I need more people talking about Katherine Brooke

When I first heard of Spinster September, my mind went immediately to the Anne of Green Gables series. Specifically, to Anne of Windy Poplars, by L.M. Montgomery. I briefly reviewed this installment of the Anne series ten years ago. But, in light of Spinster September, I thought it was time to give the character of Katherine Brooke the attention she deserves.

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What is Spinster September?

The topic #spinsterseptember was started by Nora (@pear.jelly on Instagram and @pear-jelly on BlueSky). It’s a call to celebrate literary spinsters and share their stories. So, of course, with a portion of this blog dedicated exclusively to that topic, I had to get in on it. I’ve been delighted to learn about so many new-to-me books featuring badass solo women. I might just start a Goodreads account to keep up with them all!

I also have a lot to say on the topic, as you might imagine. And the first thing I need to talk about this Spinster September is perhaps my favorite literary spinster of all time, Katherine Brooke.

Who is Katherine Brooke?

In Anne of Windy Poplars, protagonist Anne Shirley moves to Summerside to work at the high school there. She’s been hired as the school’s principal, a position that the vice principal—Katherine Brooke—also applied for. Anne accepts Katherine’s caustic remarks and spiteful behavior, believing that Katherine will warm up to her eventually. But if anything, her anger toward Anne only intensifies.

Katherine is a strange character. She wears odd clothes that don’t flatter her figure or complexion at all. She keeps her hair tied in a basic knot—never wearing it in any particular style. She’s cross with her students and, as a result, earns a bad reputation among them. And while she seems to have a particular dislike for Anne, she isn’t on good terms with any of her colleagues. Though she earns a good salary, she lives in the cheapest, most uncomfortable boarding house available. She seems set on coming across as a miserable person to everyone.

Several people advise Anne to give up making friends with her. But Anne Shirley is not one to back down from a challenge. She is determined to win Katherine over. So, when all her other attempts have failed, she resorts to her last, most desperate option; inviting Katherine to spend the Christmas holiday with her at Green Gables. And when she does, we see this sour old spinster in an entirely different light.

A happily single, miserable woman

After some harsh but honest words, Katherine opens up to Anne enough to accept her invitation to Green Gables. Over the holiday, she reveals why she dresses so poorly, why she lives so humbly, why she acts so acidic, and why she’s hated Anne so much. But she only does so once she learns that Anne spent the first eleven years of her life as an unloved orphan.

It turns out, Katherine was also an unwanted child, who eventually ended up living with her uncle’s family. He agreed to put her through school on the understanding that she would pay him back for everything. It took her years of “scrimping,” but she had just repaid the last of the loan. That explains her shabby clothes and the cheap boarding house.

As to her hatred of Anne, it wasn’t just due to the fact that Anne got the job Katherine wanted. Before visiting Green Gables, Katherine assumed Anne’s life had always been easy. And she resented her for it. When she realizes that Anne can truly empathize with what she’s been through, she’s only too eager to bare her soul and share her griefs.

Spinsterhood re-envisioned

Suddenly, Katherine becomes a sympathetic character. She transforms from a spiteful old crone into a profoundly unhappy woman, desperate to escape a life she feels trapped in. She tells Anne that she can see her life stretching on ahead of her in unrelenting tedium and mediocrity. Her entire life, she’s wanted to travel, but it seems she’ll never leave Prince Edward Island.

For Anne, however, the path ahead is never straight. Instead, there’s always a bend around which a new adventure waits. She insists that Katherine can be happy and have the things she wants. And, surrounded by the Christmastime magic of Green Gables, Katherine begins to wonder if it’s possible.

Anne, who is a 19th century fashionista, insists on getting Katherine into clothes that suit her. I’ve written before about why dressing well is important, and Anne understands the reason. Under her ministrations, Katherine realizes that she isn’t the ugly, dowdy old spinster she’s long believed herself to be. Though she initially brushes it off as good lighting and a borrowed collar, Anne insists she can look this lovely all the time. “There are so many homely people who would actually look quite attractive if they took a little pains with themselves,” she says.

With one event after another, Katherine Brooke begins to develop a new kind of confidence. We learn that:

“Katherine had often wondered bitterly just what it would be like to be happy and now she found out. She bloomed out in the most astonishing way.”

A solo life of limitless potential

The crowning moment comes on Christmas morning, when Anne gifts Katherine a puppy. Anne had secretly persuaded Katherine’s strict landlord to let her have a dog. Now that Katherine has something she can love, she seems to lose all desire to guard her heart against friendship and hope.

So much changed for her over that winter holiday, that Katherine begins to think that anything is possible. In a way, she’s reborn. Anne’s friend lets Katherine hold her baby—something she had never done before. Afterward, she tells Anne:

“It did something to me…the baby, I mean…I haven’t decided just what.”

“Babies are such fascinating creatures,” said Anne dreamily. “The are what I heard somebody at Redmond call ‘terrific bundles of potentialities.’”

That’s what Katherine is over the winter holiday at Green Gables, as she “blooms out.” A brand-new bundle of potentialities.

Why Katherine is my favorite fictional spinster

So, what makes Katherine Brooke my personal pick for Spinster September? The book she’s in, Anne of Windy Poplars, isn’t even about her. She’s a side character with relatively little time on the page. For most of the book, she’s actually an antagonist—a stereotype of the bitter old unmarried woman.

Well, that’s precisely why. One of the reasons I love Katherine Brooke is because she starts out as an angry, resentful spinster. Many of us who end up living for the solo life go through a period of adjustment. Katherine doesn’t want to be married, yet she resents Anne for being wanted where she was not. She hates teaching, yet that was one of the only professions available to women in Canada at the time, so that’s what she does. Her life is the result of dozens of compromises. So by the time she meets Anne, she feels that she will be in this unsatisfying situation for the rest of her life.

Her life is not as bad as it could have been—she isn’t married and she isn’t dependent any longer—but it’s barely endurable. Yet it’s not truly because of her status as a spinster. After all, Katherine remains resolutely unmarried and childfree. Instead, it’s because, as she puts it, she never learned how to live.

Many of us don’t. There aren’t many models to follow for those who choose the solo life. But we get one in Katherine Brooke.

From isolation to adventure

As much as I work to show that living a solo life can be fulfilling, loneliness (and the cynicism that often follows), is a real hurdle. If left untreated, it can turn anyone into a cold-hearted, closed-off miser. That almost happens to Katherine. But instead, someone reaches out to her and keeps on reaching out until she responds. And from there, Katherine Brooke turns her life around completely.

After returning from Green Gables, Katherine leaves her unfulfilling job and goes back to college to take a secretarial course. Talking to Anne about this new direction, she says, “Life owes me something more than it has paid me and I’m going out to collect it.” When she’s finished, she gets a job working for “a globe-trotting M. P.” Katherine will achieve her dream of seeing the world at last.

Ultimately, she ends up with a life that’s more fulfilling than she had ever imagined. When I think about the solo life, that’s exactly how I see it. Something that has the potential to be devastating, but can end up surpassing any childhood dreams.

September is the time for transformations

I’m so glad Nora started Spinster September. Alliteration aside, September is the perfect month for it. Whether it’s the change in seasons, the return to school, or a lingering sense of gathering in the harvest, my thoughts naturally turn toward the future as winter starts to make its coming known. As a spinster, one’s future is always in one’s own hands, for better and for worse. With a little help from our dear Anne Shirley, Katherine Brooke changed the course of her life for the better. What a lovely reminder to the rest of us.

Who’s your favorite fictional spinster? Let me know in the comments, or tag @the.american.spinster on Instagram or @americanspinster at BlueSky. Don’t forget the #spinsterseptember tag!

Feature image by Oberholster Venita (a.k.a. ArtsyBee)