Anne's House of Dreams
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Anne's House of Dreams is a novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1917 by McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart.
The novel is from a series of books written primarily for girls and young women, about a young girl named Anne Shirley. The books follow the course of Anne's life. It is set principally on Canada's Prince Edward Island, Montgomery's birthplace and home for much of her life.
The series has been called classic children's literature, and has been reprinted many times since its original publication.
Anne's House of Dreams is book five in the series, and chronicles Anne's early married life, as she and her childhood sweetheart Gilbert Blythe begin to build their life together.
[edit] Plot summary
The book starts with Anne's marriage with Gilbert, which is very small and happens in the Green Gables orchard. After the marriage, they move to a house that Anne has long anticipated as her "house of dreams", in Four Winds Point, an area near the village of the Glen St. Mary. There, Anne and Gilbert meet many interesting people, such as the eccentric Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia Bryant, who deems the Blythes as part of "the race that knows Joseph." Anne also meets Leslie Moore, who lost her beloved brother and her father, and then was forced to marry Dick Moore because of her mother. She became miserable when her husband returned mentally disabled from a trip. She becomes friends with Anne, but is sometimes bitter towards her because she is so happy and free. In the middle of the book, Anne gives birth to her first child, Joyce, who dies shortly afterwards [as Montgomery's second son did]. After that Anne and Leslie become closer as Anne is more able to understand Leslie's unhappiness after her own tragedy - as Leslie puts it, her happiness, although still great, is no longer perfect so there is less of a gulf between them.
Later in the story, Leslie rents a room in her house to a writer called Owen Ford, who is the grandson of the former owners of The House of Dreams. They fall in love, only to make Leslie more miserable because she is married to Dick. After a brain surgery which Gilbert proposes, and is considered extremely controversial by both Anne and Cornelia, Dick is cured from his sickness and reveals that he is not Dick, but Dick's cousin, George, who went with him on the trip to Cuba, during which Dick died of yellow fever and the similar-looking George {who is also Dick Moore's first cousin in two ways, by their fathers,{brothers}, and their mothers,{twin sisters}, suffered a brain injury in the same accident. Leslie is then free to marry Owen and they have a happy ending. Owen finds the inspiration he was looking for in Captain Jim's shipboard diary, and writes a book called "The Life-Book of Captain Jim". While this is going on, Anne becomes pregnant again, and this time the child is born healthy. He is named James Matthew, for Anne's guardian Matthew Cuthbert and Captain Jim.
In the end of the book, Captain Jim dies and Anne, Gilbert, Jem and their housekeeper, Susan Baker, move to the old Morgan house, to the great sadness of Anne. Also, Miss Cornelia makes a startling announcement, deciding to marry a man named Marshall Elliott after he finally shaved his beard.
This book introduces Susan Baker, the elderly spinster who is the Blythes' maid-of-all-work.
[edit] Series
Montgomery continued the story of Anne Shirley in a series of sequels. They are listed in the order of Anne's age in each novel.
| # | Book | Date published | Anne Shirley's age |
| 1 | Anne of Green Gables | 1908 | 11 — 16 |
| 2 | Anne of Avonlea | 1909 | 16 — 18 |
| 3 | Anne of the Island | 1915 | 18 — 22 |
| 4 | Anne of Windy Poplars | 1936 | 22 — 25 |
| 5 | Anne's House of Dreams | 1917 | 25 — 27 |
| 6 | Anne of Ingleside | 1939 | 34 — 40 |
| 7 | Rainbow Valley | 1919 | 41 |
| 8 | Rilla of Ingleside | 1921 | 49 — 53 |
| # | Book | Date published | Anne Shirley's age |
| — | Chronicles of Avonlea | 1912 | — |
| — | Further Chronicles of Avonlea | 1920 | — |
[edit] External links
- Anne's House of Dreams Online text
- An L.M. Montgomery Resource Page Resource on L.M. Montgomery and Anne's Legacy
- Anne3.com Home of the Sullivan Anne of Green Gables trilogy with info on the movies and the Anne of Green Gables Forum
- Anne Shirley Home Page Resource page specifically concerning Anne Shirley and the series.
- The L.M. Montgomery Research Group This scholarly site includes a blog, an extensive bibliography of reference materials, and a complete filmography of all adaptations of Montgomery texts.
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