Rainbow Valley
Encyclopedia
Rainbow Valley is the seventh book in the chronology of the Anne of Green Gables
series by Lucy Maud Montgomery
, although it was the fifth book published. In this book Anne Shirley
is married with six children, but the book focuses more on her new neighbor, the new Presbyterian minister
John Meredith, as well as the interactions between Anne's and John Meredith's children.
The book is dedicated: "To the memory of Goldwin Lapp, Robert Brookes and Morley Shier who made the supreme sacrifice that the happy valleys of their home land might be kept sacred from the ravage of the invader." This refers to World War I
, which is the main theme of the next and final book in the series, Rilla of Ingleside
.
for 15 years, and the couple have six children: Jem, Walter, Nan, Di, Shirley, and Rilla.
After a holiday in Europe, Anne returns to the news that a new minister has arrived in Glen St. Mary. John Meredith is a widower with four young children: Jerry, Faith, Una, and Carl. The children have not been properly brought up since the death of their mother, with only their absent-minded father (who is easily absorbed by matters of theology) and their old, bitter, and partially-deaf Aunt Martha to take care of them. The children are considered wild and mischievous by many of the families in the village (who tend only to hear about the Meredith children when they have gotten into some kind of scrape), causing them to question Mr. Meredith's parenting skills and his suitability as a minister.
For most of the book, only the Blythes know of the Meredith children's loyalty and kindness. They rescue an orphaned girl, Mary Vance, from starvation, and Una finds a home for her with Mrs. Marshall Elliot. When the children get into trouble, Faith sometimes tries to explain their behavior to the townsfolk, which generally causes an even bigger scandal.
The Merediths, Blythes, and Mary Vance often play in a hollow called Rainbow Valley, which becomes a gathering place for the children in the book. Jem Blythe tries to help the Merediths behave better by forming the "Good-Conduct Club", in which the Merediths punish themselves for misdeeds. Their self-imposed punishments lead to Carl becoming very ill with pneumonia after spending hours in a graveyard on a wet night, and to Una fainting in church after fasting all day. When this happens, John Meredith is wracked with guilt over his failings as a father.
Mr. Meredith realizes that he should marry again and give the children a mother, though he has always thought he will never love anyone again as he did his late wife. He is surprised to find that he has fallen in love with Rosemary West, a woman in her late thirties who lives with her sister Ellen, who is ten years older. John proposes marriage to Rosemary, but Ellen forbids Rosemary to accept, as years earlier they had promised each other never to leave the other following the deaths of their parents. However, Ellen eventually reunites with her childhood beau, Norman Douglas, and asks Rosemary to release her from her promise so she can marry Norman. Rosemary agrees, but now thinks that John Meredith hates her.
Una overhears her father expressing feelings for Rosemary and goes to ask Rosemary to marry her father despite her misgivings about stepmothers, who Mary Vance has told her are always mean. Rosemary sets her mind at ease and agrees to speak to John Meredith again. They become engaged, and Rosemary and Ellen plan a double wedding in the fall.
Walter Cuthbert Blythe: Walter is named after Anne's birth father and adoptive family, Cuthbert, and is considered the most handsome of the children. He has straight black hair and finely modeled features. Walter is thought of by the Glen St. Mary boys as girly and milky-soppish, because he never fights and rarely plays sports, preferring to read books alone. The Meredith children like Walter well, but Mary Vance finds him odd. Walter has all his mother's vivid imagination and love for beauty, and dreams of becoming a poet someday, choosing Paul Irving, one of his mother's pupils, as a model. He shares many of his verses to his sister-chum, Di. The boys at school respect Walter because of his "book talk", and all the more when he fights Dan Reese after Dan insulted Walter, his mother and his friend Faith. At the close of the book he has a vision of 'The Piper' on the hill, piping away, making young men follow him from around the world. This vision is fulfilled in the following book as World War One breaks out.
Anne "Nan" Blythe: One of the Ingleside twins, Nan is "Blythe by name and blithe by nature", being a dainty little maiden with velvety nut-brown eyes and silky nut-brown hair. Her complexion is almost flawless, and she is well aware of this. She has many friends, but is thought to be stuck up and proud by the Glen St. Mary ladies because she imitates her mother's tricks, graces and poses. Nan also inherited her mother's imagination, which makes life more interesting, and also gets her into numerous scrapes. "Nan" is named after her mother. She seems to have her eyes on Jerry Meredith, of the Manse. Nan looks like her Grandmother Blythe.
Diana "Di" Blythe: Diana is the other Ingleside twin, named after Anne's childhood friend, Diana. She looks a lot like her mother, with red hair and gray-green eyes. She is special chums with Walter, who tells her his secrets and lets her read his poetry. Di is like her father, with similar qualities and personality, having his practical bent and common sense, as well as his twinkling sense of humor. Diana, like her mother before her, regrets her hair color and wishes her hair was like Nan's. She is very chummy and likes to have a named best friend, which causes several unfortunate events, but she is also quite loyal to her brothers and sisters. Her nickname is pronounced "Die", not "Dee".
Shirley Blythe: Anne was very sick after giving birth to Shirley, so the Blythe housekeeper, Susan Baker, took care of him until Anne was well. Shirley calls Susan 'Mother Susan', and goes to her to have his bruises kissed and his cuts washed. Shirley is quiet and doesn't like to be forced to talk, liking to play on his own. He is known as the little brown boy, because he has brown eyes, hair and skin. He is also seen as taking after Gilbert's father, John, in personality. Shirley was named for Anne's maiden name.
Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe: The youngest of the Ingleside children, Rilla is named after Anne's birth mother and adoptive "mother", Marilla. She was born a roly-poly plump baby, and remained so until she was seven. She has red hair, like her mother, which later turns a ruddy-brown color, and hazel eyes like her father. Rilla is very proud, hates to be teased or to be classed with lower people. She has cherished a crush on Kenneth Ford since age six. Rilla has silly beliefs and ideas, and a fear of being unladylike. She has a lisp, which her mother believes she will grow out of. Later in her life, the lisp only comes back when Rilla is nervous. Rilla, in her teens, regrets being called by her silly childhood nicknames - Rilla or Spider - instead of her respectable and "dignified" first name, Bertha. Rilla seems the only of Mrs Doctor Blythe's flock that isn't ambitious, and her only intention is to have a good time. At the end of the last book of the series, however, Rilla matures into a good, accomplished young woman and loses her childish immature way of acting and thinking.
Faith Meredith - She is eleven when the book begins. Faith is described as wearing her beauty like a rose, careless and glowing. She has golden-brown curls, crimson cheeks, and golden-brown eyes. She is optimistic, laughs a lot, and has a rather different way of thinking. Faith had a pet rooster named Adam, but he was eaten and replaced by a canary, given to her by Rosemary West. She seems to have a crush on Jem and is great friends with Nan. Faith is also very heedless, and when the Merediths start their 'Good-Conduct Club', Faith seems to be the one who has to be punished most frequently. She is known for previously wearing no stockings to church after having given her good pair to a poor girl, and refusing to wear her hideous red-and-blue striped ones. She is closest to Jerry.
Una Meredith - Una is ten when the book begins. She is little and dreamy, like her father. She has straight pure black hair and almond-shaped dark blue eyes, with something sad about them. Her mouth sometimes falls open to reveal tiny square teeth and sometimes a shy smile creeps over her face. She is sensitive to public opinion, and is the only one who tries to keep the house clean and neat. Una is said to have an uneasy consciousness that there was something strange about her way of living, and longs to put it right, but doesn't know how. She misses her mother more than her siblings do and seems to have a little fancy for Walter. She is for sure the most thoughtful and caring of the Manse children. She is very frail and weak, and once fainted in church.
Thomas Carlyle "Carl" Meredith - Carl has the fearless, direct, clear blue eyes of his dead mother and brown hair with glints of gold. He is nine at the beginning of the book, and has a fancy for and curiosity towards bugs and animals. He often takes these to his bed or puts then in his pockets. Anne says she believes he will be an environmentalist. Carl has been known to be seriously ill many times, once on the brink of death.
Mary Vance - Mary is a cheeky girl, with tow-colored hair and light blue eyes which the Meredith children call 'white eyes'. Found by the Meredith children in a barn, they take her home and look after her. She is later adopted by Miss Cornelia. Mary is about twelve when she is introduced in the book. She had previously lived with a horrid Mrs. Wiley who whipped her until she ran away. The Manse and Blythe children don't have a terribly strong liking for her, but they 'can't help being nice to her'. They are very much in awe of her on accord to her boasting and swearing frequently.
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Set in 1878, it was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book...
series by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE , called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success...
, although it was the fifth book published. In this book Anne Shirley
Anne Shirley
Anne Shirley is a fictional character introduced in the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Montgomery wrote in her journal that the idea for Anne's story came from relatives who, planning to adopt an orphaned boy, received a girl instead...
is married with six children, but the book focuses more on her new neighbor, the new Presbyterian minister
Minister of religion
In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...
John Meredith, as well as the interactions between Anne's and John Meredith's children.
The book is dedicated: "To the memory of Goldwin Lapp, Robert Brookes and Morley Shier who made the supreme sacrifice that the happy valleys of their home land might be kept sacred from the ravage of the invader." This refers to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which is the main theme of the next and final book in the series, Rilla of Ingleside
Rilla of Ingleside
Rilla of Ingleside is the final book in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but was the sixth of the eight "Anne" novels she wrote. This book draws the focus back onto a single character, Anne and Gilbert's youngest daughter Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe...
.
Plot summary
Anne Shirley has now been married to Gilbert BlytheGilbert Blythe
Gilbert Blythe is a fictional character in Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series of novels.In the CBC Television film adaptations of the 1980s, Gilbert Blythe is portrayed by Jonathan Crombie. For the 1934 film adaption, Gilbert is portrayed by Tom Brown. In the Japanese anime...
for 15 years, and the couple have six children: Jem, Walter, Nan, Di, Shirley, and Rilla.
After a holiday in Europe, Anne returns to the news that a new minister has arrived in Glen St. Mary. John Meredith is a widower with four young children: Jerry, Faith, Una, and Carl. The children have not been properly brought up since the death of their mother, with only their absent-minded father (who is easily absorbed by matters of theology) and their old, bitter, and partially-deaf Aunt Martha to take care of them. The children are considered wild and mischievous by many of the families in the village (who tend only to hear about the Meredith children when they have gotten into some kind of scrape), causing them to question Mr. Meredith's parenting skills and his suitability as a minister.
For most of the book, only the Blythes know of the Meredith children's loyalty and kindness. They rescue an orphaned girl, Mary Vance, from starvation, and Una finds a home for her with Mrs. Marshall Elliot. When the children get into trouble, Faith sometimes tries to explain their behavior to the townsfolk, which generally causes an even bigger scandal.
The Merediths, Blythes, and Mary Vance often play in a hollow called Rainbow Valley, which becomes a gathering place for the children in the book. Jem Blythe tries to help the Merediths behave better by forming the "Good-Conduct Club", in which the Merediths punish themselves for misdeeds. Their self-imposed punishments lead to Carl becoming very ill with pneumonia after spending hours in a graveyard on a wet night, and to Una fainting in church after fasting all day. When this happens, John Meredith is wracked with guilt over his failings as a father.
Mr. Meredith realizes that he should marry again and give the children a mother, though he has always thought he will never love anyone again as he did his late wife. He is surprised to find that he has fallen in love with Rosemary West, a woman in her late thirties who lives with her sister Ellen, who is ten years older. John proposes marriage to Rosemary, but Ellen forbids Rosemary to accept, as years earlier they had promised each other never to leave the other following the deaths of their parents. However, Ellen eventually reunites with her childhood beau, Norman Douglas, and asks Rosemary to release her from her promise so she can marry Norman. Rosemary agrees, but now thinks that John Meredith hates her.
Una overhears her father expressing feelings for Rosemary and goes to ask Rosemary to marry her father despite her misgivings about stepmothers, who Mary Vance has told her are always mean. Rosemary sets her mind at ease and agrees to speak to John Meredith again. They become engaged, and Rosemary and Ellen plan a double wedding in the fall.
The Ingleside children
James Matthew "Jem" Blythe: Jem is named for Captain Jim and Anne's foster parent Matthew Cuthbert, or as Anne puts it, "The two finest gentlemen [she knows], not even saving Gilbert's presence." The only one of Anne's children born in the House of Dreams, Jem has curly red hair, frank hazel eyes, his mother's nose and his father's mouth. Jem is also the only one with ears nice enough to please Susan. He is sturdy and reliable, not a great talker but a good all-round student. Jem likes to investigate things through, and constantly experiments and observes. This leads him to know a lot about nature, people and the little world the children live in. He is a "chieftain" at school and brought about the 'Good-Conduct Club' with the Manse children. Towards the end of the book, Jem is studying for the entrance to Queen's and, being almost fifteen, does not have as much enthusiasm for playing in Rainbow Valley anymore. However, he likes to fraternize with Faith Meredith. Jem is Marilla's favorite of Anne's children and seems to be closest to Nan.Walter Cuthbert Blythe: Walter is named after Anne's birth father and adoptive family, Cuthbert, and is considered the most handsome of the children. He has straight black hair and finely modeled features. Walter is thought of by the Glen St. Mary boys as girly and milky-soppish, because he never fights and rarely plays sports, preferring to read books alone. The Meredith children like Walter well, but Mary Vance finds him odd. Walter has all his mother's vivid imagination and love for beauty, and dreams of becoming a poet someday, choosing Paul Irving, one of his mother's pupils, as a model. He shares many of his verses to his sister-chum, Di. The boys at school respect Walter because of his "book talk", and all the more when he fights Dan Reese after Dan insulted Walter, his mother and his friend Faith. At the close of the book he has a vision of 'The Piper' on the hill, piping away, making young men follow him from around the world. This vision is fulfilled in the following book as World War One breaks out.
Anne "Nan" Blythe: One of the Ingleside twins, Nan is "Blythe by name and blithe by nature", being a dainty little maiden with velvety nut-brown eyes and silky nut-brown hair. Her complexion is almost flawless, and she is well aware of this. She has many friends, but is thought to be stuck up and proud by the Glen St. Mary ladies because she imitates her mother's tricks, graces and poses. Nan also inherited her mother's imagination, which makes life more interesting, and also gets her into numerous scrapes. "Nan" is named after her mother. She seems to have her eyes on Jerry Meredith, of the Manse. Nan looks like her Grandmother Blythe.
Diana "Di" Blythe: Diana is the other Ingleside twin, named after Anne's childhood friend, Diana. She looks a lot like her mother, with red hair and gray-green eyes. She is special chums with Walter, who tells her his secrets and lets her read his poetry. Di is like her father, with similar qualities and personality, having his practical bent and common sense, as well as his twinkling sense of humor. Diana, like her mother before her, regrets her hair color and wishes her hair was like Nan's. She is very chummy and likes to have a named best friend, which causes several unfortunate events, but she is also quite loyal to her brothers and sisters. Her nickname is pronounced "Die", not "Dee".
Shirley Blythe: Anne was very sick after giving birth to Shirley, so the Blythe housekeeper, Susan Baker, took care of him until Anne was well. Shirley calls Susan 'Mother Susan', and goes to her to have his bruises kissed and his cuts washed. Shirley is quiet and doesn't like to be forced to talk, liking to play on his own. He is known as the little brown boy, because he has brown eyes, hair and skin. He is also seen as taking after Gilbert's father, John, in personality. Shirley was named for Anne's maiden name.
Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe: The youngest of the Ingleside children, Rilla is named after Anne's birth mother and adoptive "mother", Marilla. She was born a roly-poly plump baby, and remained so until she was seven. She has red hair, like her mother, which later turns a ruddy-brown color, and hazel eyes like her father. Rilla is very proud, hates to be teased or to be classed with lower people. She has cherished a crush on Kenneth Ford since age six. Rilla has silly beliefs and ideas, and a fear of being unladylike. She has a lisp, which her mother believes she will grow out of. Later in her life, the lisp only comes back when Rilla is nervous. Rilla, in her teens, regrets being called by her silly childhood nicknames - Rilla or Spider - instead of her respectable and "dignified" first name, Bertha. Rilla seems the only of Mrs Doctor Blythe's flock that isn't ambitious, and her only intention is to have a good time. At the end of the last book of the series, however, Rilla matures into a good, accomplished young woman and loses her childish immature way of acting and thinking.
The manse children
Gerald "Jerry" Meredith - Jerry is twelve in the beginning of the book and has his father's black hair and large black eyes, but in him they are flashing instead of dreamy. He has a great sense of self-judgment and is described as being very smart, 'the brightest of all the children in the Glen school'. He is good friends with Jem and Walter. He seems to have a crush on Nan. He is very close to Faith.Faith Meredith - She is eleven when the book begins. Faith is described as wearing her beauty like a rose, careless and glowing. She has golden-brown curls, crimson cheeks, and golden-brown eyes. She is optimistic, laughs a lot, and has a rather different way of thinking. Faith had a pet rooster named Adam, but he was eaten and replaced by a canary, given to her by Rosemary West. She seems to have a crush on Jem and is great friends with Nan. Faith is also very heedless, and when the Merediths start their 'Good-Conduct Club', Faith seems to be the one who has to be punished most frequently. She is known for previously wearing no stockings to church after having given her good pair to a poor girl, and refusing to wear her hideous red-and-blue striped ones. She is closest to Jerry.
Una Meredith - Una is ten when the book begins. She is little and dreamy, like her father. She has straight pure black hair and almond-shaped dark blue eyes, with something sad about them. Her mouth sometimes falls open to reveal tiny square teeth and sometimes a shy smile creeps over her face. She is sensitive to public opinion, and is the only one who tries to keep the house clean and neat. Una is said to have an uneasy consciousness that there was something strange about her way of living, and longs to put it right, but doesn't know how. She misses her mother more than her siblings do and seems to have a little fancy for Walter. She is for sure the most thoughtful and caring of the Manse children. She is very frail and weak, and once fainted in church.
Thomas Carlyle "Carl" Meredith - Carl has the fearless, direct, clear blue eyes of his dead mother and brown hair with glints of gold. He is nine at the beginning of the book, and has a fancy for and curiosity towards bugs and animals. He often takes these to his bed or puts then in his pockets. Anne says she believes he will be an environmentalist. Carl has been known to be seriously ill many times, once on the brink of death.
Mary Vance - Mary is a cheeky girl, with tow-colored hair and light blue eyes which the Meredith children call 'white eyes'. Found by the Meredith children in a barn, they take her home and look after her. She is later adopted by Miss Cornelia. Mary is about twelve when she is introduced in the book. She had previously lived with a horrid Mrs. Wiley who whipped her until she ran away. The Manse and Blythe children don't have a terribly strong liking for her, but they 'can't help being nice to her'. They are very much in awe of her on accord to her boasting and swearing frequently.
Series
Montgomery continued the story of Anne Shirley in a series of sequels. They are listed in the order of Anne's age in each novel.| # | Book | Date published | Anne Shirley's age |
| 1 | Anne of Green Gables Anne of Green Gables Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Set in 1878, it was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book... |
1908 | 11 — 16 |
| 2 | Anne of Avonlea Anne of Avonlea -Plot introduction:Following Anne of Green Gables , the book covers the second chapter in the life of Anne Shirley. This book follows Anne from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. It includes many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, as well as new... |
1909 | 16 — 18 |
| 3 | Anne of the Island Anne of the Island Anne of the Island is a the third book in the Anne of Green Gables series, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery about Anne Shirley.Anne of the Island was published in 1915, seven years after the bestselling Anne of Green Gables... |
1915 | 18 — 22 |
| 4 | Anne of Windy Poplars Anne of Windy Poplars Anne of Windy Poplars, also published as Anne of Windy Willows in the UK, Australia and Japan, is an epistolary novel by L. M. Montgomery. First published in 1936 by McClelland and Stewart, it details Anne Shirley's experiences over three years teaching at a high school in Summerside, Prince Edward... |
1936 | 22 — 25 |
| 5 | Anne's House of Dreams Anne's House of Dreams Anne's House of Dreams is a novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1917 by McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart.... |
1917 | 25 — 27 |
| 6 | Anne of Ingleside Anne of Ingleside Anne of Ingleside is a children's novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in August 1939 by George G. Harrap & Co Ltd. It is the sixth book in the chronology and the final book to be published.... |
1939 | 34 — 40 |
| 7 | Rainbow Valley | 1919 | 40 — 42 |
| 8 | Rilla of Ingleside Rilla of Ingleside Rilla of Ingleside is the final book in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but was the sixth of the eight "Anne" novels she wrote. This book draws the focus back onto a single character, Anne and Gilbert's youngest daughter Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe... |
1921 | 48 — 52 |
| # | Book | Date published | Anne Shirley's age |
| — | Chronicles of Avonlea Chronicles of Avonlea Chronicles of Avonlea is a collection of short stories by L. M. Montgomery, related to the Anne of Green Gables series. It features an abundance of stories relating to the fictional Canadian village of Avonlea, and was first published in 1912.... |
1912 | — |
| — | Further Chronicles of Avonlea Further Chronicles of Avonlea Further Chronicles of Avonlea is a collection of short stories by L. M. Montgomery and is a sequel to Chronicles of Avonlea. Published in 1920, it includes a number of stories relating to the inhabitants of the fictional Canadian village of Avonlea and its region, located on Prince Edward Island.-... |
1920 | — |
| — | The Blythes Are Quoted The Blythes Are Quoted The Blythes Are Quoted is a book completed by L.M. Montgomery near the end of her life as the ninth book in her beloved Anne of Green Gables series... |
2009 | — |
External links
- Online text of Rainbow Valley
- Plot introduction and book covers
- The L.M. Montgomery Research Group This scholarly site includes a blog, an extensive bibliography of reference materials, and a complete filmography of all adaptations of Montgomery texts.
- An L.M. Montgomery Resource Page Resource on L.M. Montgomery and Anne's Legacy
- The Anne Shirley Homepage - A great resource for all Anne fans with galleries, fan art, time lines, recipes and calendars.
- The L.M. Montgomery Literary Society This site includes information about Montgomery's works and life and research from the newsletter, The Shining Scroll. See The Shining Scroll issues from 2008 and December 2009 for articles on the dedication to the soldiers of World War I in Rainbow Valley.