This book has touched me in so many ways – it came highly recommended to me by my friends, who encouraged me to read it, as it had touched their lives as well…either in their younger days or as adults. I was very intrigued by their fervent love for this novel and I must say, it did not disappoint. There were times that I felt incredibly wrapped into the pages, devouring the beauty of the landscape she described, her feelings of awe for the world around her, and her steadfast resolve to be exactly who she is, until she is loved for being herself.
Anne has shown me the beauty of the world…to slow down and take notice of what is around you – the sun rising & setting, the flowers that bloom in different seasons & full of color & scents, the dear love and friendships of those who mean the world to you, and being humble through it all.
“‘Dear old world,’ she murmured, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.” (371)
Anne is a precocious and extremely interesting character – I’ve never known anyone like her, and I strive to be as imaginative and happy as she is. She is an orphan girl who is mistakenly brought to Avonlea; the adoptive parents, Marilla and her brother Matthew, had expected a boy. The novel begins with the narrative of who these two people are and the decision that must be made on whether to keep her. Obviously, the book is based on Anne living in Green Gables, which is the home of Marilla & Matthew, so you know they chose to keep her.
When we meet Anne, we are immediately entrapped into her talkative spell – she isn’t dull or listless to listen to, but rather someone that could keep her own in a conversation. “It’s such a relief to talk when one wants to and not be told that children should be seen and not heard.” (19)
After she is picked up by Matthew at the train station, she talks non-stop on ride to Avonlea. Her imagination keeps her, and everyone she encounters, on their toes, wondering what she will think up next. “Isn’t it’s splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive – it’s such an interesting world… if we knew all about everything…there’d be no scope for imagination.” (18)
She also dreams up beautiful imagery for herself, as well, “I’ve never had a pretty dress in all my life…[but] I can imagine that I’m dressed gorgeously… when we got on the train I felt as if everybody must be looking at me and pitying me. But I just went to work and imagined that I had on the most beautiful pale blue silk dress – because when you are imagining you might as well imagine something worthwhile.” (17)
When she arrives to Green Gables, though, Marilla is shocked, as a girl is not what she expected. She explains that she may have to figure out how the mistake was made and give her back to the orphanage. Anne can’t even bear the thought of not being able to appreciate the scenery around her. “If I go out there and get acquainted with all those trees and flowers and the orchard and the brook I’ll not be able to help loving it.…There is no use in loving things if you have to be torn from them, is there? And it’s so hard to keep from loving things, isn’t it?” (42)
At the end of the evening, she is unaware of the fate that is to come. “And upstairs, in the east gable, a lonely, heart–hungry, friendless child cried herself to sleep.” (36)
Marilla is beginning to believe that this little girl is something special, “I never in all my life heard anything to equal her…she is kind of interesting… I can feel already that I’m wondering what on earth she’ll say next. She’ll be casting a spell over me, too.” (43)
As Anne is being driven away from the home, to see Mrs. Spencer who will help to rectify the situation, she says, “It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” (45) Now THAT is one powerful statement! If we all believed that we had the power to change our thinking to always be positive, imagine the beauty we could see for ourselves! Imagine how we could view life in such a new and glorious light?
Mrs. Spencer decides that Anne will live with a woman who is known in the town to be quite strict and hard to get along with. “Marilla looked at Anne and softened at sight of the child’s pale face with its look of mute misery.” (56) She decides to think it over and make a decision later, especially since she dreads giving her away to a high tempered woman at that very moment. Her decision caused a sunrise to dawn on Anne’s face. “First the look of despair faded out; then came a faint flush of hope; her eyes grew deep and bright as morning stars.” (57)
As you know, Marilla decides that she cannot give Anne up to anyone and that she will help to raise the girl into an upright and studious young woman, which is how we are now so blessed to have her in our lives as well.
Summary & My Thoughts: Spoilers Alert
There continues to be so much description of the landscape; the way she views the area in which she lives, is quite awe inspiring, especially since she uses beautiful and poetic language. I’m really encouraged to visit since it is a real place called Prince Edward Island in Canada. At times, however, I do find it a bit taxing to understand how it truly looks; I am unsure what trees and flowers she is describing, even though they sound magnificent.
For example, here is how describes the Birch Path, which is one of the prettiest places in the world to her. “It was a… twisting path, winding down over a long hill…where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was as flawless as the heart of a diamond. It was fringed in all its length with slim young birches, white-stemmed and lissom boughed; ferns and starflowers and wild lilies of the valley and scarlet tufts of pigeon berries grew thickly along it; and always there was a delightful spiciness in the air and music of bird calls and the murmur and laugh of wood winds in the trees overhead.” (128)
Anne grows a strong friendship (her bosom friend she calls it) with a girl named Diane who she absolutely adores. Their relationship is one that we all hope to have with another soul—they spend time together playing, imagining things together, and brightening each other’s spirits. Anne is completely smitten over her. “I love Diana…I cannot ever live without her…[one day she] will get married and go away and leave me. And oh, what shall I do?” (143) Diana does feel the same way about her, “I couldn’t love anybody as I love you…I love you devotedly… and I always will, you may be sure of that.” (160)
I also really enjoy how empathetic she is. Whenever she gets into trouble or causes a ruckus, one thing she says to help plead her case is, “Just imagine what you would feel like if…” and then she will go into explaining how this scene would be different if the roles were reversed. This is an important skill for people to know and understand – to not only walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, but to truly understand where they are coming from and why they made the decisions they did.
Anne tells Marilla one day, “The day I came to Green Gables, I shall never forget it. It was the turning-point in my life. Of course it wouldn’t seem so important to you. I’ve been here for a year and I’ve been so happy. Of course, I’ve had my troubles, but one can live down troubles.” (198) Marilla thinks to herself how she could’ve ever lived before Anne came to Green Gables, but she doesn’t tell her. I wonder why she doesn’t speak how much Anne truly means to her? I would think she would want her to know the impact she has on her life and how thankful she is to have her there.
“Have you ever noticed one encouraging thing about me, Marilla? I never make the same mistake twice…there must be a limit to the mistakes one person can make, and when I get to the end of them, then I’ll be through with them. That’s a very comforting thought.” (214)
Marilla remarks that Anne becomes incredibly overjoyed when a plan goes as it should, but also incredibly distraught if it doesn’t. There is no in between; she knew that it would be difficult to make her into the prim and proper young woman she wanted her to be, but she also knew that she loved Anne just as she was. “The pleasures and pains of life came to her with troubled intensity… the downfall of some dear hope or plan plunged Anne into ‘feels of affliction.’… The fulfillment thereof exalted her to dizzy realms of delight.” (216)
As you continue with the story, you can’t help but get enraptured by the beautiful terrain she lives in: “A cool wind was blowing down over the long harvest fields from the rims of firry western hills and whistling through the poplars. One clear star hung above the orchard and the fireflies were flitting over in Lover’s Lane, in and out among the ferns and rustling boughs. Anne watched them as she talked and somehow felt that wind and stars and fireflies were all tangled up together into something unutterably sweet and enchanting.” (218) You just can’t help but fall in love with the poetic language in this novel!
The writing continues to be of high quality and reminiscent of slower times and days; you can even see similarities between today’s world and that of the late 1800s, with the childhood antics and games. I do enjoy the reverie of the author’s words and the places my mind wanders as I read.
While playing with her friends in a game of Dare (yes, I suppose it existed back in the late 1800s, to my surprise), Anne is injured when she falls off a roof. Mr. Barry carries Anne home to Marilla. “At that moment Marilla had a revelation. In the sudden stab of fear that pierced to her very heart she realized what Anne had come to mean to her. She would have admitted that she liked Anne – nay, that she was very fond of Anne. But now she knew as she hurried wildly down the slope that Anne was dearer to her than anything on earth.” (225)
Matthew, Marilla’s brother, notices one day that Anne really is quite different from the other girls. Not just in her bright face and starry-eyed look, but rather in her boring and unfashionable dress. He decides to ask the neighbor for a dress to be made for her, insisting that it must have puffed sleeves—a style that Anne has begged Marilla for, for quite some time. She had not wanted Anne to become too vain; however, as Mrs. Lynde says (a local nosy neighbor), “She’s trying to cultivate a spirit of humility in Anne by dressing her as she does; but it’s more likely to cultivate envy and discontent. I’m sure the child must feel the difference between her clothes and the other girls.” (242) As you can see, even in the late 1800s, dressing well mattered!
When Marilla learns of the new dress, she is of course unhappy. “I must say I don’t think Anne needed any more dresses. I made her three [dresses]…anything more is sheer extravagance…You’ll just pamper Anne’s vanity, Matthew, and she’s as vain as a peacock now… I know she’s been hankering after all these silly sleeves ever since they came in…The puffs have been getting bigger and more ridiculous right along; there as big as balloons now. Next year anybody who wears them will have to go through a door sideways.” (242)
When she receives the gift from Matthew, she is completely and utterly overjoyed. “I feel that I ought to be a very good girl indeed. It’s at times like this I’m sorry I’m not a model little girl; I always resolve that I will be in future. But somehow, it’s hard to carry out your resolutions when irresistible temptations come. Still, I really will make an extra effort after this.” (244) She even compares herself to how Marilla is so calm and collected, “Marilla Is such a sensible woman. It must be a great deal better to be sensible; but still, I don’t believe I really want to be a sensible person, because they are so unromantic.” (248)
Anne loves to use her imagination to the fullest, though it quite often gets her into trouble; she is thought to be foolish and reckless, but she says that her “prospects of becoming sensible are brighter now than ever…I’ve learned a new and valuable lesson… Ever since I came to Green Gables I’ve been making mistakes, and each mistake has helped to cure me of some great shortcoming.” (275)
While talking over Anne’s incredible imagination, and Diane’s lack of one, Anne decides they should start a Story Club — one in which she and Diana will write stories for practice and help to cultivate the imagination. They invite other girls in as well; each one reads their story out loud and the group talks it over. This sounded like such a phenomenal idea; I would love to start a Story Club with my friends or even my students – the pleasures we would have in sharing our writing!
Marilla of course disapproves. “I think this story writing business is the foolishest yet…You’ll get a pack of nonsense into your heads and waste time that should be put on your lessons. Reading stories is bad enough but writing them is worse.” Anne ensures that every story includes a moral, though, and that “all the good people are rewarded and all the bad ones are suitably punished.” (255)
As we meet more characters in the novel, we see more people who seem to fall in love with Anne and her spirit; they really love Anne so whole heartedly. Miss Barry (Diana’s aunt) says, “I thought Marilla Cuthbert was an old fool when I heard she’d adopted a girl out of an orphan asylum…but I guess she didn’t make much of a mistake after all. If I’d a child like Anne in the house all the time I’d be a better and happier woman.” (285)
I’ve often wondered about Marilla and why she doesn’t show Anne very much affection or tell her how much she means to her. “The lesson of a love that should display itself easily in spoken word and open look was one Marilla could never learn…Her love made her afraid of being unduly indulgent…she had an uneasy feeling that it was rather sinful to set ones heart so intensely on any human creature as she had set hers on Anne, and perhaps she performed a sort of unconscious penance for this by being stricter and more critical.” (288) This explains so much and really provided insight into how she never really let Anne know how much she meant to her. Her religious beliefs kept her from truly letting her heart love to its fullest, which is so unfortunate and disappointing for Anne, who I think deserves to know how much she is cared for.
While discussing a neighbor who has an opinion about everything and everyone (Mrs. Lynde), Anne remarks that when she is with her, she wants to be “desperately wicked” and wants to “go and do the very thing she tells me I oughtn’t do.” Marilla feels the same way around her and her response is SO incredibly relevant to how it feels to be around these types of people, “I sometimes think she’d have more of an influence for good…if she didn’t keep nagging people to do right. There should have been a special commandment against nagging.” (304) MIC DROP.
As Marilla grows more fond of Anne, she begins to speak more often about her fondness for her and how sad she will be when Anne moves away from the home to go to college. It reminds me so much of the love I have for my daughter. “The child she had learned to love had vanished somehow and here was this tall, serious-eyed girl of fifteen, with a thoughtful brow and the proudly poised little head, in her place. Marilla loved the girl as much as she had loved the child, but she was conscious of a queer sorrowful sense of loss.” (306)
Later, she cries while Anne is reciting a piece in the kitchen for her and Matthew. “No, I wasn’t crying over your piece… I just couldn’t help thinking of the little girl you used to be, Anne. And I was wishing you could’ve stayed a little girl, even with all your queer ways. You’ve grown up now and you’re going away… and I just got lonesome thinking it all over.” (333) Of course, Anne responds in such a beautiful way, I couldn’t help but cry tears of joy, “I’m not a bit changed – not really. I’m only just pruned down and branched out. The real me – back here – is just the same. It won’t make a bit of difference where I go or how much I change outwardly; at heart I shall always be your little Anne, who will love you and Matthew and dear Green Gables more and better every day of her life.” (333-334)
Matthew loves her so much as well, “I guess she ain’t been much spoiled… She’s smart and pretty, and loving, too, which is better than all the rest. She’s been a blessing to us, and there never was a luckier mistake then what Mrs. Spencer made – if it was luck. I don’t believe it was any such thing. It was Providence, because the Almighty saw we needed her, I reckon.” (334)
Marilla also notices that Anne doesn’t speak as much as she used to; Anne says, “It’s nicer to think dear, pretty thoughts and keep them in one’s heart, like treasures. I don’t like to have them laughed at or wondered over.” (308)
It’s truly incredible how humble Anne is. She doesn’t enjoy the city life, and much prefers her common country home, which she finds astoundingly beautiful. Anytime she is doing something daring or considered by some to be in high regard, she just wants to be near her friends having a good time. Her friend remarks that she wants to be rich, like the women she saw wearing a lot of diamonds. Anne disagrees and says, “We are rich…we are happy as queens, and we’ve all got imaginations…look at that sea, girls – all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness anymore if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds. You wouldn’t change into any of those women if you could.” (331)
I also think everyone would love to be as ambitious as Anne: “Oh, it’s delightful to have ambitions. I’m so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them – that’s the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting.” (340)
After Anne finishes her year of college (which is all she needed to become a teacher, since she was at the top of her class, she comes back home to find that Matthew’s age and his hardworking lifestyle has finally caught up to him. One morning, after being shocked by some unfortunate financial news, he suffers from a heart attack from shock. Anne cries in the middle of the night for him, and Marilla comes to her to comfort her. “We’ve got each other, Anne. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here – if you’d never come. Oh, Anne, I know I’ve been kind of strict and harsh with you maybe – but you mustn’t think I didn’t love you as well as Matthew did, for all that. I want to tell you now when I can. It’s never been easy for me to say things out of my heart, but at times like this it’s easier. I love you as dear as if you were my own flesh and blood and you’ve been my joy and comfort ever since you came to Green Gables.” (357-358)
And with those beautiful and thoughtful words, the story slowly closes. Anne decides to stay in Avonlea to care for Marilla and teach in the local school, where she attended. It’s such a calm and happy ending, that it really brought such a smile to my face.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I implore you to bring it into your life. This novel is heartwarming & will leave you with a song in your heart. You will fall in love with Anne of Green Gables, just as the characters in the novel and the kind friends who recommended it to me.
With all my love, I give this book a 4.5/5 stars.
If you’d like to give it a try (and support local bookstores), find the beautiful book here: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and the entire collection here: Anne of Green Gables Collection
Find the book on Amazon here: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and the entire collection here: Anne of Green Gables Collection