[issybird]

Originally Posted by Victoria

I think that’s because I didn’t agree with much of what was said about Anne’s character. I don’t think she was portrayed as manipulative, etc. And I don’t believe Marilla and Matthew would have mistreated a boy. LLM was clear they intended to do well by him. I think ‘adopting him’ meant he would have inherited the farm, vs the status he would have somewhere as a hired boy. That’s today’s cynicism creeping into the book where it’s not there in the text. So just nah!

I agree with you that Anne wasn’t manipulative, she was just highly dramatic for the enjoyment of it and, very importantly, because it helped her cope with the stresses and abuses of her early childhood. Similarly, I don’t think M&M would have mistreated a boy (although I don’t think he would have been treated as a son of the household, either. That bed off the kitchen!). However, what I did pick up about Anne this time and which I found off-putting is that she was almost universally regarded as wonderful, Josie Pye and Mr. Phillips being the sole exceptions. That got tedious. It’s not realistic; certainly some of her posturings must have irritated some.

Here’s just a random quote, one of Anne’s fancies:

Do you know what I think Mayflowers are, Marilla? I think they must be the souls of the flowers that died last summer and this is their heaven.

That’s the kind of comment that Bertie Wooster detested in Madelyn Bassett; Bertie was as thick as two planks yet even he had the penetration to detest that drivel. Was there no one who did an eyeroll when Anne came out with comments like that, as she frequently did? Who found her boring? I can’t imagine I would have liked her if I had been her contemporary. Not that I’d have disliked her, but she certainly wouldn’t have been a kindred spirit of mine.