Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 26: The Story Club Is Formed Summary & Analysis

After the concert, life seems terribly dull to Anne. Aside from some quarrels and rivalries sparked by the event, however, life in Avonlea school soon returns to normal. Later that winter, Anne turns 13. She and Diana walk to school through the woods, wondering what it will be like to be “really grown up” in two years. Two years after that, the girls will be considered old enough to wear their hair up, in adult style. They continue to chat and gossip about their classmates and hopes for the future. Anne has to remind herself not to make “uncharitable speeches” about the classmates she dislikes, like Josie Pye. Mrs. Allan says people should never speak uncharitably of one another, and Anne wants to be just like Mrs. Allan.

The girls take note of their surroundings as they walk—they’re assigned to write a nature-themed composition for Miss Stacy. But Miss Stacy is also requiring them to write an original story soon, and Diana dreads this because she thinks she has no imagination. Anne, on the other hand, has already written her story (“The Jealous Rival; or, In Death Not Divided”) about two maidens named Cordelia and Geraldine. In the story, a handsome young man named Bertram saves Geraldine’s life and proposes to her. (Anne asked her friend Ruby about her older sister’s marriage proposal but decided it was insufficiently romantic, so she made Bertram’s much more flowery.) Meanwhile, Cordelia is secretly in love with Bertram and one day pushes her rival to her death in a river. When Bertram jumps in to save Geraldine, they drown in each other’s arms. Cordelia then goes insane and spends the rest of her life in an asylum.

Diana is deeply impressed by Anne’s story and wishes she had such an imagination. Anne encourages her with the hope that she could cultivate one. She decides they should start a story club in order to practice. At first it’s just the two of them, but eventually it expands to include Jane Andrews, Ruby Gillis, and a few others. Each girl writes one story per week, then reads her story aloud for the others to critique. Anne tells Marilla that she usually has to give the others ideas. Ruby’s stories always have too much romance, Jane’s are too sensible, and Diana’s have too many murders, since she doesn’t know what else to do with her characters. Marilla thinks this all sounds like nonsense, but Anne assures her that the stories are always wholesome and that she insists on putting a moral into each one. (The Allans agree, although when Anne read them her story, they laughed at the wrong moments.)

The club also sent four of the best stories to Aunt Josephine, who said she’d never read anything so amusing. The girls were confused by this reaction, since they’d been trying to be “pathetic.” Anne says that at least she knows the story club is doing something good for the world, which Mrs. Allan says should be everyone’s goal. Anne tells Marilla that Mrs. Allan got into lots of mischief when she was a little girl, and that knowing this encourages her; maybe someday she, too, will be good like Mrs. Allan. Marilla tells her to stop chattering and finish washing the dishes.