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Originally Posted by astrangerhere
Alas, even Rachel McAdam's reading of this could not revive any sort of nostalgia in this book for me. Anne annoyed me throughout and I am still not over my closeted childhood's disappointment that no one was actually gay. Of course, my adult self understands time and place and why that was never going to happen, but it colored my experience with the book my whole life.
As others have mentioned, it is why Jo March is always going to be my be-all, end-all fictional character from childhood. I can even happily ignore the professor at the end as I know Alcott didn't want him.
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I can easily see how the early story would foster someone’s hope that this story might finally be different; and then the letdown. You also shine a very different light on the scene where Marilla finds Anne distraught about Diana’s future wedding. It would be especially devastating for young gay readers to have her laugh and be so dismissive.
When I reread the book this time, that scene struck me as rather unbelievable. But now I can recall having similar worries about losing close friends to marriage.
Quote Does anyone else think that Anne and her bosom friend, Diana, don’t have a lot in common? When we first meet her, Diana’s reading a book, but I think that’s the last time we see her engaged in an intellectual pursuit. Anne is even privately critical of Diana’s choice of the name Birch Path, which is not very nice of her. While I agree that Birch Path tends toward the unimaginative, in fact I vastly prefer it to “Lake of Shining Waters” and “White Way of Delight.”
One gets the sense that other than Gilbert, Anne doesn’t meet her intellectual equals until she gets to Queen’s.
I thought Diana and Anne were quite different as well. But since they were both so lonely before meeting each other the friendship made sense.
Your observations on Diana made me smile. I was surprised when she was described by her mother as a reader; I hadn’t remembered that, and she didn’t strike me as someone who read much. I preferred ‘birch path’ too.
In terms of intellectual equals, Marilla is the only person who comes to mind, though very different. So you can see why Gilbert would be a magnet for Anne’s attention.