Rainbow Valley
'Rainbow Valley' Summary
Anne Shirley has now been married to Gilbert Blythe for 15 years, and the couple have six children: Jem, Walter, Nan, Di, Shirley, and Rilla.
After a trip to London, Anne returns to the news that a new minister has arrived in Glen St. Mary. John Meredith is a widower with four young children: Gerald (Jerry), Faith, Una, and Thomas Carlyle (Carl). The children have not been properly brought up since the death of their mother, with only their father (who is easily absorbed by matters of theology) to parent 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 got 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 Elliott. When the children get into trouble, Faith sometimes tries to explain their behaviour 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 from accepting, 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, who asks Rosemary to release Ellen 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 Autumn.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1919Author
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Canada
Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gable...
More on Lucy Maud MontgomeryDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
Glengarry School Days: A Story of Early Days in Glengarry by Ralph Connor
With international book sales in the millions, Ralph Connor was the best-known Canadian novelist of the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. Gl...
A Little Bush Maid by Mary Grant Bruce
An Australian children's classic about life on a ranch around the same time of A Little Florida Lady, with a similarly plucky tomboy heroine. Also, li...
The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
The Happy Prince and Other Tales (sometimes called The Happy Prince and Other Stories) is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first pu...
The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Road to Oz: In Which Is Related How Dorothy Gale of Kansas, The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter Met on an Enchant...
The Children's Homer, The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy by Padraic Colum by Padraic Colum
Also known as "The Children's Homer," this is Irish writer Padraic Colum's retelling of the events of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for young people. Colu...
His Family by Ernest Poole
His Family is a novel by Ernest Poole published in 1917 about the life of a New York widower and his three daughters in the 1910s. It received the fir...
Famous Stories Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie
This is a collection of well known fairy tales by various authors, including the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and many others.
The Garden Behind the Moon: A Real Story of the Moon Angel by Howard Pyle
David goes on a journey to the moon-garden where everything is beautiful and where he also meets Phyllis who is not like the other children in the gar...
The Five Jars by M.R. James
A short story in a book form that’s more like a fantasy about a man who finds five jars in the woods and finds out how using the contents makes him aw...
The Junior Classics Volume 5: Stories That Never Grow Old by William Patten
A selection of famous tales selected and re-worked for a junior audience. Stories are taken from Arabian Nights, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels,...
Reviews for Rainbow Valley
No reviews posted or approved, yet...