Anne of Green Gables / Anne of Avonlea / Anne's House of Dreams

Revisting childhood favorites hasn't been a good exercise for me, tarnishing my hazy & happy memories of, among other things, Thundercats, state fairs, that flannel nightgown I loved, and the smell of curry powder.

I'm so glad that Anne is still a girl I would like to be friends with, Prince Edward Island still sounds like a wonderful place to live, and I still want to wrap the stories and people of Avonlea around me like an nubby, comfy blanket.

I pulled this down off the shelf because of booze - a friend couldn't remember if it was strawberry cordial & elderberry wine in Anne & Diana's disastrous party. It's raspberry cordial and currant wine, btw. After the fact-checking, I kept reading. And reading, and reading. I reacquainted myself with all the schoolchildren and nosy neighbors. Anne's feud with Gilbert was so silly. I floated romantically with Anne*, hah. Her insecurities, I felt them. Her indomitable optimism, I wished I had that. Her indomitable chattering, I do have that. I felt heartache over Marilla's unspoken love of Anne and heartbreak as Matthew died once again. God. I love these stories.

I couldn't quite float away on nostalgia fumes. The story is an idealization, as if a mountain is drawn with two straight lines or love is represented by a red rose. It takes the spherical world and flattens it into a disc, disappearing all the truly horrible realities. It seems so innocent and pure, where most children knew lying was wrong and most people cared for each other. So...immune to cynicism and sarcasm. Sigh. As I read, I kept noticing the lack of diversity in Avonlea. George&Rue's tragedy was probably only a couple decades away, a few hundred miles to the west. So many twss opportunities went unnoticed in Avonlea! Could anyone really transplant themself to this Eden and live there? When I read this, I wanted to (although I'm not white enough or, or, true enough).

I'm glad to know I can come back to this without the Thundercats effect.


*I'm embarrassed to talk any music, not having a strong sense of what I like. Most of what I nod to ends up being near-universally acknowledged as overrated and dumb. But the next day after I re-read this, I heard this song on the radio - a tenacious earworm now lodged in my earhole. It winds together with Anne and Avonlea in my mind, a stray lock of hair tossing in the wind and tickling my nape. I'm not bothered by having it stuck on repeat. ( )

I was sitting at the round table at church with some young people over a Sunday noon meal at church. A young lady made a reference to Anne Shirley, and I said, “Anne who?” Her jaw dropped. You’ve never read Anne of Green Gables?!” I confessed I hadn’t. It was on my bookshelf at home, though, and I put it on my mental “To Read list. I finally got around to it, and I’m glad I did. Anne Shirley is an orphan who is brought to the Cuthbert home by mistake. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, elderly brother and sister, are looking for a young boy to help around the farm, but the orphanage sends Anne instead. She is almost sent back, but is so crestfallen at the prospect that they pity and keep her. Most of the book is taken up with Anne’s antics and escapades, from which she learns to grow up, and Marilla learns to parent. The parenting is the more important, it seems. The moral seems to be that for girls growing up there are certain things they must and will learn, and for adults there are some things to learn about parenting that they must, but don’t necessarily learn. The lessons are quite good, though. “Folks that has brought up children know that there’s no hard and fast method in the world that’ll suit every child. But them as never have think it’s all as plain and easy as Rule of Three – just set your three terms down so fashion, and the sum’ll work out correct. But flesh and blood don’t come under the head of arithmetic…” Add in some small town busybodies and romance, and it’s a cute little story. Some of the writing is a bit formulaic. Each chapter starts with a paragraph of rhetorical flourish describing nature, moves on to some action or event, and closes reflecting on that event. But all in all a good read for an 8 year old girl like mine. ( )

A wonderful series for the dreamers, the thinkers, the kindred spirits. Anne is a quirky, fanciful girl who becomes more lovable and endearing with each passing year's account. Engaging story lines, excellent character development, and lovely settings immediately draw you into Anne's world, and a beautiful one it is. ( )

When I read this so many years ago, I thought Anne was a female Tom Sawyer. The greatest difference was that the trouble Anne got into was largely accidental, whereas Tom's was his own doing. Both are wonderful books, but Anne had a heart that can be found no where else in literature.

My wife and I read this book together, loved her spirit, and gave her name to our middle daughter as a middle name. And we definitely spelled it Anne with an E.