Anne of Green Gable´s success made her author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, write the sequel in several novels
where we discover more details about Anne´s life. “Rilla of Ingleside” is the last volume, and tells about Anne and Gilbert´s youngest daughter, “Rilla”, whose adventures and misfortunes during the First World War create a beautiful and melancholic story with some funny moments.
The story takes place in Prince Edward Island (Canada) as well as the preceding novels, and starts at the eve of the war (1914). Rilla is a pretty girl whose biggest dream is to attempt to her first “adults ball” in a beautiful August night. In her mother´s opinion, Rilla is too interested in clothes and balls, paying little attention to her studies and without having a clear life project, but, whatever her daughter´s dreams were, would be buried that night when everybody took notice of the War in Europe.
The sinister shadow of the European War would extend to Canada, where, at first, young men would enlisted trusting that it would be a fast and easy war, but, the initial euphoria soon disappeared when the soldiers´ families stopped receiving news of them or, the worst thing: started to receive the “dreadful” telegrams.
Anne´s family won´t be able to get rid of this horror, and Rilla will have to bear her brothers´ departure, as well as her childhood friends and her “secret” love´s.
Rilla will be forced to grow up faster than she would have wished. She will start to organize events and charity projects in order to collect resources for the soldiers.
This novel provides us such a fan of feelings: the pain and sadness through the letters that Walter writes to his sister Rilla, the anxiety and uncertainty reflected in the newspapers which Gilbert reads, and the value and fortitude of Anne, Rilla and all the women whose men are fighting in this cruel war.
In spite of the horror, there is too an unshakeable faith in a “better world”. The lyricism and the melancholic beauty of Lucy Maud Montgomery´s descriptions coexist with sparkling dialogues and situations which show us that life and death, laughs and tears all belong to the same cycle.
Being a novel for young people, Rilla´s readers will find a deep story full of emotions and feelings which will make them have a lump in their throats (some passages are especially bitter) but Anne Shirley´s fans won´t be disappointed because “Anne´s spirit” lives in her daughter, Rilla, a strong and brave young girl, who, in spite of the “emotional scars” caused by the war, has been rewarded by Destiny with an “open door”, “a bend in the road” where love, hopes and dreams are waiting for her.