.) Mrs. Meredith died a few years ago, and although the children are basically good-hearted, they are forever shocking the congregation by such antics as taking in the slangy Mary Vance or playing in the graveyard next to the manse.
Although I forgot Mary Vance – I can’t understand how I managed this. There’s a scene where she chases little Rilla Blythe through the town flailing dried codfish! You’d think that would stick in one’s mind… Anyway, as I was saying, though I’d forgotten Mary Vance, I did remember Mr. Meredith’s courtship of Rosemary West, who refuses him because she and her sister Ellen had sworn to each other never to marry but to live together always. Ellen West insists that Rosemary must keep the promise, only to turn around and get engaged herself a year later!
Rosemary releases Ellen from her promise at once, of course. But then Rosemary refuses Ellen’s invitation to move into Ellen’s new home after the wedding, so then Ellen breaks her engagement because she won’t leave Rosemary to live alone… They would probably still be mired in this misery if sensitive little Una Meredith, under the impression that Rosemary refused her father because the Meredith children were such scapegraces, cut through this Gordian knot by coming to promise Rosemary that they would all be very very good if only Rosemary would marry Mr. Meredith.
One might imagine this might remain a source of friction between Rosemary and Ellen forever after, but then again, all’s well that ends well. And maybe it is just as well. During the first phase of their courtship, both Rosemary and Mr. Meredith were convinced that this second love, though sweet, could never live up to their first romance. (Rosemary had a sailor fiance who died tragically at sea.) But then Rosemary refused Mr. Meredith, and in so doing revealed to them both how deeply they truly loved each other! Of course perhaps they might have realized after a few years of marriage, but then again, maybe not. Maybe just as well to go in already knowing that a second love, though of course not the same as a first, can be just as deep.
