Anne of Ingleside

Seven years after settling at Ingleside, Anne Shirley Blythe is the mother of five — Jem, Walter, the twins Nan and Di, and young Shirley — with a sixth, Rilla, born during the course of the book. The novel gathers a series of domestic episodes rather than a single throughline: a prolonged, trying visit from Gilbert's difficult aunt Mary Maria; the children's repeated encounters with other youngsters who spin tall tales to seem interesting; and Anne's own quiet worry, late in the book, that Gilbert has grown distant.

That worry proves unfounded — Gilbert's preoccupation turns out to be concern for a patient, and the book closes with a small reconciliation between them. Throughout, the housekeeper Susan Baker anchors the household with her fierce devotion to the family.

First published in 1939, Anne of Ingleside is the sixth book in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series by internal chronology, following the Blythe family's everyday life rather than Anne's own coming of age.