Anne of Green Gables (Taschenbuch)

In 1904 Montgomery had written down an idea for a story in her notebook: "Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy. By mistake a girl is sent them." In what must be heartening for many would be authors, Montgomery's manuscript for "Anne of Green Gables" was rejected repeated by publishers before it was finally accepted. The book was a bestseller from the moment it was published in June 1908 (I have a 19th impression printed in September 1910), although a critic in "The New York Times" complained that, "there is no real difference between the girl at the end of the story and the one at the beginning of it." Readers of the book would quite happy with that fact, because the reason we love this story is not that the talkative, red-haired orphan girl with her big green-grey eyes changes during the story, but that Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert, the elderly sister and brother who wanted to adopt a boy and got a girl instead, have changed profoundly.

Mark Twain described Anne Shirley as "The dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice," and nobody has been able to top that statement. Supposedly Montgomery's description of her famous literary creation was based on a photography of Evelyn Nesbit, the notorious American beauty who was the mistress whose husband, Harry K. Thaw, shot and killed her love, Stanford White, in the first scandalous murder trial of the 20th century. I suppose there is something archetypal about stories about orphans, that allows young readers to identify with such characters and explains why generations of children have responded to such stories. But what sets Montgomery's creation apart is her ability to provide of laughter and tears, what with her vivid imagination and her great desire to be loved. You laugh over Anne's over wrought apology to Mrs. Rachel Lynde and how her introduction to Gilbert Blythe ends with her breaking a slate over his head. But then there are the wonderfully touching scenes when Marilla apologizes for refusing to believe Anne about her broach, when Mathew goes to town to get Anne a dress with puffed sleeves, and when the Reaper whose name is Death comes to visit Green Gables. There are just so many wonderful moments in this novel, which is the best in the series. When you read the rest of the books in the series, this is the one you will keep coming back to again and again to read once more your favorite parts (I just did).

I have two daughters and despite my best intentions I have never been able to persuade them to read "Anne of Green Gables." But given how long it took me to get around to them they still have at least a decade to beat me to the punch in relative terms, and I have the Sullivan productions on DVD so that I can use the same hook that worked so well one me. Once they do I am sure they will be just as captivated by all of the others who love the Anne-Girl and who have traveled to Prince Edward Island to see all of the sites that Montgomery translated into the world of Anne Shirley.

My favorite memory is when we went to "Green Gables." You go in through the front door and follow the way around the first floor and then up the stairs to the second floor. As I was at the bottom of those stairs the young woman watching the door had momentarily stopped the line entering the site. In this case that person who had to wait was a young Japanese girl, who looked to be about eight years old, and who was shivering in delight at the fact that she was standing on the threshold of Anne Shirley's Green Gables. That is how beloved Lucy Maud Montgomery's creation is almost a century after she was first set down on paper.

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There on PEI I also understood why Montgommery could write so poetic.

In its base the story of Anne is quite sad. Living in an orphanage she cannot really unfold her broad mind. Anne is full of phantasy, clashing with the common understanding of good girl's behaviour sometimes. But she also has a strong sense of what is wrong or right and an understanding for other people. Most of them don't see.

She then got adopted by an elderly sibling couple - more by accident. Actually they wanted a boy to help out on the farm. Their first intention was also to send Anne back but then they both saw through Anne and discovered in her their own - unlived - dreams.

Now Anne's path on PEI began. Clashing with the firm structures of how girl's should behave in a village society, finding her romance and later her way. And in the same steps of Anne's developement her fosterparents saw that their own dreams were not lost for good.

Montgommory set the story up on her beloved Prince Edward Island. Go there and visit Montgommery house, walk down Lover's Lane or see Cavendish Beach burning at sunset. You'll be able to feel Anne's spirit still there.

Having a look at European children book authors: does it wonders you that the young girl Astrid Lindgren loved reading the stories of Anne?

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