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Anne of Green Gables #1-8
Anne Shirley Complete 8-Book Series
Favorites for nearly 100 years, these classic novels follow the adventures of the spirited redhead Anne Shirley, who comes to stay at Green Gables and wins the hearts of everyone she meets.
Anne Shirley Complete 8-Book Series
Anthology containing:
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
"ŷ Librarian note: I have verified that all 8 books are included as of Nov 2020."
Anne Shirley Complete 8-Book Series
Anthology containing:
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
"ŷ Librarian note: I have verified that all 8 books are included as of Nov 2020."
2042 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1921
8,392 people are currently reading
29.7k people want to read
About the author
L.M. Montgomery
1,995books12.6kfollowersLucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author, best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908.
Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Nov. 30, 1874. She came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario, after her wedding with Rev. Ewen Macdonald on July 11, 1911. She had three children and wrote close to a dozen books while she was living in the Leaskdale Manse before the family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926. She died in Toronto April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Nov. 30, 1874. She came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario, after her wedding with Rev. Ewen Macdonald on July 11, 1911. She had three children and wrote close to a dozen books while she was living in the Leaskdale Manse before the family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926. She died in Toronto April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,812 reviews
August 28, 2007
1.
The original, the classic. I feel like I know every word in this one but it was no less magical in its rereading.
2.
It picks up nicely after the first one with Anne teaching school in Avonlea after Gilbert gives up his post for Anne so she may remain with Marilla and they might keep Green Gables. The arrival of Davy and Dora brings welcome levity after the sad ending of the previous book.
3.
Still rooting for Gilbert. It was heartbreaking watching Anne with Roy. I loved the moment before her graduation from Redmond when she decides to carry Gilbert's lillies instead of Roy's violets. Gilbert's Christmas gift of a pink enamel heart was a sweet throwback to their childhood days.
Ruby's death was just heartbreaking. Diana's wedding was also heartbreaking in a different way. It reminded me of how much growing up can hurt in all its exhileration.
The ending, with Gilbert and Anne in Hester Gray's garden is beautiful and so fitting an end to their old chum days while being a beginning to their courtship.
4.
My least favorite, as most of it is in letter-form from Anne to Gilbert. I love Anne and Gilbert and wished I could see more of the courtship but Gilbert hardly appears here and doesn't even speak. I wish LM Montgomery hadn't omitted Anne's "love letter" pages!
5.
Finally, Anne is Gilbert's bride! A beautiful wedding and they're off to their beautiful house of dreams. I love the new characters introduced: Miss Cordelia, Leslie Moore, Owen Ford, Captain Jim. The Dick/George Moore sideplot is interesting.
Anne's loss of her first baby is sobering but the joy of her second, successful pregnancy makes up for it. I kind of wish "Jem" had been named Matthew James just because I'm partial to dear, sweet Matthew. I'm so glad Marilla and Mrs. Lynde come to visit the little house of dreams. It wouldn't be the same without them. It was especially heartwarming to see Marilla mothering Anne.
6.
This one started to drag a bit because it's much more focused on the kids than Anne. When the last book closed she had one kid, now she has 5 and then 6 when Rilla is born. I just don't like grown-up Anne as much as growing-up Anne, I guess.
Aunt Mary Maria and Christine Stuart are two "new" characters, though we did meet Christine in passing in but she's more fleshed out here. Fleshed out to be annoying, that is. She flirts with Gilbert far too much. I wanted to slap her for Anne. The resolution of the book, with Gilbert reassuring Anne, made laugh because whenever my own husband gets quiet or distant I assume he's plotting how to leave me.
Aunt Mary Maria is intolerable. She's like the anti-Aunt Josephine. Aunt Josephine seemed to be cold and easily angered at first but she thawed quickly. Mary Maria never does. Poor Susan. I don't know if I would have been able to hold back from telling her off and I'm pretty non-confrontational.
7.
Just when I was going to give up on the series because of all the kids, this one redeemed it. Lovely.
8.
I picked this up again and I'm glad I did. Rilla reminded me so much of Anne I now want to get the other post-series books.
The original, the classic. I feel like I know every word in this one but it was no less magical in its rereading.
2.
It picks up nicely after the first one with Anne teaching school in Avonlea after Gilbert gives up his post for Anne so she may remain with Marilla and they might keep Green Gables. The arrival of Davy and Dora brings welcome levity after the sad ending of the previous book.
3.
Still rooting for Gilbert. It was heartbreaking watching Anne with Roy. I loved the moment before her graduation from Redmond when she decides to carry Gilbert's lillies instead of Roy's violets. Gilbert's Christmas gift of a pink enamel heart was a sweet throwback to their childhood days.
Ruby's death was just heartbreaking. Diana's wedding was also heartbreaking in a different way. It reminded me of how much growing up can hurt in all its exhileration.
The ending, with Gilbert and Anne in Hester Gray's garden is beautiful and so fitting an end to their old chum days while being a beginning to their courtship.
4.
My least favorite, as most of it is in letter-form from Anne to Gilbert. I love Anne and Gilbert and wished I could see more of the courtship but Gilbert hardly appears here and doesn't even speak. I wish LM Montgomery hadn't omitted Anne's "love letter" pages!
5.
Finally, Anne is Gilbert's bride! A beautiful wedding and they're off to their beautiful house of dreams. I love the new characters introduced: Miss Cordelia, Leslie Moore, Owen Ford, Captain Jim. The Dick/George Moore sideplot is interesting.
Anne's loss of her first baby is sobering but the joy of her second, successful pregnancy makes up for it. I kind of wish "Jem" had been named Matthew James just because I'm partial to dear, sweet Matthew. I'm so glad Marilla and Mrs. Lynde come to visit the little house of dreams. It wouldn't be the same without them. It was especially heartwarming to see Marilla mothering Anne.
6.
This one started to drag a bit because it's much more focused on the kids than Anne. When the last book closed she had one kid, now she has 5 and then 6 when Rilla is born. I just don't like grown-up Anne as much as growing-up Anne, I guess.
Aunt Mary Maria and Christine Stuart are two "new" characters, though we did meet Christine in passing in but she's more fleshed out here. Fleshed out to be annoying, that is. She flirts with Gilbert far too much. I wanted to slap her for Anne. The resolution of the book, with Gilbert reassuring Anne, made laugh because whenever my own husband gets quiet or distant I assume he's plotting how to leave me.
Aunt Mary Maria is intolerable. She's like the anti-Aunt Josephine. Aunt Josephine seemed to be cold and easily angered at first but she thawed quickly. Mary Maria never does. Poor Susan. I don't know if I would have been able to hold back from telling her off and I'm pretty non-confrontational.
7.
Just when I was going to give up on the series because of all the kids, this one redeemed it. Lovely.
8.
I picked this up again and I'm glad I did. Rilla reminded me so much of Anne I now want to get the other post-series books.
April 18, 2012
Possibly the best series of all time. Truly charming and heartwarming, especially the scene where "Gilbert and Anne are embracing on the bridge" (for further enjoyment this can also be seen in the movie, especially if you are helping with the KVIE Channel 6 fundraiser).
Seriously though, if you enjoyed the movies (with the exception of the third movie which was horrible; I spit on it), I urge you to read these books. There is so much detail and other wonderful characters, like the twins Davey and Dora. And if you are wondering what REALLY happened to Anne as she grew up (since you KNOW that heinous third film could not have gotten it right), read these immediately and be satisfied.
When I originally wrote this review, I had basically one goodreads friend and no readers and so much of this review is an inside joke. Now that so many people are appreciating my “spitting on that horrible last joke of a movie�, I feel I should explain. One night, long ago, before the invention of DVR’s, my best friend was spending the night and we were watching Anne of Avonlea on TV. It was during one of those television drives for viewer support and every so often, they stopped the movie to ask for more money. But our love of Anne was great and we endured the periodic sales pitch until the very end, which as you know if you’ve seen the movie, is a shot of Gilbert and Anne finally, FINALLY, kissing on that lovely bridge. Well, we sighed in bliss as very naïve and romantic 15 years old are wont to do and then, the show cut back to the middle age woman who was spearheading the drive and out of her mouth (and let me stop to tell you she sounded an awful lot like Julia Child, British accent and all, so imagine that voice when you read the next line), came this, “Well, wasn’t that a lovely scene, Gilbert and Anne, embracing on the bridge.� And (again as 15 year olds are wont to do, especially ones who’ve stayed up until after 1am watching Anne and consuming far too much garlic cheesy bread and Dr. Pepper), we collapsed into hysterical laughter. It’s a wonder the rest of the family didn’t wake up. And to this day, we still repeat that line. "Oh, KVIE 6 television drive lady, have you any idea of the impact you’ve had on our lives?�
Seriously though, if you enjoyed the movies (with the exception of the third movie which was horrible; I spit on it), I urge you to read these books. There is so much detail and other wonderful characters, like the twins Davey and Dora. And if you are wondering what REALLY happened to Anne as she grew up (since you KNOW that heinous third film could not have gotten it right), read these immediately and be satisfied.
When I originally wrote this review, I had basically one goodreads friend and no readers and so much of this review is an inside joke. Now that so many people are appreciating my “spitting on that horrible last joke of a movie�, I feel I should explain. One night, long ago, before the invention of DVR’s, my best friend was spending the night and we were watching Anne of Avonlea on TV. It was during one of those television drives for viewer support and every so often, they stopped the movie to ask for more money. But our love of Anne was great and we endured the periodic sales pitch until the very end, which as you know if you’ve seen the movie, is a shot of Gilbert and Anne finally, FINALLY, kissing on that lovely bridge. Well, we sighed in bliss as very naïve and romantic 15 years old are wont to do and then, the show cut back to the middle age woman who was spearheading the drive and out of her mouth (and let me stop to tell you she sounded an awful lot like Julia Child, British accent and all, so imagine that voice when you read the next line), came this, “Well, wasn’t that a lovely scene, Gilbert and Anne, embracing on the bridge.� And (again as 15 year olds are wont to do, especially ones who’ve stayed up until after 1am watching Anne and consuming far too much garlic cheesy bread and Dr. Pepper), we collapsed into hysterical laughter. It’s a wonder the rest of the family didn’t wake up. And to this day, we still repeat that line. "Oh, KVIE 6 television drive lady, have you any idea of the impact you’ve had on our lives?�
April 8, 2017
I estimate that I must have read this series at least fifteen or so times (and that is probably a rather conservative estimate at best), and actually do tend to read it at least once a year (sometimes even more than once if or rather when I need cheering and comfort). I love everything about the Anne of Green Gables series, and that actually tends to for the most part pertain to L.M. Montgomery's fiction in general. However, because her novels and short stories are such personal favourites, I have always found it more than a bit difficult to pen a review (or rather, what I personally would consider an adequate review). I also have the AOGG books listed on my shelves (singly), and will endeavour to write detailed reviews for all of them in the hopefully not too distant future (but that being said, so far, this has only happened with the first two novels, with Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea). However, I can and will say this about L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, namely that it is one of my favourite all time fiction series, and that I highly recommend it to and for anyone (and equally to and for both children and adults).
June 7, 2008
It's unfortunate I didn't discover this series when I was a young girl. I was introduced to Anne (with an 'e') by the PBS Wonderworks series in the mid-80's... And NO, I was no longer a young girl then, but a married woman, I'm THAT Old!!!
So what I'm sayin' is... If you've never read the series... READ IT! Anne is enjoyable at any age. And if you haven't seen the PBS series... SEE IT! It's set in what's quite possibly the most beautiful place in the world, (Prince Edward Island) during a simpler time... You can be quite sure Marilla never had to worry about Anne sending naked pictures to Gilbert via her cell phone. Then again, Marilla had to hand wash her clothes and never had the opportunity to order up dinner using only a phone and the number for Pizza Hut!
So what I'm sayin' is... If you've never read the series... READ IT! Anne is enjoyable at any age. And if you haven't seen the PBS series... SEE IT! It's set in what's quite possibly the most beautiful place in the world, (Prince Edward Island) during a simpler time... You can be quite sure Marilla never had to worry about Anne sending naked pictures to Gilbert via her cell phone. Then again, Marilla had to hand wash her clothes and never had the opportunity to order up dinner using only a phone and the number for Pizza Hut!
April 12, 2011
I dyed my hair red and went on a pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island and cried standing in front of Green Gables. I had deep discussions with one of the tour guides at one of the sites who had gotten her Ph.D in L.M. Montgomery's works and could hold my own because I had read them so many times. These are the books that started my plunge into love for the written word. Anne of the Island is my favorite, Anne of Green Gables is next and then Anne's House of Dreams.
Shelved as 'dnf'
June 5, 2020Anna dai tetti verdi ★★�
Anna di Avonlea ★★�
Anna dell'isola ★★�
Anna dei Pioppi Fruscianti DNF
La casa dei Sogni ★★ 1/2
Anna di Ingleside ★★�
La valle dell'arcobaleno SV
Rilla di Ingleside SV
In questo caso non abbandono la saga perché mi sta facendo schifo o altro, ma perché credo non ci sia nient'altro da dire
In futuro potrei decidere di leggere i due libri mancanti, perché un po' mi sono affezionati ai figli di Anna.
Non recupererò mai invece Anna dei Pioppi Fruscianti.
In generale l'ho trovata un'ottima saga di formazione, ma devo dire che alcuni temi non sono molto attuali
In alcuni casi è femminista, in altri meno. E' figlia del suo tempo.
La serie TV, grazie al fatto che è stata scritta al giorno d'oggi, riesce meglio in questo
Anna di Avonlea ★★�
Anna dell'isola ★★�
Anna dei Pioppi Fruscianti DNF
La casa dei Sogni ★★ 1/2
Anna di Ingleside ★★�
La valle dell'arcobaleno SV
Rilla di Ingleside SV
In questo caso non abbandono la saga perché mi sta facendo schifo o altro, ma perché credo non ci sia nient'altro da dire
In futuro potrei decidere di leggere i due libri mancanti, perché un po' mi sono affezionati ai figli di Anna.
Non recupererò mai invece Anna dei Pioppi Fruscianti.
In generale l'ho trovata un'ottima saga di formazione, ma devo dire che alcuni temi non sono molto attuali
In alcuni casi è femminista, in altri meno. E' figlia del suo tempo.
La serie TV, grazie al fatto che è stata scritta al giorno d'oggi, riesce meglio in questo
December 13, 2007
The greatest children's series of all time, in my opinion, and not just because she spells her name properly: A-N-N-E.
The amazing thing about this series is that almost every girl who has read it so strongly identifies with the main character - girls of completely different personalities. Everyone seems to find something to love about Anne of Green Gables: her love of reading, how he handles having red hair, her adventurous spirit, her constant muddling things. And don't even get me started on Gilbert. A beautiful story of an orphan girl who finds a home and an identity.
A side note: The made for TV miniseries version of these books surprisingly does them justice (with the STRONG exception of "The Continuing Story", that takes place during wartime, where the producers decided to abandon the storyline of the original books, and our beloved Anne for no apparent reason has the gaunt look of a heavy smoker and the theme seems to be 'disillusionment' - what were they thinking?).
The amazing thing about this series is that almost every girl who has read it so strongly identifies with the main character - girls of completely different personalities. Everyone seems to find something to love about Anne of Green Gables: her love of reading, how he handles having red hair, her adventurous spirit, her constant muddling things. And don't even get me started on Gilbert. A beautiful story of an orphan girl who finds a home and an identity.
A side note: The made for TV miniseries version of these books surprisingly does them justice (with the STRONG exception of "The Continuing Story", that takes place during wartime, where the producers decided to abandon the storyline of the original books, and our beloved Anne for no apparent reason has the gaunt look of a heavy smoker and the theme seems to be 'disillusionment' - what were they thinking?).
December 19, 2022
For my review of each book of the series, visit me at
October 5, 2015
While I loved the early books, I really disliked books 5 and 6, which are about Anne as a full grown woman. I read the entire series as an 11-12 year old in the 90s and I just could not get over how disappointing her life ended up to me, given all the promise of her youth and how much she had overcome in her life. As the recent Ann Romney (faux-)controversy has rehashed, feminism doesn't necessarily mean you need to go out into the work force, and yes motherhood is a lovely thing, but I still hated that it seemed to me Anne ended up falling short of her promise. What is the point of going with her through the triumphs of the classroom and her eventual graduation from college as a woman in the early 1900s just to end up at the same finish line as every other woman on the island? Yes, realistically, the time in which it was written didn't really give women a lot of leeway in terms of profession, but with her incredible people skills and intelligence, why didn't she continue her work as a principal or teacher? Is being a doctor's wife (with the privilege of accompanying him to Europe for a conference) and 6 children the best a woman can hope for even in the imagined world of Green Gables?
As a young girl who was thinking of the future and the promise of it, I felt so disappointed and let down at the end of the story. Books are windows into other worlds where we are supposed to be challenged, stimulated and inspired. In my opinion, Montgomery created rare bird with all the promise of stratospheric flight then clipped its wings to keep it close to home.
Ultimate advice: Give your young daughter the first four books but save the last few until life has become less of an open ended promise or she will walk away disappointed.
As a young girl who was thinking of the future and the promise of it, I felt so disappointed and let down at the end of the story. Books are windows into other worlds where we are supposed to be challenged, stimulated and inspired. In my opinion, Montgomery created rare bird with all the promise of stratospheric flight then clipped its wings to keep it close to home.
Ultimate advice: Give your young daughter the first four books but save the last few until life has become less of an open ended promise or she will walk away disappointed.
September 10, 2008
Okay, so all books in the series are not equal--as time passed, Lucy Maud seemed to become more and more fond of ellipses and romantic descriptions--but I cannot overstate the impact these books had on me as a kid. "Anne of Green Gables" was even the inspiration for an independent study project I did in high school about the "girl's story" genre and its emphasis on orphans, self-made women, the moralizing influence of chicks, and how the seemingly-progressive virtues of intelligence, creativity, and education still earned women the ultimate reward of marriage in the end. Even with all I know, I still love these books to death, read them almost annually (especially when I am sick or depressed), and dream of someday visiting PEI and standing on the shore with the wind whipping through my (long, flowing) hair.
June 5, 2021
Tengo que recalcar que cada reseña la escribí al finalizar cada libro y no todas al final, por lo que no sabía lo que ocurríria en los libros posteriores.
1. Anne of Green Gables (5 estrellas)
El primer libro de la saga nos habla de la vida de Anne en sus primeros años en Green Gables y como a causa de un 'error' los hermanos Matthew y Marilla Cuthbert adoptan a una niña huérfana (Anne Shirley) en lugar de a un niño como ellos querían en un principio. y la forma en la cual ella cambia sus vidas por completo.
Comencé a tener interés en esta historia luego de ver la serie 'Anne with an E', que está inspirada en esta serie de novelas. En un principio pensé que la historia de la serie estaba muy relacionada con los libros y, por decirlo de una forma, que cada temporada estaba basada en cada uno de los primeros tres libros, no podía estar más equivocado. Si bien en un principio los eventos que ocurren en los libros son muy similares a los de la serie, cuanto más va pasando el tiempo más se van separando una historia de la otra, para terminar siendo algo completamente diferente, ya que la serie toma temáticas contemporáneas y feministas, mientras que los libros son más tradicionales e infantiles, como debía de esperarse por haberse escrito a principios del siglo XX. Aunque las diferencias me parecieron choqueantes al principio, debido a que no sentía que el libro tuviera la esencia de la serie, después pude valorar y disfrutar ambas versiones de la historia. Y más aún en los libros porque la historia es más extensa, ya que la serie sólo abarca los eventos de tres cuartas partes del primer libro, aproximadamente.
Anne tiene la habilidad de alegrarte el día y en todo el libro te la pasas bien, claro, con la excepción de esos últimos capítulos que son en verdad melancólicos. Aunado a lo anterior, no puedo comprender a las personas que sólo deciden leer el primer libro, con ese final lo que más esperaba era ver como las cosas mejoraban, porque seguro tenían que mejorar. Así que claro que recomiendo seguir con la saga para así poder superar ese final que me dejó con un vacío en el interior.
2. Anne of Avonlea (4 estrellas)
En el segundo libro Anne vivirá nuevas aventuras al lado de los personajes ya conocidos y otros nuevos que harán la vida en Avonlea más interesante. Durante los dos años en los que transcurre el libro, Anne empezará a dar clases a los niños del pueblo por lo que veremos otra perspectiva de esos buenos momentos en la escuela del libro anterior. Dentro de los personajes nuevos sin duda los mejores a mi parecer son los gemelos Dora y Davy, en especial Davy que tiene los momentos más memorables del libro. Puedo ver a este titulo como uno de transición entre el primero y el tercero que tienen una mayor fuerza argumental, por lo que en cuanto al romance entre Anne y Gilbert, no se avanza mucho de la posición en la que ya nos encontrábamos.
3. Anne of the Island (5 estrellas)
El libro tercero es el más romántico de la saga, por lo menos de los que he llegado a leer en este punto, y por lo mismo, en el que se desenvuelve la relación que tanto había estado esperando, y en verdad fue por mucho tiempo porque desde la serie estaba picado con esos dos. Más allá del lado romántico de esta parte de la historia, la relación de Anne con las otras chicas de la Universidad de Redmond me fue muy agradable y me la pasé bien leyendo sus aventuras. Así como en el libro anterior, en este también tengo mi personaje nuevo favorito y esta es Phil, la cual para ser una niña vanidosa, fresa e indecisa, me calló bien desde su primera aparición y también como terminó su pequeño arco argumental.
4. Anne of Windy Poplars (3 estrellas)
Anne of Windy Poplars es el cuarto libro de una serie de ocho que tratan sobre las vivencias de Anne Shirley. Este libro habla concretamente de los tres años que Anne pasará impartiendo clases en Summerside mientras espera a que su prometido termine sus estudios. En este tiempo ella conocerá a muchos nuevos personajes que le agregarán nuevas aventuras a la historia.
Dentro de los cuatro libros que llevo de esta historia, este es el que menos me ha gustado y el único que me ha decepcionado en cierto sentido, ya que pensé que se desarrollaría de una forma diferente, cuando leí la sinopsis y me enteré que el libro consistía en las cartas que Anne le escribía a Gilbert, pensé que sería con el tono romántico y poético que la caracterizan, el problema fue que la autora decidió no mostrarnos esas partes que eran las que más estaba esperando, una lastima. Además de eso, los nuevos personajes no tuvieron un gran efecto en mí al comienzo y fueron introducidos tan rápidamente que no conseguía distinguir quien era quien. Junto con todo lo anterior, Anne en este libro parece ser una persona indispensable para la resolución de problemas, debido a que toda la gente del pueblo la necesitaba y no podían resolver sus asuntos por ellos mismos, al principio estuvo bien, pero con el paso de los capítulos se fue haciendo algo repetitivo y poco realista.
5. Anne's House of Dreams (5 estrellas)
El quinto libro de la serie de Anne me recordó mucho al primero y a o que sentí con este, pero a la vez lo sentí fresco. En el se nos relata una nueva etapa en la vida de Anne en sus primeros años como esposa y en una nueva locación, la casa de sus sueños en Four Winds Point. Como ya es costumbre en la saga, en cada libro Anne concerá a nuesvos personajes, y en este caso estos serán el capitan Jim, Mrs. Cornelia y Leslie, con los que formará una gran amistad. Junto con Gilbert, los cinco tienen una muy buena química. Mi trama preferida fue la relacionada con Leslie y a mi parecer se convierte en una gran candidata a tomar el lugar de Diana como mejor amiga de Anne.
6. Anne of Ingleside (5 estrellas)
Ha sido uno de los que más he disfrutado de la saga, la incorporación de los hijos de Anne le dan un nuevo aire de libro infantil y todos tienen su encanto personal. Me gustó mucho que Lucy se tomara el tiempo para describir a cada uno de ellos, dándole más de dos capítulos personales, donde pude notar que Jem es el que recibió más protagonismo, seguido por Walter, Nan y Di, y en menor medida Rilla, pero también sentí que al pobre Shirley no tubo ningún momento especial, tan olvidado y tan poco sabía de el que ya para gran parte del libro no sabía si era un niño o una niña, ni cual era su apariencia, aunque espero que esto cambie en el siguiente libro. Además de todas las aventuras de los niños de Ingleside, Anne sigue teniendo un papel importante en la historia ahora como matriarca de la familia, donde tendrá que enfrentarse a nuevos desafíos matrimoniales y a saber guiar a sus hijos por el camino del bien.
7. Rainbow Valley (4 estrellas)
Al final en este libro no sudedió lo que pensaba, ya que se concentró más en la historia de los hijos del pastor (Jerry, Faith, Carl y Una) que en los hijos de Anne, pero tampoco me disgustó. El septimo libro de la serie de Anne nos relata las aventuras de los niños de Ingleside y los niños del pastor en Rainbow Valley y los alrededores de Glen St. Mary, enfocandose en su aprendizaje para ser unos buenos niños a los ojos de la comunidad. En general me lo pasé bien leyendolo. Muy divertido pero siento que me faltó ese toque dramático que Lucy M. Montgomery suele poner en sus libros.
8. Rilla of Ingleside (5 estrellas)
El útimo libro de la saga cambia de personaje principal, ahora enfocandose en la hija menor de Anne y Gilbert, la en un principio infantil y despreocupada Rilla. Este es sin duda alguna el libro más serio de todos, donde los acontecimientos de los personajes se ubcaran dentro de la Primera Guerra Mundial la cual traerá consigo graves concecuencias para ellos y para el mundo. Bien dicen que después de la guerra nadie volvió a ser el mismo.
Chronicles of Avonlea (3 estrellas)
Una compilación de cuentos de personajes que viven en Avonlea o pueblos cercanos pero que no son los personajes que conocemos de las novelas (Sólo son nombrados en ciertas ocaciones, a lo más Anne es personaje secundario en el primer cuento y en la segunda colección tiene un poco más de protagonisto en uno pero nada especial). Este último punto me decepcionó bastate, ya que por el nombre yo pensé que justo estos cuentos vendrían a complementar a los personajes que ya conociamos y que con el paso de los libros fueron dejando de aparecer, tal como Marilla o Mrs. Rachel, entre otros. Por lo que en ese sentido me parecio que se desaprovechó una gran oportunidad, aunque es un poco comprensible por el momento en el que la autora lo escribió, creo entre el segundo y tercer libro. Ya mencionado lo anterior también tengo que decir que no todas las historias fueron de mi agrado, unas se me hicieron excesivamente largas y aburridas, otras estan bien y algunas si me gustaron.
Furthere Chronicles of Avonlea (4 estrellas)
Ya para esta nueva colección de cuentos encontré una gran mejora en el desarrollo de las historias, donde el hecho de que la mayoria sean relatadas en primera persona me ayudó a meterme más en la trama y comprender a los personajes, que generalmente me cuesta mucho en los cuentos. También noté que los temas que se trataban eran mucho más serios que en Chronicles of Avonlea, tal vez debido al momento que estaba pasando en el mundo mientas Montgomery los escribía, la Primera Guerra Mundial.
Como conclusión general de toda la obra quiero decir que disfrute cada uno de los momentos que vivi con Anne y que estoy muy satisfecho de haberme atrevido a leer esta saga.
1. Anne of Green Gables (5 estrellas)
El primer libro de la saga nos habla de la vida de Anne en sus primeros años en Green Gables y como a causa de un 'error' los hermanos Matthew y Marilla Cuthbert adoptan a una niña huérfana (Anne Shirley) en lugar de a un niño como ellos querían en un principio. y la forma en la cual ella cambia sus vidas por completo.
Comencé a tener interés en esta historia luego de ver la serie 'Anne with an E', que está inspirada en esta serie de novelas. En un principio pensé que la historia de la serie estaba muy relacionada con los libros y, por decirlo de una forma, que cada temporada estaba basada en cada uno de los primeros tres libros, no podía estar más equivocado. Si bien en un principio los eventos que ocurren en los libros son muy similares a los de la serie, cuanto más va pasando el tiempo más se van separando una historia de la otra, para terminar siendo algo completamente diferente, ya que la serie toma temáticas contemporáneas y feministas, mientras que los libros son más tradicionales e infantiles, como debía de esperarse por haberse escrito a principios del siglo XX. Aunque las diferencias me parecieron choqueantes al principio, debido a que no sentía que el libro tuviera la esencia de la serie, después pude valorar y disfrutar ambas versiones de la historia. Y más aún en los libros porque la historia es más extensa, ya que la serie sólo abarca los eventos de tres cuartas partes del primer libro, aproximadamente.
Anne tiene la habilidad de alegrarte el día y en todo el libro te la pasas bien, claro, con la excepción de esos últimos capítulos que son en verdad melancólicos. Aunado a lo anterior, no puedo comprender a las personas que sólo deciden leer el primer libro, con ese final lo que más esperaba era ver como las cosas mejoraban, porque seguro tenían que mejorar. Así que claro que recomiendo seguir con la saga para así poder superar ese final que me dejó con un vacío en el interior.
2. Anne of Avonlea (4 estrellas)
En el segundo libro Anne vivirá nuevas aventuras al lado de los personajes ya conocidos y otros nuevos que harán la vida en Avonlea más interesante. Durante los dos años en los que transcurre el libro, Anne empezará a dar clases a los niños del pueblo por lo que veremos otra perspectiva de esos buenos momentos en la escuela del libro anterior. Dentro de los personajes nuevos sin duda los mejores a mi parecer son los gemelos Dora y Davy, en especial Davy que tiene los momentos más memorables del libro. Puedo ver a este titulo como uno de transición entre el primero y el tercero que tienen una mayor fuerza argumental, por lo que en cuanto al romance entre Anne y Gilbert, no se avanza mucho de la posición en la que ya nos encontrábamos.
3. Anne of the Island (5 estrellas)
El libro tercero es el más romántico de la saga, por lo menos de los que he llegado a leer en este punto, y por lo mismo, en el que se desenvuelve la relación que tanto había estado esperando, y en verdad fue por mucho tiempo porque desde la serie estaba picado con esos dos. Más allá del lado romántico de esta parte de la historia, la relación de Anne con las otras chicas de la Universidad de Redmond me fue muy agradable y me la pasé bien leyendo sus aventuras. Así como en el libro anterior, en este también tengo mi personaje nuevo favorito y esta es Phil, la cual para ser una niña vanidosa, fresa e indecisa, me calló bien desde su primera aparición y también como terminó su pequeño arco argumental.
4. Anne of Windy Poplars (3 estrellas)
Anne of Windy Poplars es el cuarto libro de una serie de ocho que tratan sobre las vivencias de Anne Shirley. Este libro habla concretamente de los tres años que Anne pasará impartiendo clases en Summerside mientras espera a que su prometido termine sus estudios. En este tiempo ella conocerá a muchos nuevos personajes que le agregarán nuevas aventuras a la historia.
Dentro de los cuatro libros que llevo de esta historia, este es el que menos me ha gustado y el único que me ha decepcionado en cierto sentido, ya que pensé que se desarrollaría de una forma diferente, cuando leí la sinopsis y me enteré que el libro consistía en las cartas que Anne le escribía a Gilbert, pensé que sería con el tono romántico y poético que la caracterizan, el problema fue que la autora decidió no mostrarnos esas partes que eran las que más estaba esperando, una lastima. Además de eso, los nuevos personajes no tuvieron un gran efecto en mí al comienzo y fueron introducidos tan rápidamente que no conseguía distinguir quien era quien. Junto con todo lo anterior, Anne en este libro parece ser una persona indispensable para la resolución de problemas, debido a que toda la gente del pueblo la necesitaba y no podían resolver sus asuntos por ellos mismos, al principio estuvo bien, pero con el paso de los capítulos se fue haciendo algo repetitivo y poco realista.
5. Anne's House of Dreams (5 estrellas)
El quinto libro de la serie de Anne me recordó mucho al primero y a o que sentí con este, pero a la vez lo sentí fresco. En el se nos relata una nueva etapa en la vida de Anne en sus primeros años como esposa y en una nueva locación, la casa de sus sueños en Four Winds Point. Como ya es costumbre en la saga, en cada libro Anne concerá a nuesvos personajes, y en este caso estos serán el capitan Jim, Mrs. Cornelia y Leslie, con los que formará una gran amistad. Junto con Gilbert, los cinco tienen una muy buena química. Mi trama preferida fue la relacionada con Leslie y a mi parecer se convierte en una gran candidata a tomar el lugar de Diana como mejor amiga de Anne.
6. Anne of Ingleside (5 estrellas)
Ha sido uno de los que más he disfrutado de la saga, la incorporación de los hijos de Anne le dan un nuevo aire de libro infantil y todos tienen su encanto personal. Me gustó mucho que Lucy se tomara el tiempo para describir a cada uno de ellos, dándole más de dos capítulos personales, donde pude notar que Jem es el que recibió más protagonismo, seguido por Walter, Nan y Di, y en menor medida Rilla, pero también sentí que al pobre Shirley no tubo ningún momento especial, tan olvidado y tan poco sabía de el que ya para gran parte del libro no sabía si era un niño o una niña, ni cual era su apariencia, aunque espero que esto cambie en el siguiente libro. Además de todas las aventuras de los niños de Ingleside, Anne sigue teniendo un papel importante en la historia ahora como matriarca de la familia, donde tendrá que enfrentarse a nuevos desafíos matrimoniales y a saber guiar a sus hijos por el camino del bien.
7. Rainbow Valley (4 estrellas)
Al final en este libro no sudedió lo que pensaba, ya que se concentró más en la historia de los hijos del pastor (Jerry, Faith, Carl y Una) que en los hijos de Anne, pero tampoco me disgustó. El septimo libro de la serie de Anne nos relata las aventuras de los niños de Ingleside y los niños del pastor en Rainbow Valley y los alrededores de Glen St. Mary, enfocandose en su aprendizaje para ser unos buenos niños a los ojos de la comunidad. En general me lo pasé bien leyendolo. Muy divertido pero siento que me faltó ese toque dramático que Lucy M. Montgomery suele poner en sus libros.
8. Rilla of Ingleside (5 estrellas)
El útimo libro de la saga cambia de personaje principal, ahora enfocandose en la hija menor de Anne y Gilbert, la en un principio infantil y despreocupada Rilla. Este es sin duda alguna el libro más serio de todos, donde los acontecimientos de los personajes se ubcaran dentro de la Primera Guerra Mundial la cual traerá consigo graves concecuencias para ellos y para el mundo. Bien dicen que después de la guerra nadie volvió a ser el mismo.
Chronicles of Avonlea (3 estrellas)
Una compilación de cuentos de personajes que viven en Avonlea o pueblos cercanos pero que no son los personajes que conocemos de las novelas (Sólo son nombrados en ciertas ocaciones, a lo más Anne es personaje secundario en el primer cuento y en la segunda colección tiene un poco más de protagonisto en uno pero nada especial). Este último punto me decepcionó bastate, ya que por el nombre yo pensé que justo estos cuentos vendrían a complementar a los personajes que ya conociamos y que con el paso de los libros fueron dejando de aparecer, tal como Marilla o Mrs. Rachel, entre otros. Por lo que en ese sentido me parecio que se desaprovechó una gran oportunidad, aunque es un poco comprensible por el momento en el que la autora lo escribió, creo entre el segundo y tercer libro. Ya mencionado lo anterior también tengo que decir que no todas las historias fueron de mi agrado, unas se me hicieron excesivamente largas y aburridas, otras estan bien y algunas si me gustaron.
Furthere Chronicles of Avonlea (4 estrellas)
Ya para esta nueva colección de cuentos encontré una gran mejora en el desarrollo de las historias, donde el hecho de que la mayoria sean relatadas en primera persona me ayudó a meterme más en la trama y comprender a los personajes, que generalmente me cuesta mucho en los cuentos. También noté que los temas que se trataban eran mucho más serios que en Chronicles of Avonlea, tal vez debido al momento que estaba pasando en el mundo mientas Montgomery los escribía, la Primera Guerra Mundial.
Como conclusión general de toda la obra quiero decir que disfrute cada uno de los momentos que vivi con Anne y que estoy muy satisfecho de haberme atrevido a leer esta saga.
October 19, 2018
Excellent
Read
December 21, 2007I really have read pretty much everything by L.M. Montgomery, much to my eternal geekiness-- she was my absolute favorite author growing up, and I devoured everything the public library had to offer. Anne started it, of course, but the Emily books and The Blue Castle have become my favorites.
Anne, however, is very dear to my heart, and I shall not disparage it in the slightest. Rainbow Valley and Anne of Windy Poplars are probably my least favorites, but I know her heart wasn't really in them. I have always had a soft spot for Anne's House of Dreams and Anne of the Island-- Leslie Moore and Phil Gordon are two of my all-time favorite side characters. I am a little less fond of Anne of Avonlea, mostly because I find the twins hit or miss. Rilla of Ingelside is interesting because we really see Montgomery as a mature writer and woman, and I've come to quite like Rilla as the heroine.
Anne of Ingelside is essentially some of her short stories padded with snippets about Anne-- I consider it and Road to Yesterday to be in the same league, although AoI has some darker undertones that I quite like, hints of the adult world and sexuality that belongs more in the Emily books.
Anne of Green Gables is one of the most perfect novels I have ever read. Period, end stop.
Anne, however, is very dear to my heart, and I shall not disparage it in the slightest. Rainbow Valley and Anne of Windy Poplars are probably my least favorites, but I know her heart wasn't really in them. I have always had a soft spot for Anne's House of Dreams and Anne of the Island-- Leslie Moore and Phil Gordon are two of my all-time favorite side characters. I am a little less fond of Anne of Avonlea, mostly because I find the twins hit or miss. Rilla of Ingelside is interesting because we really see Montgomery as a mature writer and woman, and I've come to quite like Rilla as the heroine.
Anne of Ingelside is essentially some of her short stories padded with snippets about Anne-- I consider it and Road to Yesterday to be in the same league, although AoI has some darker undertones that I quite like, hints of the adult world and sexuality that belongs more in the Emily books.
Anne of Green Gables is one of the most perfect novels I have ever read. Period, end stop.
April 25, 2021
4,5 estrellas.
dios QUÉ DECIR de estos hermosos libros.
amé cada uno de ellos, con todo mi corazón, no hay uno que realmente no me haya gustado. todos tenían su toque que me hacía amarlo. no me arrepiento para nada de haberlos comprado, porque pude conocer lo que pasaba en la vida de Anne después de lo que pasa en las tres temporadas de la serie, Anne with an e, que es la mejor serie que ví.
a pesar de que la serie sí me gustó más q los libros, porque incluye muchos más temas como el feminismo, racismo, etc, obviamente me sitúo en el contexto y año en el que la autora escribió los libros (hace 100 años LITERALMENTE) y entiendo que no sean iguales a la serie.
como dije, estos libros los amo y a medida que avanzaba la saga me iba encariñando más y más con los anteriores, son como hijitos para mi😭 y creo q nunca los voy a vender y los voy a atesorar siempre .'(
voy a estar eternamente agradecida con Anne, porque ella me hizo observar más las flores, los árboles, la naturaleza en general y apreciar más su belleza, y también le agradezco a la escritora, que creó a este pedazo de personaje y me dió el privilegio de conocerlo.
GRACIAS LUCY MAUD MONTGOMEY GRACIAS ANNE AMO A LAS MUJERES.
dios QUÉ DECIR de estos hermosos libros.
amé cada uno de ellos, con todo mi corazón, no hay uno que realmente no me haya gustado. todos tenían su toque que me hacía amarlo. no me arrepiento para nada de haberlos comprado, porque pude conocer lo que pasaba en la vida de Anne después de lo que pasa en las tres temporadas de la serie, Anne with an e, que es la mejor serie que ví.
a pesar de que la serie sí me gustó más q los libros, porque incluye muchos más temas como el feminismo, racismo, etc, obviamente me sitúo en el contexto y año en el que la autora escribió los libros (hace 100 años LITERALMENTE) y entiendo que no sean iguales a la serie.
como dije, estos libros los amo y a medida que avanzaba la saga me iba encariñando más y más con los anteriores, son como hijitos para mi😭 y creo q nunca los voy a vender y los voy a atesorar siempre .'(
voy a estar eternamente agradecida con Anne, porque ella me hizo observar más las flores, los árboles, la naturaleza en general y apreciar más su belleza, y también le agradezco a la escritora, que creó a este pedazo de personaje y me dió el privilegio de conocerlo.
GRACIAS LUCY MAUD MONTGOMEY GRACIAS ANNE AMO A LAS MUJERES.
October 6, 2007
I don't know how I made it through my childhood without reading Anne of Green Gables. But one winter while stuck indoors with my two young children during a very long Montreal winter, I read the whole series. It was like sunshine to my soul, and the images of Anne jumping on the bed not knowing frail little granny was lying on the covers, the image of her getting goose down all over her black dress while she was trying so hard to clean a pillow (or blanket?) and having her crush show up...I laughed harder that winter than I did all year. I might have some of the details mixed up, but Montgomery's inimitable wit and humor have stayed with me all these years.
August 6, 2022
3.8 average for the series.
August 9, 2015
Ok this is right now!! Of course I read every one of these years ago and loved them !!
August 14, 2024
A delightful reread--this series took me back to my teens and twenties. I found more substance and artistry than I expected. Anne of Windy Poplars, the most episodic in structure, might be the weakest in the series. Rilla of Ingleside is a surprisingly poignant novel set in World War I.
I remembered Montgomery's light-hearted, perceptive exploration of human foibles but forgot about the coastal settings, strong class structures, and scriptural allusions at every turn.
I remembered Montgomery's light-hearted, perceptive exploration of human foibles but forgot about the coastal settings, strong class structures, and scriptural allusions at every turn.
February 8, 2017
5 Cranky Stars
Precocious, ginger haired, freckle faced 11 year old Anne Shirly explodes into the lives of spinster Marilla and bachelor Matthew Cuthbert, owners of the farm Green Gables in Avonlea on Canada's Prince Edward Island.
The Cutheberts had sent away to the orphanage for a home boy to help aging Matthew with the farm, instead they got Anne who entered their lives like a whirlwind and just stayed there whirling! Anne attracts mishaps and mischief like a magnet but her inherent good humor and good intentions wins the hearts of all who get to know her.
The collection contains 8 novels which follow the life of Anne Shirley from school girl to Collage student to teacher, from girl to young woman. Her courtships and friendships, her trials and successes. Her friendships with a myriad of colorful people. The books tell of the days when children could still be children, when mothers made all their children's clothes and fathers mended their shoes, the days when children had chores to do and did not expect payment for it. When life was lived and not raced through; initially no phones but letters written between friends, no planes or motor cars, people walked or traveled by horse drawn vehicles, long distances were traveled by train or boat.
The 8 novels cover Anne's childhood, her marriage, becoming a mother and experiencing devastating loss. The later books concentrate more on Anne's children but she remains a central figure in all of them.
I last read these books as a teenager and my decision to reread them was a treat to myself, the books are written in the beautiful language of the time and the author had a lovely descriptive way of getting her stories told. I highly recommend reading these books either for the first time or re-reading them. Literature that has stood the test of time.
Charming, uplifting, the collection deserves 5 stars, collectively and individually.
June 7, 2009
The reasons I don't like Anne of Green Gables:
1. She has to spell her name with an e. (She is pretentious.)
2. She doesn't like her red hair (Unrealistic. Every red-head I have ever talked to loved their red hair)
3. She isn't very forgiving (It took her how long to forgive Gilbert? Even though she did worse things to him and he forgave her.)
4. The books don't have a driving plot. (They just wander and meander.)
1. She has to spell her name with an e. (She is pretentious.)
2. She doesn't like her red hair (Unrealistic. Every red-head I have ever talked to loved their red hair)
3. She isn't very forgiving (It took her how long to forgive Gilbert? Even though she did worse things to him and he forgave her.)
4. The books don't have a driving plot. (They just wander and meander.)
December 6, 2021
لكل عشاق آن من المرتفعات الخضراء، إليكم الترجمة الكاملة باللغة العربية للجزء الثاني: بعنوان "آن في آفونلي"
رابط التحميل :
أو
رابط التحميل :
أو
January 26, 2021
I loved this series!
Read
November 29, 2021Love it!
April 5, 2022
one of my favourites!!! my fav character is Anne
September 4, 2020
Anne Stories
Most classic literature by women authors is reflection of their collected wisdom through their lives, and the morality and ethics of the writing follows a lifeblood path as do the romances, rather than a study and a fancy clubbed together.
This set of tales was probably serialized originally, especially the second one on, from the tone of separate chapters - each a complete story, and yet they follow smoothly, flowing quite nicely one after another together.
The titles seem to indicate Anne's progress in life via the procession of widening circles they indicate - the house, the village, the island, and then they go specifying again, with house her home, and it's location.
One exasperation for a reader would be, when tempted by the beautiful descriptions of various places, one looks for just where it all is - and the place doesn't exist, or at least pieces don't match. Names are taken from wherever the author liked, and while descriptions might fit a place, it's hard to find just where any of them exists on maps.
............
............
Anne of Green Gables
The book begins with Mrs. Rachel Lynde, who is as much antithesis of Elizabeth from Elizabeth's German Garden as could be. That, one supposes after the protagonist appears, was a little bitter dose so the cherry cake Anne is that much more astounding, taking one by complete surprise.
It's a surprise that the protagonist is a little orphan girl arriving fresh at the home named Green Gables, rather than the woman of indeterminate age one sees on the cover, but that passes. Before long, before one knows, one is deep in comfort with Anne's world. The book is about halfway before one realises she's not going to be grown up in this volume, the author being in no hurry, and one is to enjoy the girlhood and the world thereof, with school and friends, teachers and walks in woods, and not talking to boys who are interested in one.
Nice to have descriptions of loveliness of nature and seasons strewn all over, but characterisation are good, and one expects Anne would grow out of hating Gilbert Blythe, which she is more than done already, long before they tie for top at entrance exam to Queen's.
And they are friends just as this ends, bringing satisfaction to reader despite the tragedy that smites in the silent Matthew departing and Marilla dealing with more.
June 26, 2020 - July 01, 2020.
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Anne of Avonlea
Here we have Anne's career as a schoolteacher and beginning of society of her generation of Avonlea, with Gilbert Blythe now her close friend, apart from Diana (now courted by Fred Wright), and other schoolmates that had been at Queen's.
Her life now moreover is already centred on children, her pupils at school and twins at home who are Marilla's cousins.
Anne and her friends try to improve Avonlea by getting people to improve their properties and fronts, fences and sidewalks, but are confronted by unexpected problems, from mixups leading to a hall painted bright blue instead of green, to serious horrors looming in shape of people renting their fences for advertisements.
Anne lingers in girlhood, woods and flowers and children, with Gilbert still only a friend, although she's become aware he's growing out of boyhood. Her first acquaintance with the phenomenon of love is via a love story of two people of a prior generation, one a father of a favourite student and another she discovers living in a lovely house far out of the village, surrounded by a forest anne is enchanted with; the now middle aged woman finds a kindred spirit in the young boy so like his father, the love of her life.
And the romance does blossom, with Stephen Irving returning to marry Lavender Lewis finally, after Paul writes him about meeting her. But Marilla has the sensible comment:-
""I can't see that it's so terribly romantic at all," said Marilla rather crisply. Marilla thought Anne was too worked up about it and had plenty to do with getting ready for college without "traipsing" to Echo Lodge two days out of three helping Miss Lavendar. "In the first place two young fools quarrel and turn sulky; then Steve Irving goes to the States and after a spell gets married up there and is perfectly happy from all accounts. Then his wife dies and after a decent interval he thinks he'll come home and see if his first fancy'll have him. Meanwhile, she's been living single, probably because nobody nice enough came along to want her, and they meet and agree to be married after all. Now, where is the romance in all that?""
Exactly what those not fooled by the candy floss KJ copy, KKHH, thought. But meanwhile Anne is being sent off to college after all by Marilla, and that's the end of this part of the story and of her teaching Avonlea school for now, with a possible glimmer of romance with Gilbert Blythe on horizon.
July 01, 2020 - July 07, 2020.
............
Anne of the Island
One must give credit for continuity of the narrative that it picks up exactly where it left off, strengthening the guess that these were serialised writings published in periodicals before a suitable bunch was published as a book, rather than individual books published at intervals.
Changes are smooth - Diana Barry, engaged to Fred Wright back in Avonlea, has another path in life, and Priscilla Grant, familiar since Queen's, is now close friend and companion of Anne, who is at Redmond college at kingsport in Nova Scotia along with Gilbert Blythe and another Avonlea boy, Charlie Sloane. And now they meet Philippa Gordon from Bolingbroke, NS, where Anne originated.
Letters from Avonlea secured her life at college.
"Mrs. Lynde had more time than ever to devote to church affairs and had flung herself into them heart and soul. She was at present much worked up over the poor "supplies" they were having in the vacant Avonlea pulpit.
""I don't believe any but fools enter the ministry nowadays," she wrote bitterly. "Such candidates as they have sent us, and such stuff as they preach! Half of it ain't true, and, what's worse, it ain't sound doctrine. The one we have now is the worst of the lot. He mostly takes a text and preaches about something else. And he says he doesn't believe all the heathen will be eternally lost. The idea! If they won't all the money we've been giving to Foreign Missions will be clean wasted, that's what! Last Sunday night he announced that next Sunday he'd preach on the axe-head that swam. I think he'd better confine himself to the Bible and leave sensational subjects alone. Things have come to a pretty pass if a minister can't find enough in Holy Writ to preach about, that's what. What church do you attend, Anne? I hope you go regularly. People are apt to get so careless about church-going away from home, and I understand college students are great sinners in this respect. I'm told many of them actually study their lessons on Sunday. I hope you'll never sink that low, Anne."
This book is about change experienced through college years, with summers spent at home in Avonlea even as home is coming to be in two places. And instead of it being limited to light frolic and serious study - which is there, of course, with a couple of exasperating and very unexpected proposals Anne has to turn down, and a attempt at story writing that ends in disappointment at rejection by publishers - there is serious life too, with death of a beautiful friend from school, experienced deeply by Anne. And the anticlimactic winning of story competition because Diana Barry sent the story in without telling Anne, modifying it to suit the advertising of a baking powder, and Anne consequently winning twenty five dollars, to her great mortification! Splendid!
It only gets better thereafter, with millionaire neighbour asking to buy Mrs Lynde's gift of tulip patchwork quilt from Anne, the cats, and Aunt Jamesina, at Patty's Place. There's the very rich, beautiful and brainy Phillipa Gordon sharing this new home and consequently learning frugal life, and saying shopping for groceries was more fun than parties with beaux fighting over her.
It ends well, with several satisfactory weddings, and finally uniting Gilbert Blythe with Anne, after she's had every chance at her romantic fancies - refusing him, meeting the dark handsome Roy Gardner who promptly falls in love and courts her and proposes after graduation, realising she didnt love him, and finally understanding that she could only love Gilbert - so it's quite satisfactory.
July 07, 2020 - July 09, 2020.
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Anne's House of Dreams
Three years have passed between where the last volume ends and this begins, and Anne has taught school at Summerside while Gilbert Blythe finished his medical school. Their wedding is set and he's to join his great uncle's practice or rather take it over, at Four Winds Point, and he's found a dream house for them - hence the title. Diana Wright, who'd had her son Fred as the last volume ends, meanwhile has a two year old daughter called Small Anne Cordelia, mystifying Avonlea. There's a beautiful wedding in the orchard, with Allens presiding and Philippa Gordon's husband Jonas Blake leading a prayer, a bird singing through it all.
Marilla keeps in her grief at Anne no longer living at Green Gables, and expecting her to visit no longer through every vacation, after the fourteen years of lighting up Marilla's life with love. But Anne's friends - Diana with babies, Allans and Irvings - stay through the evening to supper, comforting them, and the twins are grown and taking over. Marilla might grieve Anne, but she won't be left lonely.
Anne's new home, unlike Green Gables, is close to harbour, and it's her first close acquaintance with the ocean with its might, beauty and more. The author compares the difference of woods verses ocean as human society versus mighty lonely soul, and one gets a feeling on the other hand that a veiled comparison here is that of childhood versus adult life - woods being comparatively safe, comfy, beautiful, while ocean has all the unpredictability and lurking dangers one might encounter in life as adults. A glimpse thereof is already in the previous volume, where Anne meets her perfect romantic fantasy in Roy on seaside walk in heavy storm, and is brought back to the same spot by him when he proposes. Gilbert, on the other hand, proposes both times in woods, in a park first and in an overgrown garden finally. She rejects Roy and the uncertainty, because she realises she doesn't love him; she realises she loves Gilbert Blythe before he proposes again, and faces life in a harbour in a home facing the ocean - in secure company of the love and security thereof that she found in woods.
In a way, this progression runs parallel to that of her life moving from village of Avonlea to the college life in town of Kingsport, and then to the harbour of Four Winds, signifying possibilities of global travel and adventures.
This volume is as much about the beauty of a harbour as it's about the stunningly beautiful neighbour of Anne and Gilbert Blythe, Leslie Moore, and her travails, the very lovable Captain Jim whose life's story is entrusted to Owen Ford the incredibly handsome author, and it's all woven together in reflections somehow of light and ocean, mist and shore, lighthouse and garden. The resolution of it all is unexpected too, and answers the question one wonders about, which is, why isn't there more about the twins and Marilla and so on.
It's because they are there, doing fine, but life moves on, and Anne's life is blossoming. She and Gilbert are to buy a larger house with property across the harbour so it's convenient, and Owen Ford is buying the little house of drems so he and his bride Leslie can have vacations there.
July 09, 2020 - July 12, 2020.
............
Rainbow Valley
By the time one begins this one, one is hooked. Then comes the surprise, of Rainbow Valley - the title corresponding more to the various chikdren portrayed than the valley unseen by the reader, hence quite misty.
Now thirteen years have lapsed, Anne is a mother of half a dozen, the eldest who looks like both parents born before the family shifted at the end of the last one; next son a dreamer like Anne, twin daughters Anne and Diana who look one each like one of the parents except its diana who takes her mother's colouring, the youngest a six year old daughter Rilla - short, presumably, for Marilla - in Anne's own image, and another son; and the household at Ingleside still retains Susan Baker for housekeeping and cooking, while Cornelia Bryant - who'd married Marshall Elliott after Liberals won and he got a haircut and a shave, after seventeen years - still visits regularly. And Mrs rachel lynde disapproves of Susan pampering the children. The Blythe couple has been to Europe for summer as this opens and left children in Avonlea except one whom Susan kept, since he's her pet. Their gossip session is how the author introduces next batch of characters and their histories, characters and more.
There is a new minister, and the four Meredith children make friends with the Blythe children while the latter picnic at Rainbow Valley, so named by them because they saw a rainbow stretch over it once. Here the author has a variation of the Avonlea woods for Anne's children.
And then the Meredith children find a starving orphan and adopt her for a while, with no adult any wiser, before Cornelia Bryant steps in to correct the situation - and is coaxed by Una Meredith into adopting her! So now we have a kaleidoscope of variations of the original Anne, none quite like her, and some even boys. The author is far more comfortable with children, unless it was readers who steered the author. Anne is now in background, with occasional comments from her, in conversations with Gilbert Blythe, Susan, Cornelia Bryant and others.
Cornelia Bryant continues to be the window for a reader not well versed in politics of churches, politics between communities of different churches, and what's considered propriety, which are all startling if one assumed any of it had anything to do with values such as truth, humanity, or kindness. Hence the Meredith children being always in soup despite their goodness.
Trust Anne to set the gossipers right, and point out that Meredith family is an extraordinary collection of people with rare virtues.
The author ends the book with a double wedding in immediate future, Anne's eldest Jem going off to Queen's soon, and gives a hint of the impending WWI that none of them have foreseen, except for Ellen West, sister of Rosemary, the soon to be new Mrs Meredith.
July 12, 2020 - July 14, 2020.
............
Rilla of Ingleside
............
Chronicles of Avonlea
............
Further Chronicles of Avonlea
............
The Story Girl
............
The Golden Road
............
Kilmeny of the Orchard
............
The Watchman and Other Poems
............
The Short Story Collection
.........
.........
Most classic literature by women authors is reflection of their collected wisdom through their lives, and the morality and ethics of the writing follows a lifeblood path as do the romances, rather than a study and a fancy clubbed together.
This set of tales was probably serialized originally, especially the second one on, from the tone of separate chapters - each a complete story, and yet they follow smoothly, flowing quite nicely one after another together.
The titles seem to indicate Anne's progress in life via the procession of widening circles they indicate - the house, the village, the island, and then they go specifying again, with house her home, and it's location.
One exasperation for a reader would be, when tempted by the beautiful descriptions of various places, one looks for just where it all is - and the place doesn't exist, or at least pieces don't match. Names are taken from wherever the author liked, and while descriptions might fit a place, it's hard to find just where any of them exists on maps.
............
............
Anne of Green Gables
The book begins with Mrs. Rachel Lynde, who is as much antithesis of Elizabeth from Elizabeth's German Garden as could be. That, one supposes after the protagonist appears, was a little bitter dose so the cherry cake Anne is that much more astounding, taking one by complete surprise.
It's a surprise that the protagonist is a little orphan girl arriving fresh at the home named Green Gables, rather than the woman of indeterminate age one sees on the cover, but that passes. Before long, before one knows, one is deep in comfort with Anne's world. The book is about halfway before one realises she's not going to be grown up in this volume, the author being in no hurry, and one is to enjoy the girlhood and the world thereof, with school and friends, teachers and walks in woods, and not talking to boys who are interested in one.
Nice to have descriptions of loveliness of nature and seasons strewn all over, but characterisation are good, and one expects Anne would grow out of hating Gilbert Blythe, which she is more than done already, long before they tie for top at entrance exam to Queen's.
And they are friends just as this ends, bringing satisfaction to reader despite the tragedy that smites in the silent Matthew departing and Marilla dealing with more.
June 26, 2020 - July 01, 2020.
............
Anne of Avonlea
Here we have Anne's career as a schoolteacher and beginning of society of her generation of Avonlea, with Gilbert Blythe now her close friend, apart from Diana (now courted by Fred Wright), and other schoolmates that had been at Queen's.
Her life now moreover is already centred on children, her pupils at school and twins at home who are Marilla's cousins.
Anne and her friends try to improve Avonlea by getting people to improve their properties and fronts, fences and sidewalks, but are confronted by unexpected problems, from mixups leading to a hall painted bright blue instead of green, to serious horrors looming in shape of people renting their fences for advertisements.
Anne lingers in girlhood, woods and flowers and children, with Gilbert still only a friend, although she's become aware he's growing out of boyhood. Her first acquaintance with the phenomenon of love is via a love story of two people of a prior generation, one a father of a favourite student and another she discovers living in a lovely house far out of the village, surrounded by a forest anne is enchanted with; the now middle aged woman finds a kindred spirit in the young boy so like his father, the love of her life.
And the romance does blossom, with Stephen Irving returning to marry Lavender Lewis finally, after Paul writes him about meeting her. But Marilla has the sensible comment:-
""I can't see that it's so terribly romantic at all," said Marilla rather crisply. Marilla thought Anne was too worked up about it and had plenty to do with getting ready for college without "traipsing" to Echo Lodge two days out of three helping Miss Lavendar. "In the first place two young fools quarrel and turn sulky; then Steve Irving goes to the States and after a spell gets married up there and is perfectly happy from all accounts. Then his wife dies and after a decent interval he thinks he'll come home and see if his first fancy'll have him. Meanwhile, she's been living single, probably because nobody nice enough came along to want her, and they meet and agree to be married after all. Now, where is the romance in all that?""
Exactly what those not fooled by the candy floss KJ copy, KKHH, thought. But meanwhile Anne is being sent off to college after all by Marilla, and that's the end of this part of the story and of her teaching Avonlea school for now, with a possible glimmer of romance with Gilbert Blythe on horizon.
July 01, 2020 - July 07, 2020.
............
Anne of the Island
One must give credit for continuity of the narrative that it picks up exactly where it left off, strengthening the guess that these were serialised writings published in periodicals before a suitable bunch was published as a book, rather than individual books published at intervals.
Changes are smooth - Diana Barry, engaged to Fred Wright back in Avonlea, has another path in life, and Priscilla Grant, familiar since Queen's, is now close friend and companion of Anne, who is at Redmond college at kingsport in Nova Scotia along with Gilbert Blythe and another Avonlea boy, Charlie Sloane. And now they meet Philippa Gordon from Bolingbroke, NS, where Anne originated.
Letters from Avonlea secured her life at college.
"Mrs. Lynde had more time than ever to devote to church affairs and had flung herself into them heart and soul. She was at present much worked up over the poor "supplies" they were having in the vacant Avonlea pulpit.
""I don't believe any but fools enter the ministry nowadays," she wrote bitterly. "Such candidates as they have sent us, and such stuff as they preach! Half of it ain't true, and, what's worse, it ain't sound doctrine. The one we have now is the worst of the lot. He mostly takes a text and preaches about something else. And he says he doesn't believe all the heathen will be eternally lost. The idea! If they won't all the money we've been giving to Foreign Missions will be clean wasted, that's what! Last Sunday night he announced that next Sunday he'd preach on the axe-head that swam. I think he'd better confine himself to the Bible and leave sensational subjects alone. Things have come to a pretty pass if a minister can't find enough in Holy Writ to preach about, that's what. What church do you attend, Anne? I hope you go regularly. People are apt to get so careless about church-going away from home, and I understand college students are great sinners in this respect. I'm told many of them actually study their lessons on Sunday. I hope you'll never sink that low, Anne."
This book is about change experienced through college years, with summers spent at home in Avonlea even as home is coming to be in two places. And instead of it being limited to light frolic and serious study - which is there, of course, with a couple of exasperating and very unexpected proposals Anne has to turn down, and a attempt at story writing that ends in disappointment at rejection by publishers - there is serious life too, with death of a beautiful friend from school, experienced deeply by Anne. And the anticlimactic winning of story competition because Diana Barry sent the story in without telling Anne, modifying it to suit the advertising of a baking powder, and Anne consequently winning twenty five dollars, to her great mortification! Splendid!
It only gets better thereafter, with millionaire neighbour asking to buy Mrs Lynde's gift of tulip patchwork quilt from Anne, the cats, and Aunt Jamesina, at Patty's Place. There's the very rich, beautiful and brainy Phillipa Gordon sharing this new home and consequently learning frugal life, and saying shopping for groceries was more fun than parties with beaux fighting over her.
It ends well, with several satisfactory weddings, and finally uniting Gilbert Blythe with Anne, after she's had every chance at her romantic fancies - refusing him, meeting the dark handsome Roy Gardner who promptly falls in love and courts her and proposes after graduation, realising she didnt love him, and finally understanding that she could only love Gilbert - so it's quite satisfactory.
July 07, 2020 - July 09, 2020.
............
Anne's House of Dreams
Three years have passed between where the last volume ends and this begins, and Anne has taught school at Summerside while Gilbert Blythe finished his medical school. Their wedding is set and he's to join his great uncle's practice or rather take it over, at Four Winds Point, and he's found a dream house for them - hence the title. Diana Wright, who'd had her son Fred as the last volume ends, meanwhile has a two year old daughter called Small Anne Cordelia, mystifying Avonlea. There's a beautiful wedding in the orchard, with Allens presiding and Philippa Gordon's husband Jonas Blake leading a prayer, a bird singing through it all.
Marilla keeps in her grief at Anne no longer living at Green Gables, and expecting her to visit no longer through every vacation, after the fourteen years of lighting up Marilla's life with love. But Anne's friends - Diana with babies, Allans and Irvings - stay through the evening to supper, comforting them, and the twins are grown and taking over. Marilla might grieve Anne, but she won't be left lonely.
Anne's new home, unlike Green Gables, is close to harbour, and it's her first close acquaintance with the ocean with its might, beauty and more. The author compares the difference of woods verses ocean as human society versus mighty lonely soul, and one gets a feeling on the other hand that a veiled comparison here is that of childhood versus adult life - woods being comparatively safe, comfy, beautiful, while ocean has all the unpredictability and lurking dangers one might encounter in life as adults. A glimpse thereof is already in the previous volume, where Anne meets her perfect romantic fantasy in Roy on seaside walk in heavy storm, and is brought back to the same spot by him when he proposes. Gilbert, on the other hand, proposes both times in woods, in a park first and in an overgrown garden finally. She rejects Roy and the uncertainty, because she realises she doesn't love him; she realises she loves Gilbert Blythe before he proposes again, and faces life in a harbour in a home facing the ocean - in secure company of the love and security thereof that she found in woods.
In a way, this progression runs parallel to that of her life moving from village of Avonlea to the college life in town of Kingsport, and then to the harbour of Four Winds, signifying possibilities of global travel and adventures.
This volume is as much about the beauty of a harbour as it's about the stunningly beautiful neighbour of Anne and Gilbert Blythe, Leslie Moore, and her travails, the very lovable Captain Jim whose life's story is entrusted to Owen Ford the incredibly handsome author, and it's all woven together in reflections somehow of light and ocean, mist and shore, lighthouse and garden. The resolution of it all is unexpected too, and answers the question one wonders about, which is, why isn't there more about the twins and Marilla and so on.
It's because they are there, doing fine, but life moves on, and Anne's life is blossoming. She and Gilbert are to buy a larger house with property across the harbour so it's convenient, and Owen Ford is buying the little house of drems so he and his bride Leslie can have vacations there.
July 09, 2020 - July 12, 2020.
............
Rainbow Valley
By the time one begins this one, one is hooked. Then comes the surprise, of Rainbow Valley - the title corresponding more to the various chikdren portrayed than the valley unseen by the reader, hence quite misty.
Now thirteen years have lapsed, Anne is a mother of half a dozen, the eldest who looks like both parents born before the family shifted at the end of the last one; next son a dreamer like Anne, twin daughters Anne and Diana who look one each like one of the parents except its diana who takes her mother's colouring, the youngest a six year old daughter Rilla - short, presumably, for Marilla - in Anne's own image, and another son; and the household at Ingleside still retains Susan Baker for housekeeping and cooking, while Cornelia Bryant - who'd married Marshall Elliott after Liberals won and he got a haircut and a shave, after seventeen years - still visits regularly. And Mrs rachel lynde disapproves of Susan pampering the children. The Blythe couple has been to Europe for summer as this opens and left children in Avonlea except one whom Susan kept, since he's her pet. Their gossip session is how the author introduces next batch of characters and their histories, characters and more.
There is a new minister, and the four Meredith children make friends with the Blythe children while the latter picnic at Rainbow Valley, so named by them because they saw a rainbow stretch over it once. Here the author has a variation of the Avonlea woods for Anne's children.
And then the Meredith children find a starving orphan and adopt her for a while, with no adult any wiser, before Cornelia Bryant steps in to correct the situation - and is coaxed by Una Meredith into adopting her! So now we have a kaleidoscope of variations of the original Anne, none quite like her, and some even boys. The author is far more comfortable with children, unless it was readers who steered the author. Anne is now in background, with occasional comments from her, in conversations with Gilbert Blythe, Susan, Cornelia Bryant and others.
Cornelia Bryant continues to be the window for a reader not well versed in politics of churches, politics between communities of different churches, and what's considered propriety, which are all startling if one assumed any of it had anything to do with values such as truth, humanity, or kindness. Hence the Meredith children being always in soup despite their goodness.
Trust Anne to set the gossipers right, and point out that Meredith family is an extraordinary collection of people with rare virtues.
The author ends the book with a double wedding in immediate future, Anne's eldest Jem going off to Queen's soon, and gives a hint of the impending WWI that none of them have foreseen, except for Ellen West, sister of Rosemary, the soon to be new Mrs Meredith.
July 12, 2020 - July 14, 2020.
............
Rilla of Ingleside
............
Chronicles of Avonlea
............
Further Chronicles of Avonlea
............
The Story Girl
............
The Golden Road
............
Kilmeny of the Orchard
............
The Watchman and Other Poems
............
The Short Story Collection
.........
.........
April 16, 2017
Note: This is a review of Anne's House of Dreams, not the entire set. I may get to that later...
I wanted to review Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery because of one line that affected me deeply the first time I read the book as a child, and that affects me deeply even now.
The Plot
Anne, whom we all know of Green Gables fame, finally marries Gilbert Blythe. Gilbert has graduated from medical school and the young couple will make their home at Four Winds, Prince Edward Island, where Gilbert will take over the practice of his aging uncle. Gilbert has rented a small house for them near the shore and a lighthouse, the perfect house for a newly married couple to start their lives together, filled with all of their dreams.
The House of Dreams has few neighbors in Four Winds: Miss Cornelia Bryant, a sworn man-hater; Captain Jim who runs the light since he can no longer set out to sea and adventures unknown; Lesley Moore, the beautiful young woman forced into an unhappy marriage and then chained to her mentally retarded husband, Dick, trying to eke out a living on her farm; and Owen Ford who boards with Lesley and Dick one summer and sets out to write the “life-book� of Captain Jim.
The plot itself, without revealing too much here, has its high and lows in the lives of Anne and Gilbert and the new friends around them. Montgomery weaves in a little romance, a lot of humor, some tears, and a surprise or two.
The Writing
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been captivated by the image of Montgomery’s Prince Edward Island in my mind. The Nevada desert where I spent my childhood was rather dreary and dusty, without visibly changing seasons. Prince Edward Island came alive for me in all of the Anne books--the beauty and abundance of flowers, tall stately trees, blossoms and brooks, and Victorian hominess. Montgomery’s descriptive prose helped me build my castles in the air, and made me yearn to travel to P.E.I. and see if nature still exists the way that it existed for the author over a century ago.
All of L.M. Montgomery’s books have the same effect on me: I chuckle frequently, laugh hysterically on occasion, and always, always, have at least one good cleansing cry of sorrow and one of joy with every book. I read and re-read most of the Anne books (and the Emily books too) as a child and teenager, and even as an adult knowing full well what will happen, I still laugh and chuckle and cry. If that’s not good writing, then I am no discriminator at all.
Despite all the idyllic descriptions and Anne’s great capacity for having things work out her way, Montgomery addresses a few topics of concern, mostly through connotation rather than outright statements. Leslie is a battered wife. From the lips of the man-hating Miss Cornelia, we hear the plight of many women who are poor, continually pregnant with children they don’t want and can’t support, and simply made slaves to their husbands and families. Montgomery also shows us the unofficial charities that ran through most communities: spinsters who sew clothes for the unwanted babies and watch other people’s children for an hour or so or old men who take in abandoned animals and lend money to those who can’t pay it back. P.E.I. has its problems like the rest of the world and Montgomery weaves them in as well, if the reader pays attention.
Minor Nitpicks (and a few spoilers—you’ve been warned)
Montgomery is a little heavy handed with foreshadowing at the beginning of Anne’s House of Dreams, as with most of the later books in this series. I never noticed when I read this novel repeatedly as a child and I cannot honestly determine whether I think the foreshadowing is heavy-handed because I know what’s going to happen or because I’m a more mature audience than in the past.
In true Victorian style, Montgomery never mentions outright that Anne is pregnant (horrors!), but sticks to euphemisms like, “their hope for the spring.� Now I catch the meaning at the first mention, though I believe I was slightly more obtuse as a child reader. In a way, the Victorian reserve regarding “unmentionable� topics adds to the charm of the novel.
What Gives Me Hope
Spoiler Warning! This section reveals not the ending of the book, but a very major piece of the plot. If you have not read the book already, please skip to the next section. I mean it.
Anne has a difficult time with the birth of her first child, Joy. Besides the danger to Anne herself, the baby is weak and lives but one day. Anne is heartbroken. Although not for the first time in her life, Anne has to deal with her own very real, very traumatic tragedy. Though she has lost people before who are close to her, namely, Matthew, he was an old man, not a new life. Anne who has had a rather large share of happiness, has to learn again that life is not fair.
Yet life goes on. Anne regains her health and aches a little less. One day, Anne smiles again. I thought something would have been missing from Anne’s smile, something that the pain of her loss had taken away and lain in a grave with a little white-gowned baby. Montgomery wrote it thus:
“Anne found that she could go on living; the day came that she even smiled again over one of Miss Cornelia’s speeches. But there was something in the smile that had never been in Anne’s smile before and would never be absent from it again.�
That something, my friends, is in the smile of one who has known tragedy and doesn’t take the joy for granted anymore. That is what restores my hope and why this line sticks in my mind.
Conclusion
Anne and her life are as real to me as my own. I’ve been a spectator throughout her life and the lives of her children. I’ve cried and laughed with her, and dreamed with Anne too. If you escaped childhood without reading any of the Anne of Green Gables novels, then read them now or you will never know all that you’ve missed.
I wanted to review Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery because of one line that affected me deeply the first time I read the book as a child, and that affects me deeply even now.
The Plot
Anne, whom we all know of Green Gables fame, finally marries Gilbert Blythe. Gilbert has graduated from medical school and the young couple will make their home at Four Winds, Prince Edward Island, where Gilbert will take over the practice of his aging uncle. Gilbert has rented a small house for them near the shore and a lighthouse, the perfect house for a newly married couple to start their lives together, filled with all of their dreams.
The House of Dreams has few neighbors in Four Winds: Miss Cornelia Bryant, a sworn man-hater; Captain Jim who runs the light since he can no longer set out to sea and adventures unknown; Lesley Moore, the beautiful young woman forced into an unhappy marriage and then chained to her mentally retarded husband, Dick, trying to eke out a living on her farm; and Owen Ford who boards with Lesley and Dick one summer and sets out to write the “life-book� of Captain Jim.
The plot itself, without revealing too much here, has its high and lows in the lives of Anne and Gilbert and the new friends around them. Montgomery weaves in a little romance, a lot of humor, some tears, and a surprise or two.
The Writing
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been captivated by the image of Montgomery’s Prince Edward Island in my mind. The Nevada desert where I spent my childhood was rather dreary and dusty, without visibly changing seasons. Prince Edward Island came alive for me in all of the Anne books--the beauty and abundance of flowers, tall stately trees, blossoms and brooks, and Victorian hominess. Montgomery’s descriptive prose helped me build my castles in the air, and made me yearn to travel to P.E.I. and see if nature still exists the way that it existed for the author over a century ago.
All of L.M. Montgomery’s books have the same effect on me: I chuckle frequently, laugh hysterically on occasion, and always, always, have at least one good cleansing cry of sorrow and one of joy with every book. I read and re-read most of the Anne books (and the Emily books too) as a child and teenager, and even as an adult knowing full well what will happen, I still laugh and chuckle and cry. If that’s not good writing, then I am no discriminator at all.
Despite all the idyllic descriptions and Anne’s great capacity for having things work out her way, Montgomery addresses a few topics of concern, mostly through connotation rather than outright statements. Leslie is a battered wife. From the lips of the man-hating Miss Cornelia, we hear the plight of many women who are poor, continually pregnant with children they don’t want and can’t support, and simply made slaves to their husbands and families. Montgomery also shows us the unofficial charities that ran through most communities: spinsters who sew clothes for the unwanted babies and watch other people’s children for an hour or so or old men who take in abandoned animals and lend money to those who can’t pay it back. P.E.I. has its problems like the rest of the world and Montgomery weaves them in as well, if the reader pays attention.
Minor Nitpicks (and a few spoilers—you’ve been warned)
Montgomery is a little heavy handed with foreshadowing at the beginning of Anne’s House of Dreams, as with most of the later books in this series. I never noticed when I read this novel repeatedly as a child and I cannot honestly determine whether I think the foreshadowing is heavy-handed because I know what’s going to happen or because I’m a more mature audience than in the past.
In true Victorian style, Montgomery never mentions outright that Anne is pregnant (horrors!), but sticks to euphemisms like, “their hope for the spring.� Now I catch the meaning at the first mention, though I believe I was slightly more obtuse as a child reader. In a way, the Victorian reserve regarding “unmentionable� topics adds to the charm of the novel.
What Gives Me Hope
Spoiler Warning! This section reveals not the ending of the book, but a very major piece of the plot. If you have not read the book already, please skip to the next section. I mean it.
Anne has a difficult time with the birth of her first child, Joy. Besides the danger to Anne herself, the baby is weak and lives but one day. Anne is heartbroken. Although not for the first time in her life, Anne has to deal with her own very real, very traumatic tragedy. Though she has lost people before who are close to her, namely, Matthew, he was an old man, not a new life. Anne who has had a rather large share of happiness, has to learn again that life is not fair.
Yet life goes on. Anne regains her health and aches a little less. One day, Anne smiles again. I thought something would have been missing from Anne’s smile, something that the pain of her loss had taken away and lain in a grave with a little white-gowned baby. Montgomery wrote it thus:
“Anne found that she could go on living; the day came that she even smiled again over one of Miss Cornelia’s speeches. But there was something in the smile that had never been in Anne’s smile before and would never be absent from it again.�
That something, my friends, is in the smile of one who has known tragedy and doesn’t take the joy for granted anymore. That is what restores my hope and why this line sticks in my mind.
Conclusion
Anne and her life are as real to me as my own. I’ve been a spectator throughout her life and the lives of her children. I’ve cried and laughed with her, and dreamed with Anne too. If you escaped childhood without reading any of the Anne of Green Gables novels, then read them now or you will never know all that you’ve missed.
October 10, 2021
Wonderful. Ignore the awful adaptation on Netflix and read the books.
They're beautifully written with well drawn characters, nice plot twists, and some humor. Whoever did the terrible version on Netflix should be ashamed of themselves. They took a lovely series of books and turned them into political propaganda filled with narrow minded bigotry, the very opposite of the author's original intent.
They're beautifully written with well drawn characters, nice plot twists, and some humor. Whoever did the terrible version on Netflix should be ashamed of themselves. They took a lovely series of books and turned them into political propaganda filled with narrow minded bigotry, the very opposite of the author's original intent.
February 12, 2022
Firstly, notes on this specific box set:
It's cheap, so you get what you pay for. The box itself is very flimsy. The books are mass market paperbacks, with very thin margins, which annoyed me since I either had to grip the very edges, or move my fingers to read. Each book also has the very same PEI map and mini bio of L.M. Montgomery, which I thought was unnecessary. So it's not a great quality set, but fine if you're on a budget.
2022 re-read as buddy read with Book Lovers Club on Discord.
It's really hard for me to rank them, but I'll try:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Can't believe the series is over! It's been a pleasure to read it again. There is still , and I want to read, and maybe even , so it's not completely over. I will probably re-read the series in another decade too.
It's cheap, so you get what you pay for. The box itself is very flimsy. The books are mass market paperbacks, with very thin margins, which annoyed me since I either had to grip the very edges, or move my fingers to read. Each book also has the very same PEI map and mini bio of L.M. Montgomery, which I thought was unnecessary. So it's not a great quality set, but fine if you're on a budget.
2022 re-read as buddy read with Book Lovers Club on Discord.
It's really hard for me to rank them, but I'll try:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Can't believe the series is over! It's been a pleasure to read it again. There is still , and I want to read, and maybe even , so it's not completely over. I will probably re-read the series in another decade too.
August 1, 2022
First and second books are the best. The others are sweet but not as good as the first couple.
April 11, 2024
One of my childhood favourites
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