Not Always Greener: Marilla of Green Gables

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

Thorndike Press

Pp. 446

In this imagined prequel to the Anne of Green Gables books, Marilla has much in common with Anne. Her relationships with her brother, Matthew, and her friend, Rachel, are explained, and the setting of place and time are clear. At times, however, it becomes confusing as the similarities between Marilla and Anne are great: there is even a parallel story of Marilla’s romantic connection with a Blythe who got away. The author claims she began with the “cryptic un-telling” of a mention in Anne of Green Gables of Marilla telling Anne, “John Blythe was a nice boy. We used to be real good friends, he and I. People called him my beau.”

When Marilla’s mother, Clara, dies in childbirth, her Aunt Izzy continues to stay for a while and Marilla’s life changes irreparably. Aunt Izzy is a strong woman driven by fairness who teaches Marilla to recognise her advantages and privilege. It is on Aunt Izzy that the ‘subplot’ of racism and slavery hangs. In a nod to the Underground Railroad, Aunt Izzy helps people across the border from America to Canada, and introduces Marilla to concepts of self-determinism.

Marilla is not a prototype feminist, but she has got opinions and is prepared to speak her mind. She is highly intelligent, takes her school exit exams early, and gets good results. When John Blythe tells her she is “smarter than any other girl I know”, she is pleased with the compliment and determines that this will be her primary attribute. “Her mother had been virtuous. Izzy was beautiful. She, Marilla, would be smart.” Her thoughts are quite radical in terms of self-identity. “Who said a man or a woman had to be a husband or a wife? Maybe they could simply be, unto themselves. Besides, there were bigger issues in the world than love doves and wedding bells.” Sarah McCoy writes in her Author’s Note, “And now I write again with the hope that readers will understand Marilla for who she is as a woman unto herself… as I am unto mine.” She seems to achieve this ambition.

Sarah McCoy clearly has a great love for the “beloved works” by Lucy Maud Montgomery. In her Author’s Note, she shares, “I wrote from a place of grateful reverence to a fictional landscape that has given me much scope for imagination. I wrote praying each hour that I would honour that world and add to it in a way that would make its creator proud.”

The novel contains instances of homey and rural wisdom, and the chapters have titles like ‘John Blythe Suggests a Walk’, ‘A Return to Hopetown’ or ‘Aunt Izzy and the Three Magi’ This might suggest the novel is intended for a young adult audience, but modern teenagers might not be interested, so it is more likely to be an attempt to copy the style of the original and appeal to the nostalgia of its fans. Sarah McCoy takes a well-loved story and crafts her own version upon it, which is the sincerest form of flattery. It makes sense and it certainly doesn’t do any damage to the originals, although I’m not sure anyone with no previous interest in the Anne Shirley stories will engage with it.

Colleen Dewhurst as Marilla Cuthbert in the CBC Televsion adaptation of Anne of Green Gables