Anne’s House of Dreams is probably my least favorite in this series. I can’t give it more than three stars; if I’m 100% honest, and it wasn’t an Anne book, I’d probably bump it down to two stars. This is the most self-indulgent book of the series, and there are very few gems in the cast of characters. Plus, and this is completely silly I acknowledge, “the race that knows Joseph” doesn’t have the same ring as “kindred spirits”.
So here we are, Anne is 25 and FINALLY marrying Gilbert. The newly minted Dr. Blythe is taking a position in Four Winds (on the sea side of PEI? Somewhere that isn’t Avonlea at any rate) and so he and Anne get a house there and set up shop. Over there we meet a new cast of characters, the only one I really like being Miss Cornelia Bryant whose opinion on men and Methodists is that they’re both equally useless. Also included are the extremely tragic, pathetic, ill-fated but extremely beautiful Leslie Moore and the story teller Captain Jim.
I think the story that most irked me in this book is Leslie’s story. It is beyond soap-operatic in its ridiculous tragedy. And what irritates me even more, is that she holds herself aloof from the world because she’s so tragic (this doesn’t bother me so much) but when Anne tries to get close her partial failure is justified because she doesn’t really know tragedy. Guys, I’d like to remind you this is the girl who spent the first eleven years of her life unwanted and unloved. And these eleven years are brushed off as being a minor thing compared to the things that Leslie has seen. It is beyond aggravating. But the final capper is when tragedy does strike Anne’s life, and a really sad thing does happen in the book, that’s when Leslie finally thaws completely because now she can really relate to Anne. NOOOOOOPE.
Miss Cornelia is hilarious, and straight out of the Rachel Lynde type of characters. She brightened the book every time she came into it. And her proclamation of “isn’t that just like a man” after some terrible story, was just perfect. Captain Jim is someone I can tell Montgomery wants me to like, but I mostly found him annoying.
I think this book is worth reading if you’re reading all of the Anne books for the first time, but honestly I tend to skip over it when I re-read the series.
Gosh, that Leslie part bugged me too!!!! I found it so weird that everyone just brushes off Anne’s past like it’s no big deal, because her parents didn’t kill themselves and her brother didn’t die, and she wasn’t married off like cattle. Like, seriously, Anne’s parents died, and then she spent a really long childhood being unloved, unwanted, and shuttled around from house to house wearing ugly clothes and forced into indentured servitude and being told she was garbage for 11 YEARS until an accident placed her at Green Gables. LM MONTGOMERY DID YOU FORGET YOUR OWN BOOK. I’m sorry, it’s a really weird explanation that you “can’t know” tragedy and therefore “don’t get me” as a friend. FRIENDSHIP DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT. Ahem. What I’m saying is, “Yes, I agree 100%.” I do like Captain Jim, but he likes to be the center of attention, and that would get old after awhile.
I looooooooove me some Miss Cornelia, though. Her manecdotes are pretty much the greatest, and she calls dudes out on their lazy garbage.
I have a couple of problems with Captain Jim. They’re all ridiculous but… so it goes. The biggest is that Anne names her on after him, putting him on the same level as Mathew and no. Just no. The second is that he’s the one who says that Anne’s history was just regular sadness and not comparable to Leslie’s horrible life. And again, ugh no. The last one is stupid (and totally Montomery’s fault), but Jim reads as gay. He got so upset when his teacher friend got married that he up and took to sea right after the wedding. Except instead of just letting him be an old single (and unstated gay) man, Montgomery has to give him a completly unbelievable story of a drowned love he could never get over. It’s dumb, I know, and really more the I should expect from a book published at the turn of the 20th century, but there it is.
I haven’t read this book in years, so it never occurred to me as coding Jim gay, but it *totally* makes sense. That makes his “love story” really annoying in that context.
I also agree with you that it was unfair to name the first child after Jim and not Matthew. Like, really, this man you knew for a year overtakes the man who gave you a home? No. Just. No. It’s passing up Arthur Weasley for Sirius Black all over again, and seriously, let’s just have a moment for the unassuming dads.
To be fair I she names the kid after them both. Mathew James. However, the idea is the same. No way is Jim on the same level as the person who first showed Anne she was worthy of being loved.
Oh, and yea. Everything with Leslie was just weirdly over the top. I’m glad I’m not the only one annoyed by that.
Oh, I think you are a wrong person who is wrong about this book. It’s one of my absolute favorites of L.M. Montgomery’s.
I see Leslie very differently. She holds people at arms length because everybody she ever loved has died and letting people close would hurt too much. But she can’t help loving Anne (because she’s Anne) and when Anne’s heart breaks, so does Leslie’s, but more like a dam breaking, letting all the pent up love Leslie felt for Anne spill out.
You are quite right about Miss Cornelia though, she’s the best.
No, I got that about her. My problem with Leslie is that she’s a tragic character straight from soap opera and would have been an over the top, ridiculously tragic, tropey character even 100 years ago. I love these books, I think this one is the weakest because Montgomery indulged too much in the fantasy of what it would be like to be newly married. It also has no children, which is where Montgomery is the strongest.
Aside from the writing stuff, I don’t like Leslie because it is ridiculous to say you can’t relate and be true friends with someone who has different life experinces. Nevermind the fact the Anne has quite a terrible background that Montgomery completely ignores in order to make Leslie seem all that more tragic.
I’m so glad to read others who dislike the Leslie story line in this book. It’s my least favorite as well, mainly on account of Leslie and Captain Jim. My grandmother used to watch Days of Our Lives and General Hospital without fail every day, and even as a tween/teen I thought both of them were better suited to Salem or Port Charles than Four Winds.
I do love Miss Cornelia. From time to time I like to pull out the “is that a full-rigged ship I see?” because no one ever gets it, and it’s a perfect descriptor.
I’m honestly a little surprised that there were people who agreed with me. I will say that I originally loved Leslie and her story line, it was SO TRAGIC, and SO SAD. In my defense I was 13.
Miss Cornelia is awesome full stop. I lover her absolute distain for the stupidity of men, but she’s not a bitter old woman either, she’s loving and kind and sensible. She might be one of my favorite side characters that Montgomery has created.