Rilla of Ingleside

Rilla of Ingleside turns the Anne of Green Gables sequence toward Anne and Gilbert's youngest daughter, Bertha Marilla Blythe. Known as Rilla, she becomes the single focus of a book whose tone is more serious than the family episodes surrounding her childhood. The First World War reaches Ingleside as the Blythe sons Jem, Walter, and Shirley, along with Ken Ford and the Meredith boys, face service in Europe. Public history enters the series through one household's changing daily life.

Published in 1921, the novel is the eighth of nine books in the sequence, though it was the sixth Anne novel to appear. That position matters: Lucy Maud Montgomery draws upon an established community but shifts generational perspective. Anne remains part of the family world, while Rilla must interpret events that alter expectations of youth, affection, courage, and responsibility.

The book's place in Montgomery's corpus is also historically distinctive. The source identifies it as a contemporary Canadian account of the war from a woman's perspective and notes its attention to Gallipoli and the ANZAC sacrifice. Rather than leaving war at the front, Rilla of Ingleside watches it reshape communication, waiting, and maturity at home. The familiar Prince Edward Island setting becomes a measure of how far distant events can travel.