Anne of Ingleside

The sixth book in L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series follows Anne Blythe (née Shirley), now a married mother of five in the seaside village of Glen St. Mary, Prince Edward Island, as she navigates the joys and trials of family life at her home, Ingleside.

The novel opens as Anne visits Avonlea, the village where she grew up, after the funeral of Gilbert Blythe's father. She stays for a week at Green Gables, her childhood home, welcomed by her old guardian Marilla and longtime neighbor Mrs. Lynde, and visits her dearest friend, Diana Wright. The two women spend an afternoon revisiting their girlhood haunts and sharing a picnic supper. Anne speaks lovingly of her five children (Jem, Walter, the twins Nan and Di, and Shirley), her devoted housekeeper Susan Baker, and Ingleside itself. She mentions that Aunt Mary Maria Blythe, Gilbert's father's cousin, has hinted at visiting and that a sixth baby is on the way.

Anne's train ride home brims with anticipation. Gilbert meets her at the station, and the children greet her with Japanese lanterns, flowers, and household news. That night, looking over the moonlit Glen, Anne tells Gilbert it is lovelier to be Anne of Ingleside than to have been Anne of Green Gables again for a week.

The household's contentment is soon disrupted by Aunt Mary Maria, who arrives for what is supposed to be a few weeks and stays for months. She demands chimney inspections, bans flowers that trigger her asthma, insists on saying grace, and complains constantly about drafts, noise, cats, and onions. She corrects the children publicly and fills the house with a suffocating atmosphere. Gilbert's sense of family loyalty prevents him from asking her to leave, and Anne is too softhearted to insist.

Against this backdrop, the novel follows the Ingleside children's small dramas. Seven-year-old Jem is furious when his parents forbid him from joining the village boys at the Harbor Mouth. That evening, with Anne and Gilbert out, Jem vanishes. Susan searches frantically, and the village men organize a search. When a boat on the pond is found adrift, they prepare to drag it. Anne nearly faints. At last Susan discovers Jem sound asleep on a window seat behind the boys' room door, clutching his Teddy Bear; he had simply fallen asleep waiting to see his parents arrive home.

Six-year-old Walter's ordeal is more sustained. Sent to stay with the Parker family in Lowbridge while Anne prepares for the baby's birth, he is tormented by the other children, who tell him his mother is gravely ill and will likely die. Only seven-year-old Alice Parker befriends him. Unable to sleep, Walter slips out at eleven o'clock and walks six dark miles home, terrified by shadows and the loneliness of the night. Finding Ingleside dark and locked, he believes his mother is dead and crawls into the hayloft. At dawn Susan finds him and assures him Anne is alive and well. He is introduced to his new sister, Bertha Marilla Blythe, whom the family calls Rilla. Gilbert praises Walter's courage, and the household celebrates.

Aunt Mary Maria's visit stretches on into the fall. Rebecca Dew, who stays for two weeks, becomes Susan's confidante, hearing a long catalog of Aunt Mary Maria's offenses. Miss Cornelia Elliott, Anne's loyal friend and the neighborhood's chief gossip, draws out Anne's distress as well. Anne confesses that Aunt Mary Maria has poisoned mealtimes, suppressed laughter, and made the household revolve around avoiding her displeasure, yet she cannot confront a woman who has never had a friend.

The resolution arrives unexpectedly. Anne organizes a surprise birthday luncheon with fifty-five golden roses and a cake with fifty-five candles. The plan misfires when Aunt Mary Maria realizes her age has been revealed before guests, including a cousin who had long been desperate to learn it. Furious, she accuses Anne of deliberate humiliation and announces she cannot stay. She departs the next day with exaggerated magnanimity. Windows are thrown open, onions return to the kitchen, and Susan asks if the doctor might enjoy some with his steak.

The novel broadens into episodes centered on the children. Jem encounters death for the first time when his beloved dog Gyp falls ill and dies. He later buys a dog named Bruno from Roddy Crawford, a boy forced to part with his pet, but Bruno remains heartbroken and runs away. When Roddy visits Ingleside, Bruno hurls himself at the boy with joy, and Jem lets Bruno go, recognizing that love cannot be forced. Jem also spends weeks earning money to buy Anne a pearl necklace for her birthday. He presents it proudly, only to overhear that the pearls are imitation. Anne tells him the necklace is more precious than real pearls because it represents his love and sacrifice.

Nan develops a habit of bargaining with God, promising good behavior in exchange for favors. When Anne falls dangerously ill with pneumonia, Nan makes her most extreme bargain: If God will save her mother, she will walk through the graveyard after dark. Anne survives, but Nan is tormented for weeks by the terrifying promise. She confesses, and Anne gently explains that God does not make bargains but gives freely. In another episode, an older girl named Dovie Johnson tells Nan she was switched at birth with a fisherman's daughter. Nan, who has never been lied to, believes every word and walks to the Harbor Mouth, only to have the tale dismantled by the amused Mrs. Thomas, who was present the night the twins were born.

Di falls under the spell of Jenny Penny, a newcomer who tells extravagant lies about her wealthy family. Against her parents' wishes, Di stays overnight at the Penny house, discovering it is a dilapidated farmhouse with a quarrelsome family. When a boy chases her with a grotesque mask, she trips and hits her head. The terrified Penny children, believing her dead, carry her across the fields to Ingleside. Di, conscious the entire time, is found by Anne and Gilbert and confesses her disobedience.

Anne's own adventures include her attempted matchmaking between Alden Churchill, a young farmer whose mother blocks his romances, and Stella Chase, whose sarcastic father drives away suitors. Anne throws a party and plants suggestions with both families. Months later, Stella reveals that she and Alden have been engaged since Christmas, having fallen in love at a different party before Anne's efforts began. Anne vows never to matchmake again.

The novel's final arc centers on Anne herself. A period of discontent overtakes her as she feels unappreciated by Gilbert, who seems preoccupied and distant. An invitation to dinner with Christine Stuart, an old acquaintance Anne once suspected of a romantic history with Gilbert, crystallizes her anxieties. Gilbert accepts eagerly, apparently forgetting the dinner falls on their wedding anniversary. At the dinner, Christine monopolizes Gilbert with shared memories and makes patronizing remarks about Anne's large family, while Anne burns with jealousy.

The crisis resolves the following evening when Gilbert bursts into their room, waltzing Anne in the moonlight. He has been consumed by a critical medical case for weeks, and a letter has confirmed his diagnosis was correct and the patient will live. He produces a diamond pendant ordered weeks earlier, explaining he was too embarrassed to mention the anniversary without a gift. Anne confesses her jealousy, and Gilbert is astonished, insisting he found Christine a bore. He reassures Anne of his devotion and announces plans for a second honeymoon: a medical congress in London followed by a European tour. Anne, her happiness restored, checks on each sleeping child and repeats Christine's earlier dismissive remark about her family with exultant pride.