Just as delightfully charming on this, my umpteenth read, as it was on my first one. Gorgeous, classic story telling. ( )

What a wonderful book! I haven't read this book since I was in middle school, but I enjoyed it just as much as I did then, if not more! Anne is a wonderful character, as are all the inhabitants of Avonlea. Looking forward to continuing on in the series. ( )

Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908, is a classic known the world around for its irrepressible, lovable heroine and great good humor. In Anne, L. M. Montgomery has created one of those iconic, inimitable literary characters who take on a life outside their stories. It is my all-time favorite comfort read, a book I nearly memorized as a child because I revisited it so often. I remember how rich I felt when my mother gave me the complete set.

When the brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt a boy to help with the chores, Anne Shirley is sent to them by mistake. They decide to keep her, to her great joy, and soon learn that Anne is not like other children. As an orphan thrown on charity, she has sustained her dreary existence with a strange dream-life, comforting herself with the fancies of her mobile imagination. She is a passionate lover of beauty and romance, but that doesn't prevent her from getting into the most embarrassing and ridiculous scrapes. Anne manages to set her best friend drunk, dye her hated red hair green, flavor a cake with anodyne liniment instead of vanilla, and commit many other mistakes that make Marilla despair of her — and all with the most innocent intentions! But though this is a very funny book, that isn't all it is. Books with only humor to recommend them don't inspire the kind of lifelong love Anne fans have for the series.

Montgomery's characterizations are one of the main strengths of the book. Characters like officious Mrs. Rachel Lynde, repressed Marilla, shy Matthew — even minor characters like severe Mrs. Barry and coquettish Ruby Gillis — are drawn with such skill. Montgomery lets her characters be themselves, even if that means that sympathetic characters are foolish, prejudiced, or ridiculous at times. Avonlea may seem idyllic with its homey, warm atmosphere, but its people are not perfect by any stretch. They gossip, argue, backbite, act selfishly and self-righteously, and in general behave like people everywhere else. This is a far cry from the type of children's fiction that paints all adults as wise, understanding beings. Oh no! The people in Avonlea are shown with all their flaws, often through the medium of Mrs. Lynde's busy tongue.

And what delightful speeches Montgomery gives her characters! Each has a distinct voice, and Anne especially is wonderful. Much of the story is told through the characters' speeches. This gives us a feel for the context of the community; often the characters will discuss people we never see except when they are mentioned in the gossipy dialogue. And that's completely natural for this kind of story. It never becomes cumbersome with all the names, places, and histories that are related. They fade together into a complete and rounded backdrop for the main characters.

What keeps Anne from becoming an irrelevant, impossible goody-two-shoes is her humor and Montgomery's brilliant, wryly hilarious narration. Flights of fancy are beloved and the land of faerie certainly receives its due, but Montgomery keeps her story grounded by her keen eye for all that is funny in people. And there is plenty of it. This is one of the bigger themes of the story, the tension between the romance of poetry and the humdrum, unpoetical events of everyday life. As Anne says after her lily-maid adventure comes to a soggy end, "I have come to the conclusion that it is no use trying to be romantic in Avonlea. It was probably easy enough in towered Camelot hundreds of years ago, but romance is not appreciated now" (p. 227). Much of the humor also comes from Montgomery's many literary and biblical allusions, some of which I am just now understanding.

The author's love for Prince Edward Island is evident in the lovely nature descriptions that grace each chapter. Some people complain of these frequent descriptions, but I love them. They are probably responsible for more than half of the troops of tourists that descend upon Prince Edward Island each year to visit where Montgomery lived. I would love to visit there someday and see the red roads for myself.

I can't close this review without a word on Kevin Sullivan's 1985 miniseries starring Megan Follows. Megan Follows is Anne. In some parts the script is not faithful to the letter of Montgomery's books, but it certainly fulfills the spirit. The second part especially fudges and compresses many of the books' events, but I have never felt that it violates the author's intent. The same cannot be said for Kevin Sullivan's attempt at a third part, "The Continuing Story." If you haven't seen it, DON'T. Anne is time-warped into World War I, hasn't married Gilbert yet, thinks about having an affair with her publisher, and then ends up roaming Europe looking for Gilbert, who is missing. Outrage is too weak a word to describe my feelings toward this travesty, and I hear that Follows wasn't too hot on the script herself. I read somewhere online a comment from another fan, who asked if an evil alien had taken possession of Kevin Sullivan while he made this thing. No other explanation seems possible.

But back to Anne — the real Anne. Thankfully, a dreadful butchery (I won't call it adaptation) like that can't touch the original. Mark Twain, that crusty old cynic, called Anne "the sweetest creation of child life yet written," and I have to agree with him. I am thankful that this is one of the books that shaped me, and I look forward to introducing Anne to my own children. I know they will love her as I do. A wonderful, wonderful book. ( )

n/a

When I told my mom that I had decided to start reading Anne of Green Gables the other week she said, “You haven’t read that yet?” “What? I saw the movie,” I replied. But when I finished this book the other day, the first thing I told my fiance was, “I can’t believe I hadn’t read this!”

I had always liked the movie, and whenever PBS aired it I would automatically tune in to watch, no matter how late I came into it. As a kid, I never realized there was already a book about Anne Shirley, and as I grew older I looked for new stories, instead of reliving ones I already knew. However, now that I’ve read the first in the Anne (spelled with an “e”) series, I know I’ll have to read them all. There are two things that have hooked me to these novels: Anne’s undying and unsurpassed spirit, and the language that flows through the pages and sticks in my head. I’ve found myself thinking in Anne’s terms, using “big words” and colorful adjectives, and dreaming about beautiful places.

Lucky for Anne, however, she didn’t have to use her imagination to dream up nature at its finest (although should could have without even trying). Prince Edward’s Island, the setting of Avonlea and our story, is described as one of the most beautiful places I can imagine; trees blossom around every corner and flowery scents pervade the air. Of course, Anne grew up in the early 1900s, and that is probably one of the reasons L.M. Montgomery could describe such beauty. Had she tried to place Anne in a new home today, the poor girl would have had to use a whole lot more imagination. This story really made me look around our city and realize that nature is basically what we have in between the strip malls and highways. We have just enough trees to give us a little bit of color, but nothing that would make you stop and take notice, just for its beauty. It makes me want to take a long vacation in some remote part of the world that’s been untouched by human hands.

Anne of Green Gables tells the story of an orphan who is adopted (unwillingly at first) by an older brother and sister who want help on their farm. Anne is nothing short of a surprise on all accounts, from her red hair (and temper to match) to her constant story-tellings and imaginings. She isn’t the dependable boy the Cuthberts had planned on adopting, but Anne’s vivacity and gratitude for the home she never thought she’d have win over not just her benefactors, but the entire town. Anne is unlike anyone in Avonlea has ever met, and this not only causes her to get into a few scrapes, but catapults her into their hearts. It doesn’t matter if you’re 12 or 50, Anne’s spirit will win you over, and the language Montgomery uses will transport you into her world.

5 out of 5 stars for being one of the best books I have read in a long time, and for making me want to read it again and again in the years to come. ( )