This is an abridged version. It is an oversized hardcover and has color illustrations. I love this book because I remember it being in my country school library. I read it over and over back then and when I became an adult I longed to own that version of Anne of Green Gables again. It was not easy to find. I think it was mostly found in libraries and not in the general public. Happily, I was able to find it after a long search and it was just as I remembered it. ( )

Anne of Green Gables is by far my favorite book and is has been ever since I was child. I find the story heartwarming, and all the scrapes she gets in always makes me laugh. ( )

A headstrong, young orphan girl grows up in her adopted family on Prince Edward Island. A young adult classic. Perfectly constructed and enjoyed by adults and children. ( )

Sometimes a book that you read when you were young and which you absolutely adored holds its appeal when reread as an adult, sometimes it doesn't.

For me, Anne of Green Gables falls in the "doesn't" tally. I adored the series of books about Anne Shirley when I was in middle school - I think I read the whole set no less than five or six times in a three year period. I wanted very much to be a part of Anne's community, with all the interesting relationships (and gossip) to be had, and the amazing things Anne and Diana were able to imagine. In fact, looking back on that period, my parents have commented that they were a bit worried because every time I'd go through a phrase of reading nothing but books by Montgomery, my personality would start to show mimicry of Anne and the other girls. I don't actually remember this myself, but I don't doubt that it happened - I have Asperger's Syndrome and often will unconsciously mimic real people's behaviors, and I definitely immersed myself in my books enough for the characters to seem real to me.

At any rate, I adored Anne Shirley and Anne of Green Gables was for a very long time my favorite of the series. I liked that it wasn't bogged down with her romance with Gilbert Blythe as much as some of the later stories are, and the scene where Anne and Diana act out the Tennyson poem is one of my favorites. I also enjoyed the newness of all the imagination stuff, as Anne and Diana create their little world and give things names, before it all becomes more ordinary. I loved the overarching story of Anne being a lonely orphan outsider who slowly makes Avonlea become her home, and the residents of the town her family. It always crushed me when dear old Matthew dies at the end, leaving Anne and Marilla in Green Gables alone.

But. But but but. Trying to read the novel now, ten to twelve years on, it's almost unbearable. Trying to get through the purple prose (which is mostly Anne's fault, really) and the scads upon scads of imaginings is like sludging through a swampy marsh. It's difficult and annoying and I just want to skip ahead to the plotty bits. I still quite like the plotty bits, mind, and the town gossip, and the characters. But I have no patience for Anne's dreamery, and I feel rather more like Marilla as she is at the start as I read.

It's not the book that has changed, since that can't be. I suppose that I've grown up and my tastes have changed. My favorite of the Anne Shirley series is no longer Anne of Green Gables or Rainbow Valley, but Anne of Windy Poplars with Rilla of Ingleside following. While I still appreciate Anne of Green Gables and love it with a fond remembrance, it has been demoted from its place on my shelf for books to take with me to a Deserted Island. ( )

I'm a bit ashamed that I had never read this book before now. I think everyone was pushing it a bit too much when I was younger, which of course had the opposite effect than they'd intended. Also, it's not quite the kind of book I usually read--more character-driven than plot-driven, and set in the real world.

But I can say now that everyone else was right and I was wrong. I'm really glad I finally got around to this one. All of the characters are just wonderful, and you can't help loving them. The descriptions of PEI are great too; I'm definitely inspired to visit. Plus, I enjoyed getting a sense of what Canada was like a hundred years ago.

It was interesting to see how much of the story was already familiar to me. I had seen a school play of it when I was in Grade 2, and I had also seen bits of movies or TV shows, so I often knew what was going to happen. One part in particular that I knew was coming still made me cry when it actually happened, though. I had hoped that was in a future book, but no such luck.

I was planning to write a proper review, but I don't think I can do it justice. Suffice it to say that I'd definitely recommend this to anyone else like me who had somehow avoided reading it for years. I'm sure I'll be reading the sequels soon too. ( )