Anne 's House of Dreams

This is the last Anne novel which is mainly about Anne, since the later ones are about her children. The novel covers the first few years of Anne's marriage to Gilbert Blythe, who is now a doctor. He has taken a practice in Glen St Mary, a village on Prince Edward Island, not all that close to Avonlea. It is a fishing village and a port for ships travelling the world - so many of the locals are fishermen or sailors. The couple have a quiet wedding at Green Gables, and Marilla And Rachel Lynde are sad to see them go away. When they arrive in Glen St Mary, they meet new friends, including an elderly sea captain, Captain Jim, who now keeps the lighthouse, and Cornelia Bryant a middle aged spinster who professes to disapprove of all men. She is a good hearted creature though and Anne soon becomes friends with her. Another neighbour is Leslie Moore, a young woman who is married to a man who has had a brain injury and now has the mental age of a child. Leslie was pushed into marrying him because her father had killed himself and she and her mother were very poor. But he was not a good husband, and then went away on a voyage, leaving her to manage their farm. He disappeared and did not come back, having gone drinking and not rejoined his ship. Then a year or so later, Captain Jim found him in a sailors' tavern in Cuba. He had been injured some time before and the people who kept the tavern let him stay and do a few jobs for them. He had a letter in his pocket from Leslie, so in spite of his having changed, Jim knew him. He brought him home. Leslie took him in and found him more manageable now that he was injured and his brain was damaged. But she is still a young woman and stuck in a hopeless marriage. He is not able to do much, but she makes a bare living renting out rooms to summer visitors and managing the farm by herself.