I hesitate to sound a little miffed but I am. If you read the last stories of the Dagger series, Ann, you'd have seen that although Lois was confined to the house because of her medical problems she *still* managed to help solve the problem of the stalker/serial killer in "Suspicions" and in "Mother's Day" played a significant part. And at the end we have Clark thinking about how he's missed her as his partner at the Planet and how glad he is that she'll soon be back. I don't think that sounds as if I intend to have her settle down into obscurity, does it?
In the case of Anne of Green Gables, I think you're making the mistake I've seen often these days -- judging a story written in another era by the standards of today. That simply can't be done if you are to evaluate a work like Anne fairly. You have to take the chronology into account. Think about it in another kind of context -- wouldn't a story about the American Revolution be pretty silly if you think that Washington's army could have used a sub while crossing the Deleware instead of boats, or where you say "But why were his men freezing at Valley Forge? Didn't they have space heaters and sleeping bags insulated with synthetic fibers to keep the cold out?" The time in which things happen is all important, as are the mores of that time. If you wrote Anne as a woman of the 21st Century she wouldn't have been even believable set in the context of a century ago. But Anne of Green Gables and the subsequent books are classics. Which says that the author got things just right.
Nan
