Anne of Ingleside is the 6th book in the Anne of Green Gables series which I am slowly reading.  This was a novel that I enjoyed for the first time.  Anne and Gilbert are living a busy life balancing Gilbert’s busy schedule of patients and life with a family of 5 children and one more on the way. As I revisit this series, Anne of Green Gables remains my favourite and I found this 6th novel a bit slow and harder to focus on.

In this novel, the couple starts out with a visit to Green Gables.  Anne and Diana enjoy some leisure time together before Anne returns home to await her new arrival.  Upon her homecoming the family struggles with a long “visit” from Gilbert’s Aunt Mary Maria who makes life a challenge for all of the residents of Ingleside with her constant criticisms and complaints.

Anne and Gilbert welcome a new baby into their family and the children end up in all sorts of challenges and life lessons from losing a beloved pet, being bullied by others and struggling to fit in with their peers at school.  The children seem to have a penchant for imagination and fantasy which is reminiscent of Anne in younger days.

The novel ends with Anne missing the attentions of Gilbert who is distracted, tired and so often out on house calls.  A previous flame of Gilbert visits the island and causes Anne’s imagination to create doubts about Gilbert’s commitment and his love for his “Anne-girl”.  All is resolved and order restored, at the end of the day, on their 15th wedding anniversary as they both appreciate their family and each other and talk about a second honeymoon to London!

Although I have been enjoying reading through this classic Canadian series, this was not as engaging as Anne of Green Gables or the previous novels.  Next is Rainbow Valley but I will take a break and read a few other things in between.

“Well that was life.  Gladness and pain… hope and fear… and change.  Always change!  You could not help it.  You had to let the old go and take the new to your heart… learn to love it and then let it go in turn.  Spring, love as it was, must yield to summer and summer lose itself in autumn.  The birth… the bridal…the death…”