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Anne's House of Dreams; Chapters 1-10
Ah Kindred Spirits - did you, like me, read Chapter 1 of Anne’s House of Dreams and just feel a return to home.
This week we began the 5th book in the series, Anne’s House of Dreams. We have already reconnected with Diana and her new baby, Anne Cordelia. Marilla is downstairs smiling to herself at the sound of Anne’s laugh. And memories of Matthew are ever present. I am so happy to be back in Green Gables.
Though Green Gables is not without changes. They now have telephones! Life is modernizing even here. After their wedding, Anne and Gilbert will be moving 60 miles aways from Green Gables, to Four Winds, where Gilbert will have his own practice and he has found a dream house for them to begin their life together. 60 miles feels too far for Diana and Marilla, but Mrs. Lynde is grateful that Anne is remaining on the Island.
And of course Green Gables is filled with wedding planning now that Anne is to be married in one month!
“There was more excitement in the air of Green Gables than there had ever been before in all its history “
And we know that this must be a lot of excitement, as we have seen Anne in quite a state of excitement before! But the energy of a wedding is unlike any other and Green Gables has never hosted a wedding before!
As Anne thinks through who she wants at her wedding, there are several kindred spirits who will not be in attendance because they are far away.
“It’s really dreadful- the way people get scattered over the globe”
While it is hard to be distanced from loved ones, I think this globe scattering can be quite beautiful. I like to think of it in terms of how many places across the world I could visit and be welcomed as a friend!
Anne’s wedding day is beautiful and simple and the beginning of a new life, which is of course accompanied with the farewell to an old life. Her beloved room will now be Dora’s. She will live 60 miles away from the home at Green Gables that gave her a new beginning 14 years ago. A distance that will hurt but at least they all have telephones now! I can’t imagine how satisfying that must be, after relying on letter writing alone, to suddenly be able to hear the voice of those you love who are far away.
I got married this year (also in September, like Anne!) and these chapters had me reminiscing on the excitement of the days leading up to our wedding and the gloriousness of the wedding day itself!
By chapter 5 we are introduced to Anne’s new home in Four Winds Harbour. While by this point in her life, she has lived in many places, Green Gables has always been the home she returns to. Now, in her married life, she will claim this new space as her home.
Where do you call home? Is it your childhood dwelling? Is it where you live currently? Can it be both or many places?
Anne reflects on her first month- and honeymoon- in Four Winds Harbour and realizes “there was a certain tang of romance and adventure in the atmosphere of their new home which Anne had never found in Avonlea”.
With this new adventure, Anne’s House of Dreams is filled with stories of a new place and once again new characters, but this time I find it to be so within the realm and spirit of Anne, that I am embracing each new character and story with the thrill of meeting another kindred spirit! This week we’ve met Captain Jim, Miss. Cornelia, and Leslie Moore, all with stories that I cannot wait to uncover!
How are you feeling with the start to our 5th Anne read?
Thank you for reading
Thank you for reading and joining me on this read-along of Anne of Green Gables!
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Your bosom friend,
Bri
Yes, like you, we’ve come home in chapter one. But first, congratulations on your own wedding, Briana! So happy for you.
I enjoyed reading of Anne and Gilbert’s wedding, how she visited Matthew’s grave the day before, and the way the wedding day ended with them driving away and leaving us with Marilla reflecting what it has meant to have Anne enter her life fourteen years earlier.
The new characters give us much to look forward to with the splendid and imperturbable Captain Jim, the inveterate man-hater and never dull Cornelia Bryant, and the beautiful and mysterious Leslie Moore. And not to be overlooked as a character is the setting of Four Winds Point itself, where I would love to vacation some time if it were possible.
Nice to be back at Green Gables, familiar characters and the writing style of the previous books!
It was funny about the telephone and all of Avonlea joining in on a phone call. I'd still trust a letter for private matters. I'm the first generation who grew up with email, mobile phones, instant messaging and video calls (RIP Skype 🙏) and I remember thinking myself that it was so much easier for us to cope with being separated from our loved ones, because we could reach them instantly.
I have two homes. I moved to Georgia with my husband 15 years ago, but I still have my old room at my childhood's home in Latvia where we are staying while visiting (at least once a year).