2026 Review
Ah, a delightful read as always. I have come to like how this novel slows down the series, which would move all too fast otherwise. The characters are just so ridiculous and endearing, though I find myself glad Anne doesn't have to live in Summerside forever.
(I am thinking of skipping Anne of Ingleside in this re-read, as guiltlessly as I skipped the chapters I don't like in this reading of Windy Poplars.)
2023 Review
I do love a sojourn at Windy Poplars. Montgomery is a master of the character study and there are just so many fun ones here! Unfortunately, in my audiobook journey, I had to depart from Barbara Caruso for just this one book. This narrator had clipped tones and the worst voices. (Characters like Rebecca Dew, Mrs. Gibson, and Katherine Brooke were given identical awkwardly deep voices, while Little Elizabeth, Pauline, and the Aunts sounded similarly identical, constantly being on the verge of tears.) Yet, I still love this story and its weirdness. Readers who take feminist umbrage at Anne not becoming an author would do well to remember this installment where Anne and her BA singlehandedly lead Summerside High.
I think, what could have made this book feel more in line with the rest of the series, was if letters from other characters appeared too, as they do in Anne of the Island. What if we could hear from Gilbert and Philippa and Diana? Alas. Though Aunt Josephine gets a mention, Anne seems to have lost touch with the Patty's Place set (though Philippa appears off-page in House of Dreams) and it is a sad loss.
House of Dreams has always been one of my favorite books in the series and I am starting it immediately! It seems I have read Windy Poplars every odd year for seven years now. For a long time I didn't read the whole series in order, just whichever books I wanted to re-read. But this is the second time I've read the series in order in two years. We'll see what holds in 2025...
2021 Review
Simply lovely to read again. While Windy Poplars often reads more like a collection of short stories than a novel, it has such delicious characters and winnings-over that I always love revisiting it. As the happy survivor of a long-distance relationship, Anne's letters to Gilbert make perfect sense to me now. I didn't like the letters as much when I was younger, but after falling in love while over 1,000 miles apart, I get it.
Had Montgomery wanted more of a solid, novel feel, she could have stretched the Pringle drama for the whole three years. After Anne earns their trust, they fade into the background. But each year has its own challenge. The second year is given to Katherine Brooke, the third to settling little Elizabeth. But Windy Poplars still holds up, in my opinion, because Anne and her insights reign supreme. The triple secret of buttermilk facials gets me every time! The delightful side characters were a treasure to rediscover, as always, though I must admit I skipped the chapters about Hazel and Terry. "Not like other girls" meets the reason why "Answer not a fool according to his folly" is in Proverbs.
This is the last truly lighthearted book in the series. Both Green Gables and Island have their sad deaths, but there's a darkness over House of Dreams and the final three books. House of Dreams was published in 1917, during the war, and its impact is felt even in Windy Poplars (1936). I couldn't help but wonder if Anne's comment about the war, a common pre-WWI sentiment, also reflected what Montgomery felt after WWI: "It seems so strange to read over the stories of those old wars . . . things that can never happen again. I don't suppose any of us will ever have more than an academic interest in 'battles long ago.' It's impossible to think of Canada ever being at war again. I am so thankful that phase of history is over." Or, perhaps, Montgomery wrote that knowing war would still plague the earth. Even if she didn't intend anything by it, it's a very Anne-ish sentiment. The fingers of war color Rainbow Valley and, most markedly, Rilla. Anne of Ingleside was published in the summer of 1939, weeks before WWII began. Considering Montgomery's severe depression, it makes sense that her writing would take a darker turn, but casting the shadow of war over her work concealed a bent that would have been just as tenebrous otherwise. I'm sad to see the end of the carefree Anne books, but there's a depth to the final four books that's just as thought-provoking, if not as mood-lifting, as the first four.