January 21, 2019

Anne of Green Gables



Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1) by L.M. Montgomery
Children's Fiction
1969 The Reyerson Press (first published in 1908)
Finished on January 4, 2019
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

As soon as Anne Shirley arrives at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she is sure she wants to stay forever . . . but will the Cuthberts send her back to to the orphanage? Anne knows she's not what they expected—a skinny girl with fiery red hair and a temper to match. If only she can convince them to let her stay, she'll try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes and blurting out the first thing that comes to her mind. Anne is not like anyone else, the Cuthberts agree; she is special—a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreams of the day when she can call herself Anne of Green Gables.

I have owned my copy of Anne of Green Gables for 50 years! It's a hardcover edition and is sadly missing the dust jacket, but I'm pretty sure it looks like this one.





My copy has an inscription from my godparents who gave me the book for Christmas in 1969. I was eight years old.




I am certain that I read Anne of Green Gables more than just once when I was a child and it has traveled with me from Northern California to Eastern Washington to Southern California, across to Nebraska, down to Texas, back up to Nebraska and out to Oregon. Phew! 16 moves, if my memory is correct. That's a long time to hold on to a book and the only one I've owned for that many years. The only others I've had for almost as long are the Little House (Laura Ingalls Wilder) books.

So, having packed and unpacked this classic for all these years, you would have thought I'd have read it many more times in my adult life, but I don't have any recollection of reading it since I was a child. Was it as good as I remember? I thought it was very good, but the language is more flowery than I remember. Of course, that's a reflection on Anne's character, who is a romantic in every sense of the word. I wasn't bored, as I have been a few times when reading children's literature, but there are a few chapters that felt somewhat slow and plodding. I read a few chapters every night, but looked forward to finishing and moving on to something with a little more depth or tension. With that said, however, I do plan on re-reading Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island sometime in the not too distant future. Sadly, I no longer have my copies and can't imagine what happened to them.

I am also anxious to read the new book about Marilla which was published this past year. It's receiving very good reviews, which is nice to know since it could easily be a disappointment as it isn't written by L.M. Montgomery. 



8 comments:

  1. I've not ever read the Anne books. Not sure why, but I had people who gave me Louisa May Alcott books - Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, An Old Fashioned Girl. I still have all three of those with inscriptions. I need to do a post on those older books with pictures. Think I'll do that. The ones I just pulled off the shelf all came to me in 1967 or 1968.

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    1. Kay, I wonder if I would have known about the book as a young child had I not been born in Canada and had Canadian godparents (who gave me the book). I only owned one book by Alcott (Little Women) and have never gone on to read anything else. Yes, please do a post about your older books!

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  2. I've always felt about Anne of Green Gables - it was good but slow at some points - but I was charmed by Marilla of Green Gables. I hope you love it.

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    1. Kathy, I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed Marilla of Green Gables! It may be one I have to buy rather than borrow from the library.

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  3. Aw, it does my PEI heart happy to have people still enjoying Anne. That's the same edition of A of GG that I have, but I have the box set of the first three books.
    Did you shed a tear at the end?
    I found when I read it as an adult that I appreciate Marilla so much more, and I enjoy the book from her perspective. I found the writing too flowery as a child and always skipped all the nature paragraphs. I mind them less as an adult.
    Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson is another really good play on the Anne books, and really pulled my heart strings. I bawled while reading it, a lot.

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    1. I hope to get to PEI someday! Yes, my heartstrings were certainly tugged at the end of the book and I was once again surprised that Marilla and Matthew were not a couple. I think I grew up thinking they were and was corrected at some point when talking about the book many years ago. Thanks for the recommendation for the Wilson book. I'll have to see if my library has a copy!

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  4. We're going to PEI this summer and Anne of Green Gables has been on my list to read before we get there. I was such an avid reader as a child—I can't believe I never read it! Your timing with this review is perfect for me, thanks! :-)

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    1. Laurel, I can't wait to read your travel posts about PEI!! I am quite envious, but will get there someday. I hope you enjoy the book. There's also a movie and a miniseries that I may watch one of these days.

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