Rose in Bloom

I was so excited when I got Rose in Bloom from the library; but somehow, it wasn't what I had expected. The charm had gone out of it for me. Now re-reading Eight Cousins (its prequel) was so much fun. I loved reading about Rose's developing relationships with her newly found relatives in that book, but somehow, Rose in Bloom was much too slow paced for me. I knew what was to come and I felt the it was dragged on a bit ( I know this is probably the effect of re-reading books ).

Rose has come back from a trip to Europe with her Uncle. Her seven cousins eagerly await her with something more than simply friendship. Over the years that we haven't seen Rose, she has become a woman; her cousins see her with new eyes and some hearts - or just one heart? - beat faster. Romance is in the air and soon the matchmaking begins. The aunts vie for her attention and favors, all wanting their son to be the one who wins the heiress. But do they love her for her? or is it her fortune that tempts them? By this time, Rose knows her aunts - and her cousins - well. Will her Uncle's experiment in training her to be a good woman become a success? Only time will tell.

Rose, once back with her cousins, begins again to use her influence towards doing good. Prince Charlie has lived up to his name and become the prince that he was destined to be - will he be the one who wins Rose? The cousins think so, and with no one else vying for her attention, Rose begins to think so as well. But Charlie is not the boy that she left behind; he has gotten into a bad set and is fast moving towards destruction. Can she save him before he falls over the edge? Will the book end in a happily ever after for Charlie and Rose?

Anne's House of Dreams

L. M. Montgomery's most beloved creation Anne. I can't say much that hasn't already been said. I love Anne and aspire to be like her; dream like her; love like her; live like her. She has always been one of the most powerful figures in literature for me due to her joyous nature and ever optimistic outlook on life.

Anne's House of Dreams, the fifth novel in The Anne Series, follows Anne on her journey into matrimony and the responsibilities that come with it.. After her marriage, Anne and Gilbert move to Four Winds Point where Gilbert is to take over the practice of his Uncle. Here Anne and Gilbert set up their 'house of dreams'; a place near the sea shore imbued with its mystery and charm. A new place means new 'kindred spirits' and wherever Anne goes, she is sure to attract many. The first of these is an old sailor by the name of Captain Jim.

"The old captain held out sinewy hand to Anne; they smiled at each other and were friends from that moment. Kindred spirit flashed recognition to kindred spirit."

Next we are introduced to Miss Cornelia Bryant. An inveterate man-hater who can never find anything good to say about any man. Somewhat odd (like the Mr. Harrison of previous novels) she is definitely a kindred spirit - or of the race that know Joseph as she calls it. Anne and her new home have begun to grow into a new and dear family.

What about a romance? Well, to start you off, here is one of Montgomery's flawless descriptions which hints at romance to come....

"The girl of the golden hair and sea-blue eyes was sitting on a boulder of the headland, half-hidden by a jutting rock ....... She was bareheaded, and her splendid hair, more than ever like Browning's "gorgeous snake," was bound about her head with a crimson ribbon. She wore a dress of some dark material, very plainly made; but swathed about her waist, outlining its fine curves, was a vivid girdle of red silk. Her hands, clasped over her knee, were brown and somewhat work-hardened; but the skin of her throat and cheeks was as white as cream. A flying gleam of sunset broke through a low-lying western cloud and fell across her hair. For a moment she seemed the spirit of the sea personified -- all its mystery, all its passion, all its elusive charm."

I love quoting Montgomery. Love it.

The novel has its fair share of romance, happy moments, tragedy and laughter. Be ready to shed a few tears and have a few laughs. Pick up a cup of steaming cocoa, wrap yourself in a warm blanket, and open up Anne's House of Dreams. Enjoy.

Eight Cousins

Eight Cousins, along with its sequel Rose in Bloom, is one of my favorite books by Louisa May Alcott. The depiction of family life and hope that is so pervasive in Alcott's novels doesn't fail one here. That one can always change, be better, be healthier and that love can do wonders is the message in most of her stories. I know that whenever I read her novels, despite the somewhat exaggerated goodness, I too see a better world through her eyes.

Eight Cousins centers around Rose; a young, recently orphaned girl who is thrust into a new world with relatives she barely knows. With the fear of a new guardian and seven new cousins, all boys, whom she has never met, Rose has grown to be constantly ill and tired. Will the arrival of the mysterious guardian and the companionship of her cousins help her heal? Those who have read a novel by Alcott must already know the answer. The novel promises a fun voyage through the ups and downs, surprises, and magic of Rose's new family life.........A MUST READ!

The Chronicles of Narnia

See HERE to read my review on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The following reviews are added as I read along.

The Horse and His Boy

This is the third book in the Narnia series, and it is similar in style to the second: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Shasta, a young slave boy escapes from his master who intends to sell him to a Tarkaan. All his life, Shasta has longed to travel North. Imagine his luck when he finds the Tarkaan has a talking horse who comes from the northern land of Narnia! With the help of his new friend, he embarks on a journey towards freedom and Narnia.

Lewis' writing style is in a way similar to Tolkien; both writers, when the journey splits into two different parts, often follow one thread only to come back and recount the other thread from the same point. In The Chronicles of Narnia, this device makes the story seem both long and short. Long because the journey part is repeated so often that we long to get to the part of action, and short because the books themselves have very little story besides the journey and can only be prolonged so much.

The dialogue at times seems too formal, even for a fairy tale book for children. This seems like too much criticism, especially with the fact that I actually enjoyed reading it!

Prince Caspian

I liked this one much better than the 3rd installment of The Chronicles of Narnia. It went at a much faster pace and I didn't seem like I was constantly going back to where another character was still behind in the story. The four siblings appear again in this novel and are at the age in which they constantly fight and nag at each other. We are introduced to Prince Caspian, (by the way, there is no developing romance between Susan and Caspian mentioned in the novel - that is added to the movie) the true King of Narnia who is fighting for his right against his Uncle.

One thing that I enjoy about the series is the little lessons given to each character; none are exempt from the lion's scolding. Lucy is the obvious favorite in the novel and the one to whom Narnia was first shown, but whenever she is in the wrong, she is shown how. All the children pray a pretty homage to Aslan, the King of Narnia. I liked seeing how they all respected him, and joy burst into their hearts whenever they saw him.

Fantasy is not necessarily a good thing. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy love Narnia and it has certainly taught them something, but once in their own world, they can't help feeling discontented and yearning for the glory and position they had attained as Kings and Queens in Narnia.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Reading this book I was amazed at the differences between the movie and the book. Although the story goes along the same lines, the movie has incorporated much more action. Most of the scenes are embellished and carried further than they were in the book. For example, when Eustace turns into a dragon, none of the Narnians fight him, Lucy doesn't speak the incantation to make herself beautiful, she isn't kidnapped by the Dufflepuds, and when they go into the land where dreams come true, they come out unscathed without anyones dream becoming a reality. The movie makes all these things happen so as to make the story more dramatic.

The book didn't have a strong plot which is perhaps why things were changed in the film. From the simple voyage of discovery the book had laid out, the movie became a quest to save the seven lords and collect their swords which held some magical power.

The Silver Chair

With all four of the Pevensie children gone, this book was like a shock. The withdrawal had been gradual with Peter and Susan going first, but the loss of all of them was still too great for The Silver Chair to be a success. To top it all off, we didn't even have Prince Caspian except in passing as an old and heartbroken king.

Although Eustace's character has improved in this book, there are still plenty of lessons that Aslan has to teach the children. We have a new character, Jill Pole, who comes along for the journey. Their quest is to rescue Prince Caspian's (now an old king) son from a witch. The children are shown as what they are - children; easily annoyed, irritable and sometimes quarrelsome, caving into wants and needs. The book was natural and the learning process was gradual.

The Last Battle

The last of the Narnian series, this book reveals the truth about Narnia, Aslan's country, and the whole magical kingdom. Narnia is breathing its last when King Tirian calls for aid. Aslan answers and sends Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole. Together they prepare desperately for the last battle. The end of Narnia is near and it looks like there is no hope.

All of a sudden, all the characters who ever came into Narnia from the "other world", are assembled together (sadly, except Susan!). Aslan appears and before their eyes a country is laid to waste, thousands of years pass, the sea sweeps over all, the sun dies, and the door is closed on an eternity. I loved the depiction of Father Time and how the world ended was beautifully portrayed. I read each and every word of the description.

When the characters gather together at the end for a final talk, I was disappointed. I liked the idea that the world they were in now was supposed to be the real world, and all others just a paper copy (even the England they had lived in, and the Narnia they had ruled over, was never the real England or Narnia), but the way things ended, and how Peter, Edmund, Lucy and the rest got there, seemed wrong to me. Some questions remained, and although the world was beautiful beyond dreams, I couldn't help wondering about all the other people over in the 'fake' England!

The Emily Series

Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily's Quest are a three part series covering the life of Emily Byrd Starr for over a span of 15 years. When Emily is orphaned, she comes to live with her mother's family - a family from whom her parents had been estranged after they married each other against their wishes. Now, she has nowhere else to go and must live at New Moon with her mother's two unmarried sisters, Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Laura, and Cousin Jimmy, a distant cousin.

Enigmatic, mysterious, charming, intense, and sensitive to love and beauty, Emily changes the lives of those who live at New Moon forever. She comes to them with her heart ready to give love and receive it. But life at New Moon isn't easy. She has to go to school and make new acquaintances, suffer many heartbreaks and learn not a few rules. In short, she must adapt to the changing conditions around her.

The Pat Series

Phil, in Anne of the Island says, speaking of Pickwick Papers, ‘That’s a book that always makes me hungry. There’s so much good eating in it.’ I feel the same way when I read the Pat series. The food Judy cooks in that book! The dinners with fried chicken, jelly-roll cake, apple cake, cinnamon buns! Yum! Even the food I’ve never tried sounds so good. Pat, the perfect housekeeper is perfect in every other way except in relation to her love life (just like all her heroines!). Her cooking is superb… they’re always having some party or dinner and planning exquisite menus – the best part. I especially love the menu they prepare for the visit of their cousin Countess of Medchester: Fried chicken with sparrow grass, coconut cake, iced melon balls and ice-cream; and I actually tried ‘ribbon sandwiches’ just because they were mentioned in the book!

Besides the wonderful food (I already feel hungry), Pat herself is different from Montgomery’s other heroines. She is a born housewife. She actually loves her home (sometimes to obsession; poor Hilary!) and takes care of it. I have actually taken some tips from her books: putting lavender between the sheets, hanging Chinese Lanterns for effect and many, many more great ideas. It’s like the two books are a guide for the perfect housewife.

The books were written much later – Pat of Silver Bush in 1933, and Mistress Pat in 1935 – than the Anne Series. Her skill is certainly more than when she wrote her first book. She shows a greater range of emotions. The first Anne book, though having its share of grief, was mostly light and sparkling, but the Pat books show more sadness and sometimes even despair: the scenes where Pat is in the attic and feels old and when Sid marries May, her longtime enemy. We see her portray much more sadness than in any of her earlier novels. This is also due to the fact that it takes many years for Pat to realize her love for Hilary and to end her loneliness.

Judy’s death was the saddest part of the novel for me. The relationship between Pat and Judy had been beautiful to see and I actually cried when she died. But Montgomery never allows her readers to remain grief-stricken for long; something always happens to take the edge away. It is apparent why she does so, in a dialogue from Emily Climbs,

            ‘I read a story to-night. It ended unhappily. I was wretched until I had invented a happy ending for it. I shall always end my stories happily. I don’t care whether it’s ‘true to life’ or not. It’s true to life as it should be and that’s a better truth then the other.’

I am inclined to agree with her point of view. It is better to portray a better way of life in novels then all the social evils of the world; something to aspire to; an ideal. Whenever I want to escape the realities of the world, I grab one of Montgomery’s novels and forget all my problems. It is apparent that L. M. Montgomery was a well-read woman. She refers to Dickens’ novels many times and even Rudyard Kipling. She saw the evil in the world and yet was still able to write of its beauty.

L.M. Montgomery's works

Some books can only be read by older, more mature people; others can be read only by a younger audience; some are specifically written for children; but the books by L. M. Montgomery are universal. They can be read by any age group. She is unique in being able to enchant all sorts of people.

Of course the first book that comes to mind when mentioning L. M. Montgomery is Anne of Green Gables. The book is exquisite in its portrayal of Anne: an orphan girl, worked like a drudge in her childhood, but still managing to see the beauty of life. In Anne, we see the true optimist, who despite all odds manages to bring joy to herself and others in her life as well. I’ve never read about a heroine like her. As Mark Twain says Anne of Green Gables is the ‘sweetest creation of child life yet written.’ The book brings with it a freshness that is lacking in other novels. We have love, friendship, heartache and extreme happiness in the book. Laughter is common and the thing about L. M. Montgomery is that we can actually relate to everything in the book. Anne is a unique child and it’s obvious that we all want to be like her. We all want to have that same joyous nature, to be able to love intensely and see only the beauty even through the sorrow. L. M. Montgomery portrays a young girl living in an imperfect world able to see its perfections.

Anne is by no means an angel. She has a quick temper. As Mrs. Rachel Lynde says, ‘Her temper matches her hair’, which is red. Throughout the Anne series we see Anne’s obsession with her hair, at one point even dyeing it green! She makes her fair share of blunders and mistakes but always learns her lesson. In her love life she, like most of L. M. Montgomery’s heroines, realizes much later than the hero that she is in love. With Anne, Gilbert actually almost has to die to get her to notice!

I love L. M. Montgomery’s descriptions of people. It’s always so perfect and exactly the thing you want to know about; the aspect that interests you most of all. In one of her short stories this is how she describes the heroine, ‘a sweet, little, brown thing, rather tired looking, with a flute-like voice. Her face was as brown as a nut, her hair and eyes were brown, her lips scarlet.’

Most of the time I hate reading descriptions of scenery in novels, but with L. M. Montgomery, I savor each and every word. Her words seem to bring out the best parts in everything. The snow, the flowers, sunsets and moonrises all have a different flavor when she describes them. And her genius at coining names for places! ‘Glimmer-glass’, ‘Idlewild’, ‘The White Way of Delight’, ‘The Fairies’ Mirror’. I just don’t know how she comes up with them.

What else can I say about L. M. Montgomery? She was a great artist. Each and every one of her novels is a piece of art. Anne of Green Gables is of course her masterpiece; the novel that led to her fame. But she didn’t just leave with one great book. She has written many great novels and my personal favorite is the Emily Series. The series is also said to be autobiographical. Other good books by Montgomery are the Pat series and Jane of Lantern Hill. She’s also written many short stories and poetry.

This is my favorite topic: discussing Anne and Emily and Pat:). All her heroines are distinct from each other. Anne is the sweet one who has ambitions, but puts her loved ones first. Emily is also ambitious but has a LOT of pride and, at least in the beginning, would sacrifice anything for her work. Pat is the most different; she has no ambitions except living in Silver Bush and keeping house. But they also have many things in common: they are all great lovers of beauty, they aren’t typically beautiful but have ‘personality’. Emily, unlike Pat and Anne, is not blind to her love for Teddy. I can go on comparing the heroines forever, but I’ll leave off. Till next time:).