Thread by @lainasparetime

Okay, are you all ready for the last #LainaReadsAnne chapter for Anne of Avonlea? Chapter thirty is it for this book!

And it's just about wedding time!

#LainaReadsAnne It's the last week of August. Mrs Rachel is moving into Green Gables in a week, and Anne and Gilbert are leaving for Redmond in two weeks.

The Allans are also leaving shortly. Anne feels "a little sadness threading all her excitement and happiness."Aww.

#LainaReadsAnne Mr Harrison says "Changes ain't totally pleasant but they're excellent things" and that two years is about as long as things should stay the same.

He and Emily are getting along well and she has become very good friends with Mrs Rachel, who he still dislikes.

#LainaReadsAnne This is a nice moment. He says, "I s'pose you'll be scooping up all the honors that are lying round loose at Redmond."

Anne says she'll probably try for one or two but she cares less about them for the sake of having them.

#LainaReadsAnne She says, "What I want to get out of my college course is some knowledge of the best way of living life and doing the most and best with it. I want to learn to understand and help other people and myself.”

Mr Harrison approves of this and I do as well.

#LainaReadsAnne The day before the wedding, Anne and Diana bring as many flowers to Echo Lodge as they can.

They find poor Charlotta the Fourth all in a flurry. There's tons to do still and Miss Lavendar is basically useless, lol.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne, Diana, and Charlotta the Fourth work til 10 at night. Diana worries a little about the weather. Uncle Abe predicted rain and she says "ever since the big storm, I can't help believing there's a good deal in what Uncle Abe says".

#LainaReadsAnne Anne, obviously, has no such worries.

Until Charlotta wakes her up in the morning in a panic saying it DOES look like rain.

Anne says they'll hope for the best, and a cool gray day would be nicer anyways as it won't get so hot.

#LainaReadsAnne But it does not rain, and soon the preparations are done and the girls go and get ready.

A thing I find interesting is that both Charlotta and Anne are said to be wearing white.

#LainaReadsAnne When the wedding starts, Miss Lavendar gives Stephen "a look that made Charlotta the Fourth, who intercepted it, feel queerer than ever".

Mood. Weddings make me feel queerer than ever, too.

#LainaReadsAnne Just as the wedding finishes, the sun come out and lights the garden up beautifully.

It's all quite lovely. The Irvings leave on the two-thirty train and the guests throw rice and... old shoes? I can't say I know that tradition.

#LainaReadsAnne Paul grabs an old dinner bell -when he rings it "from point and curve and hill across the river came the chime of “fairy wedding bells,” ringing clearly, sweetly, faintly and more faint, as if Miss Lavendar’s beloved echoes were bidding her greeting and farewell."

#LainaReadsAnne Eventually it's just Anne and Charlotta the Fourth left to clean up and lock up Echo Lodge. Diana had to go home and Gilbert had an errand to run in West Grafton.

#LainaReadsAnne They're both a little sad, but they work hard cleaning and packing up the leftovers that Charlotta the Fourth takes home to her younger brothers.

Alone, Anne does one final sweep through the house, locks up, and sits on the step to wait for Gilbert.

#LainaReadsAnne And then. My heart. Melts.

He comes up the walk and ask what she's thinking. She replies that it's beautiful Miss Lavendar and Stephen "have come together again after all the years of separation and misunderstanding?"

#LainaReadsAnne He says yes, but what if the separation hadn't happened, what if "they had come hand in hand all the way through life".

#LainaReadsAnne And THEN "Anne’s heart fluttered queerly and for the first time her eyes faltered under Gilbert’s gaze and a rosy flush stained the paleness of her face" as she has a big "Oh shit wait do I like Gilbert????" moment.

#LainaReadsAnne She realizes suddenly that romance might not be some huge dramatic thing, that it might not "come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down".

Which is a hilarious line.

#LainaReadsAnne She realizes maybe "love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath".

Ooooooh.

(Also. DEMI ANNE or what.)

#LainaReadsAnne "Then the veil dropped again; but the Anne who walked up the dark lane was not quite the same Anne who had driven gaily down it the evening before."

The book say this is basically when Anne's "girlhood" ends and her "womanhood" begins.

#LainaReadsAnne Now I don't love that wording, but I like how there's this moment of Anne beginning to feel like a real adult.

And on the Anne/Gilbert front, this is SO cute. I love that they've had such a slow burn.

#LainaReadsAnne Two years of actual friendship and Anne is only now like "Oh I might like him. Oh shit."

It's very, very cute.

#LainaReadsAnne Gilbert says nothing else "but in his silence he read the history of the next four years in the light of Anne’s remembered blush. Four years of earnest, happy work . . . and then the guerdon of a useful knowledge gained and a sweet heart won."

!!!!

#LainaReadsAnne And that's the end of the book! Thing are changing, but they're headed in a good direction. And Anne's finally off to college!

I kinda don't know what to say now XD

#LainaReadsAnne This is a pretty good sequel, for the most part. I don't like the Davy and Dora plot much and Paul's kind of annoying, but I like Miss Lavendar

I also like this look at a period of Anne's life where she's still a teenager, but becoming more independant and mature

#LainaReadsAnne And I enjoyed her time teaching a lot! I honestly wish there had been more focus on that. After about the halfway point, not much teaching actually happens.

#LainaReadsAnne I also like the development of Mrs Rachel and Marilla's friendship especially, and the way Gilbert and Anne grow closer as friends.

It's overall cute and a fairly fun read, but I don't think it's going to by my favourite of the series.

#LainaReadsAnne Obviously I've only read two of them, so I can't say, but I'm just guessing lol. And honestly not that much happens in this one??

Which leads me into talking about adaptations!

#LainaReadsAnne So, the thing is, a lot of adaptations either skip this book entirely or they only use parts of it and combine it with Anne of Island and/or Anne of Windy Poplars. You'll see.

#LainaReadsAnne So the only one we can actually talk about is Project Green Gables, one of the webseries. That'll be interesting, though!!

(Also seriously it gets complicated from here. I have a list, but it took me 4 tries to make!)

#LainaReadsAnne I am also going to take a short hiatus before starting that, both to work on my analysis of it and to get a bit ahead before I start recapping Anne of the Island.

I want to have more of a buffer this time so I can be more consistent with my threads.

#LainaReadsAnne Also a reminder that I put all these threads on my blog where you can read them all on one page!

lainahastoomuchsparetime.wordpress.com/anne-of-green-…

Currently the 2016 movie adaptation just finished posting, and this book will start posting in a month or so.

#LainaReadsAnne (I'll also be doing some updating this weekend.)

For the last time for this book, if you enjoyed this thread, pls RT something you enjoyed so other people can find it too. And if you want to help me buy more Anne books, my ko-fi is open ko-fi.com/A0602GN