Rilla of Ingleside

Description

Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Well-known for her Anne Shirley series, Lucy Maud Montgomery was the author of several novels, short stories and poems inspired from quotidian Canadian life, mainly from the life on Prince Edward Island in Canada, at the beginning of the 20th century.

Rilla of Ingleside is considered to be one of the Anne-stories, but it focuses not so much on Anne’s life as on the events going on in her daughter’s life. At the time when the story begins, almost all Anne’s children are grown up, except for one, beautiful, irresistible, fin-loving, often mischievous young lady – the lively Rilla, a fifteen year old just about to begin her social life.

We see Rilla attend her first ball and get her first kiss, but the story that starts in such an idyllic manner is about to turn more dramatic because of the World War. All men go to war and Rilla brings home an orphaned child, changing her and her family’s life for good. Lively young Rilla becomes an adult quickly and she proves her bravery in a world full of dangers. She organizes the Junior Red Cross and becomes involved in other social activities while the war goes on and on for years, with everybody waiting for their men and sons to return from Europe.

The novel offers an unique insight into the period of the First World War from a Canadian perspective. Published in 1921, not long after the War, the novel shows what life was like on the home front. The depiction is highly emotional, the tragedies and the losses are described in a moving and thought provoking way, making Rilla of Ingleside an example of war tradegy at its best. However, the novel is not somber all the way – Lucy Maud Montgomery has a serene sense of humor that has become a trademark of Anne Shirley novels, and the story ends in a positive note.
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