Anne of Windy Poplars ( Anne the Matchmaker) by Rebekah Walton

   As it falls once again, and the cold is starting to move in as the leaves change colors many of us turn to Anne of Green Gables the series of 8 books that LMM wrote with the feeling of fall every so present in the pages. Instead of reading the first book of the series once again, my mind turned to finishing the series. 

      I was reminded that I have yet to finish Anne of Windy Poplars or Anne of Ingelside, and now that I have finished Windy Polars my next venture will be Anne of Ingelside, I have already read Rilla of Ingelside which I would argue is the best book of the series. But, that will be known for sure when I can finish the last books and 2 spin-off books. Which as every fan knows will be the Anne of Ingleside I have mentioned, The Blythes are Quoted, and the Chronicles of Anvolea books. But, while finishing these books is good, I reflect on the fact that adaptations have not been so good over the years.

     

      A lot of the adaptations forget a characteristic of Anne that is mostly present in the later books, the ones after she gets engaged to Gilbert. Anne becomes a matchmaker of sorts in the later books. Anne’s House of Dreams involves Anne looking at others and helping with their romantic lives. I would say that the later books including Anne of Windy Poplars make this Anne’s main job or career in life, yes, Anne teaches school and on occasion writes a story or two, but, those things get a back seat to the work she does on the people of the town. 

     We hardly notice that she quit her job as a teacher because Anne still is very present in the town and she is the same. In any case, all the adaptations seem to overlook this factor, in the Kevin Sullivan series, Anne only deals with Katherine Brooks and the Pringles and does not seem to get anyone together in the 3 movies I have watched. Sure there is one movie that is a prequel/sequel I haven’t watched of the series, but, I don’t know anyone who has and I would argue that Anne being a matchmaker in that movie would be quite odd, so, I doubt it happens. 

     

     Now, we look to the other adaptations, Anne of Anvolea the BBC/ Canadian production in the 1970s. This was a well-made serialized version of Anne of Anvolea and Anne of the Island it does not include any of the other books and so, it does not have Anne as a matchmaker since Anne does not become one until Windy Poplars, then her stories for the most part always involve romances. Anne in Anne with an E is completely different than Anne Shirley Blythe of the books and I have not finished past the 1st season, but, really even if I did the series had taken such a turn that I am not sure you can even include it in the list of Adaptations, because Anne is not Anne. Gilbert is not Gilbert either, but, at that point who even cares you are making a different story. 

      Anne was not traumatized by her youth. And thus, dealt with problems in a very different manner. Also, Anne of Green Gables is not depressing, so, anything that is depressing can not be truly called Anne of Green Gables (the feel is all wrong.). But, besides all that I am still not sure why they did not make Emily of New Moon. It fits better with the tone and if you want a girl that is Emo and likes Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte, Emily of New Moon is the series to do. Plus, you have no real competition for a previous adaptation, since the only adaptation is hardly remembered and not all that hard to beat in terms of being better. 

    Of course, the Anne of Green Gables that is the best is still the Japanese Anime. But, since they only made Anne of Green Gables it is hard for them to put in that Anne became a matchmaker later in life. Other adaptations fall short of including this characteristic of Anne and Anne of Windy Poplars the 1940 version is the same as all the others. They put focus on Anne and the Pringles and ignore people who have little to nothing to do with that plot line. So, where the book solves it but the Pringles take Anne’s gesture as a kind person to be a blackmailed threat, the movie paints the Pringles as won over by Anne making the play evolve around Jen Pringle and then make Katherine a Pringle as well. 

      Also, were they suggesting a romance between Tony and Katherine? I thought those two were cousins in this movie. But, maybe they just had the same last name or were distant enough to get married. I know in Jane Austen’s day you could marry your cousin but, this movie was in 1940 and no one said that anyone could marry their cousin in Canada at that day. Also, by making Elizabeth an orphan, the movie rounds off with Anne and Gilbert getting married and adopting her instead, of the girl leaving with her father.

     

      They condensed the story a lot like they did with Anne of Green Gables and I found myself wondering if LMM had watched this movie too. She had hated the version they made for Anne of Green Gables, at least the second half so much. I understand that maybe they wanted to fix the problem of Poplar probably being too long for a movie, but, I hate to say this since I think Anne the Sequel messed up in so many ways by excluding Roy from the story, (Roy is so important to the books and is a main reason why Anne marries Gilbert.) I think the Kevin Sullivan adaptation did the Katherine Brooks storyline and Jen Pringle storyline better than this version. So, in essence, this movie just continues to mess up and forget that Anne was a matchmaker.