Rilla of Ingleside By Lucy Maud MontgomeryRilla of Ingleside (1921) is
the eighth of nine books in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud
Montgomery, but was the sixth "Anne" novel in publication order. This
book draws the focus back onto a single character, Anne and Gilbert's
youngest daughter Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe. It has a more serious
tone, as it takes place during World War I and the three Blythe
boys-Jem, Walter, and Shirley-along with Rilla's sweetheart Ken Ford,
and playmates Jerry Meredith and Carl Meredith-end up fighting in Europe
with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.The book is dedicated: "To the
memory of FREDERICA CAMPBELL MACFARLANE who went away from me when the
dawn broke on January 25, 1919-a true friend, a rare personality, a
loyal and courageous soul." Frederica, Maud's cousin and best friend,
grew up in Park Corner, PEI, but died in the worldwide flu epidemic of
1918-19. Frederica may have been the model for Diana Barry, Anne of
Green Gables' "bosom friend" both had unusual, non-Christian first
names, and the fictional Diana's husband was named, perhaps not
coincidentally, Fred.Rilla of Ingleside is the only Canadian novel
written from a woman's perspective about the First World War by a
contemporary. The novel is also groundbreaking as it is one of the first
non-Australian texts to mention the Gallipoli campaign and the sacrifice
made by the ANZACs.At some point after Montgomery's death in 1942,
publishers quietly trimmed Rilla of Ingleside of a few thousand words,
removing among other things passages containing historically accurate
but now offensive anti-German sentiment. The trimmed version was the
only available "in print" version for decades, until a new, restored and
annotated edition of Rilla of Ingleside, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre
(editor of Montgomery's The Blythes Are Quoted) and d McKenzie, was
published by Viking Canada in October 2010.Set almost a decade after
Rainbow Valley, Europe is on the brink of the First World War, and
Anne's youngest daughter Rilla is an irrepressible almost-15-year-old,
excited about her first adult party and blissfully unaware of the chaos
that the Western world is about to enter. Her parents worry because
Rilla seems not to have any ambition, is not interested in attending
college, and is more concerned with having fun.
