Anne's house of dreams: The fifth book in the Anne of Green Gables series written by Lucy Maud Montgomery about Anne Shirley

Annes House of Dreams is a novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1917 by McClelland Goodchild and Stewart.The novel is from a series of books written primarily for girls and young women about a young girl named Anne Shirley. The books follow the course of Annes life. It is set principally on Canadas Prince Edward Island Montgomerys birthplace and home for much of her life.The series has been called classic childrens literature and has been reprinted many times since its original publication.Annes House of Dreams is book five in the series and chronicles Annes early married life as she and her childhood sweetheart Gilbert Blythe begin to build their life together.Plot summary: The book begins with Anne and Gilberts wedding which takes place in the Green Gables orchard. After the wedding they move to their first home together which Anne calls their house of dreams. Gilbert finds them a small house on the seashore at Four Winds Point an area near the village of Glen St. Mary where he is to take over his uncles medical practice.In Four Winds Anne and Gilbert meet many interesting people such as Captain Jim a former sailor who is now the keeper of the lighthouse and Miss Cornelia Bryant an unmarried woman in her 40s who lives alone in an emerald-green house and deems the Blythes part of the race that knows Joseph. Anne also meets her new neighbor Leslie Moore who lost her beloved brother and her father and then was forced by her mother to marry the mean-spirited and unscrupulous Dick Moore at age 16. She felt free for a year or so after Dick disappeared on a sea voyage but Captain Jim happened upon him in Cuba and brought him home amnesiac brain-damaged and generally helpless and now dependent on Leslie like a big baby. Leslie becomes friends with Anne but is sometimes bitter towards her because she is so happy and free when Leslie can never have what Anne does.Annes former guardian Marilla visits her occasionally and still plays an important role in her life. Marilla is present when Anne gives birth to her first child Joyce who dies shortly after birth (as Montgomerys second son did). After the babys death Anne and Leslie become closer as Leslie feels that Anne now understands tragedy and pain-as Leslie puts it her happiness although still great is no longer perfect so there is less of a gulf between them.Later in the story Leslie rents a room in her house to a writer named Owen Ford who is the grandson of the former owners of Annes House of Dreams the Selwyns. Owen who is looking to write the Great Canadian Novel finds the inspiration he was looking for in Captain Jims shipboard diary and transforms it into The Life-Book of Captain Jim. While Owen is finishing the novel he and Leslie independently realize they have feelings for each other but both know they cannot do anything about them. Owen leaves the Island and Leslie is even more miserable being trapped in her marriage to Dick.Gilbert examines Dick Moore and suspects that if Dick underwent surgery on his skull he might recover his faculties. Anne and Miss Cornelia are both opposed to the surgery fearing that Leslies life will become infinitely harder if Dick returns to himself but Gilbert feels obligated to let Leslie know there is a chance for Dick. Leslie consents and Dick undergoes the surgery in Montreal when he awakens he reveals that he is actually Dicks cousin George who accompanied Dick to Cuba and was with him when Dick died of yellow fever twelve years before. George resembles Dick strongly because their fathers were brothers and their mothers were sisters and both had the same peculiar eye coloring abnormality (heterochromia) by which Captain Jim recognized Dick in Cuba years before...