Thread by @lainasparetime

Okay, we have Chapter Twenty-Six of #LainaReadsAnne today!! It's a big one, so grab a snack or a drink. Get your self-care on and all that jazz.

#LainaReadsAnne Thomas Lynde passes away.

In the last chapter, Mrs Rachel had mentioned he'd been doing better the last few days, and that's actually fairly common before someone dies, that they feel a lot better for a short period of time.

#LainaReadsAnne It's not clear, exactly, what Thomas dies from but I kinda get cancer vibes? Just from how slow it was and how nothing really helped.

#LainaReadsAnne It's quite a lovely description of how Mrs Rachel "was a tender, patient, unwearied urse" and how gentle and patient she is.

The last thing he says, basically, is what a good wife, mother, and person she's been. Then he quietly slips away in his sleep.

#LainaReadsAnne After his funeral, Marilla is acting funny. She goes to see Mrs Rachel, then comes up to talk to Anne.

Out of character, she sits on Anne's bed, even though "in Marilla’s code of household ethics to sit on a bed after it was made up was an unpardonable offense".

#LainaReadsAnne She says Mrs Rachel is very lonely. Anne offers to go visit but Rachel basically blurts that Gilbert's going to college in the fall and would Anne like to go, too?

#LainaReadsAnne This, obviously, shocks Anne, who says it isn't possible, but Marilla says they can make it happen - and they should.

#LainaReadsAnne She says as much as Anne has been happy these last two years, she should go to college. She's saved enough for a year at Redmond, and "the money the stock brought in will do for another year".

Plus there's scholarships and things.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne still protests she can't leave Marilla alone with the twins, but Marilla says that's what she wanted to talk about.

She wants to invite Mrs Rachel to live at Green Gables.

#LainaReadsAnne Apparently the Lyndes "mortgaged the farm eight years ago to give the youngest boy a start when he went west; and they’ve never been able to pay much more than the interest since."

Even selling the farm won't bring in much.

#LainaReadsAnne Remember, all of Mrs Rachel's kids live out west except for her daughter Eliza, who is willing to take her in, but she doesn't live in Avonlea, and Mrs Rachel is really not a fan of Eliza's husband.

#LainaReadsAnne Marilla and Mrs Rachel have been neighbours for *forty-five* years and Marilla says she's miss Rachel dearly.

I mentioned in AoGG when Mrs Rachel made this exact offer to Marilla how amazing this offer really was to me.

#LainaReadsAnne Honestly this isn't that different from the Harrison marriage - two non-romantic people signing up to live their lives out together.

And Mrs Rachel and Marilla will even be raising children together, as Marilla says "she'll do for the twins what I can't do".

#LainaReadsAnne Marilla says, "It always seemed to me that the reason two women can’t get along in one house is that they try to share the same kitchen and get in each other’s way." So she plans to turn the spare room into a kitchen for Rachel.

#LainaReadsAnne Which while obviously that's very gendered/a little sexist, I think it's more about them having a space of thei own, and to feel control over their lives.

Again, something women didn't have a lot of then, really.

#LainaReadsAnne Obviously the gender roles are very strict in this time period, but I do think this book has something interesting to say about women.

It's interesting to compare all the women in this book who have very different lives.

#LainaReadsAnne Compare just Anne and Diana - Anne is working and plans to go to college, while Diana is basically killing time til she gets married

Marilla has never married and is perfectly content with her life. Miss Lavendar has never married either and is mostly happy.

#LainaReadsAnne Miss Sarah Copp, the Andrwews sisters, there's actually a lot of women who don't marry and are happy.

But then you have Mrs Rachel enjoyed her full, rich life being married and having children.

#LainaReadsAnne And then Emily Harrison has a marriage that isn't really based on romantic love, but on a practical partnership, but she's also perfectly happy with that!

I just find that interesting.

#LainaReadsAnne Anyways Anne thinks it's a very good idea, as she would also miss Mrs Rachel very much and Marilla says if she does move in, that means Anne can go to college. Mrs Rachel will be both company for Marilla and she can help take care of the twins.

#LainaReadsAnne Honestly, I think Mrs Rachel will be good for Davy, personally.

That night, Anne is equally full of "joy and regret" as she's really happy to go to college, but she's going to deeply miss her school and friends and home.

#LainaReadsAnne I adore this line. "“I’ve put out a lot of little roots these two years,” Anne told the moon, “and when I’m pulled up they’re going to hurt a great deal."

That just... it's so pretty and it speaks to me so much.

#LainaReadsAnne Avonlea gossip basically assumes Marilla and Mrs Rachel are going to kill each other, but they're both just like, "You do you, I do me, we'll be good."

#LainaReadsAnne Mrs Rachel says she'll be glad to help with the twins as much as she can... except answering all of Davy's questions.

This kid needs more to do, I swear. Teach him to knit or something.

#LainaReadsAnne "Gilbert Blythe was probably the only person to whom the news of Anne's resignation brought unmixed pleasure."

All her students are devastated, even Anthony Pye.

#LainaReadsAnne Poor Jane is going to have a rough time taking over the Avonlea school. It'll be nice, though, to have her home for Diana.

Speaking of Diana, she's "very pessimistic" and obviously going to miss Anne dearly.

#LainaReadsAnne Even the Allans are leaving, moving to Charlottetown. Poor Mrs Allan is really conflicted about it.

(CW child death)

Along with how at home in Avonlea she feels, their baby who passed at only three months old is buried there.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne promised to always put flowers on the baby's grave and Diana quickly offers to take over for her, along with leaving them on Matthew and Hester Gray's graves.

That really is such a lovely moment.

#LainaReadsAnne Also tbh the image of Mrs Allan singing a lullaby to her lost baby's grave almost every night is so casually heartbreaking I can't deal with it.

Poor woman has had a hard two years. I'm glad their second littl one is doing better.

#LainaReadsAnne Diana also worries the AVIS is done for, but Anne is optimistic. She thinks it'll continue to do well as the "older people" are really into it now and she'll still send suggestions and stuff.

#LainaReadsAnne Then she asks Diana to please stop being such a buzzkill LOL. Anne says she knows she's going to be sad later, and she wants to enjoy being excited now.

Diana is worried Anne will make new friends and forget her, much like she was when Anne went to Queen's.

#LainaReadsAnne She also has some insecurities about being a "stupid little country girl". The ableist language there isn't great, obviously, but I do feel really bad for Diana. Her parents did her such a disservice.

#LainaReadsAnne She's really insecure about her education. Remember how much young Diana loved to read and write? But her parents didn't like that she read so much.

Like obviously I don't think college is for everyone, but Diana seemed to really want more from life.

#LainaReadsAnne She's also so insecure about Anne's friendship, which I find fascinating. I hate to say it, but that is something the 2016 movies got right, that Anne is not really a jealous person, but Diana does get jealous of Anne making other friends.

#LainaReadsAnne Like I think Diana had other friends as a kid, if not super close ones, before Anne came along, but Anne had no other friends. And yet Diana is the one who is insecure about losing Anne's friendship.

That's really a subversion from what you'd expect.

#LainaReadsAnne This is an interesting part.

Diana says, "Anne, I’m going to ask you a question... a serious question. Don’t be vexed and do answer seriously. Do you care anything for Gilbert?"

#LainaReadsAnne The response?

"“Ever so much as a friend and not a bit in the way you mean,” said Anne calmly and decidedly; she also thought she was speaking sincerely.

Diana sighed. She wished, somehow, that Anne had answered differently."

Diana is on that Sherbert ship :P

#LainaReadsAnne This is an amusing part, too. Diana assk if Anne ever plans to marry, and Anne is like, "Maybe if I meet the PERFECT man, and my idea of the perfect man will always be the exact same as when I decided it at 15."

#LainaReadsAnne She is perfectly happy about the idea of dying "an old maid", though.

Diana fusses about her weight, which ugh, but then mentions Nelson Atkins proposing to Ruby Gillis and we get some gossip.

#LainaReadsAnne Ruby never intended to accept, but she was especially insuled to find his entire proposal, basically word for word, ripped off from an etiquette book.

She apparently has plenty of other suitors, something Diana can't help being a little jealous of.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne doesn't have much patience for any of this, and both Anne and Diana say they don't like Ruby much anymore.

#LainaReadsAnne Diana says, "It’s the Gillis coming out in her... she can’t help it. Mrs. Lynde says that if ever a Gillis girl thought about anything but the boys she never showed it in her walk and conversation" and "it’s what Ruby always wanted, I suppose."

#LainaReadsAnne They both agree Jane is much more "sensible" and "lady-like".

...2016 movie, I owe you another slight apology. You did have some basis for your Ruby bashing.

Not that it isn't real shitty that they're basically slut-shaming Ruby for liking boys/boys liking her.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne says she'll never have a better friend than Diana, and how grateful she is to have had Diana in her life.

Diana replies, "if I ever do marry and have a little girl of my own, I'm going to name her Anne" which is so sweet.

I really like this chapter.

#LainaReadsAnne And that's it for today! If you liked this one, please rt something you liked so other people can find it, and if you are able and want to help me buy more of these books, my tip jar is open ko-fi.com/A0602GN