Customer Reviews

Anne of Green Gables (Modern Library Classics)

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When we decided to read a children's literature novel in book club, I nominated Anne of Green Gables with enthusiasm. Nonetheless, it was with some trepidation that I went back to the book, because the things that moved you as a child sometimes fail to have the same impact later in life. As a young reader I shared Anne's joy and wonder at the world and its beauty, her fear of not being accepted into the family and society, her longing for romance in an ordinary world, her outrage at the unfairness with which youth is treated. Her attempts and shortcomings to live up to moral standards.

As an older reader, these features still touched me. Reading the book later in life I also paid more attention to the older characters: The sadness of Marilla, who has watched her life shrivel way. Matthew's mute inability to make contact with others. They are both of caring and kindhearted people but their lives lack joy.

It is not difficult to figure out why Anne is such an endearing and enduring heroine. She is intense. She loves and hates passionately. Her bosom buddy/kindred spirit relations. Her romanticism, great imagination, and that fact that she is given to flights of fantasy. She revels in sentimental tragedy. Her outspokenness. Her adventurousness. She is hard working, honest, caring and compassionate. She is aware of her own shortcomings. She sees beauty and looks for goodness. She approaches the world with wide-eyed wonder and openness.

Rereading Anne of Green Gables brought me back to the Leslie Anne I used to be.

Last year marked 100 years since this book was published, yet it is as fresh and real today as I'm sure it was back then.

Meet 11 year old Anne - with an "e" - one of the most delightful characters in junior fiction. She is an orphan who through a misunderstanding ends up with Matthew and Marilla (unmarried brother and sister) at Green Gables farm. Anne's imagination brings life and romance to everything she experiences. She is a great talker, and some of the funniest parts of the book are where she uses the most amazing language for her age. While she is very smart, she also has an innocence and clear-eyed awe of the world which enchants those around her.

Village life is beautifully drawn, with its characters and the small events that cause great excitement.

This is an absolute must read book, for children and adults alike.

I ordered a set of five of this book, because several of my fourth grade students had enjoyed an abridged version of Anne of Green Gables, so I decided to set up a literature circle and have them read the true version of the book. Local book stores didn't carry multiple copies of any one edition, so I ordered this edition from Amazon. Fast delivery, of course, and an edition of the book that meets what my students needed--it even includes book club discussion questions.

Lucy Maude Montgomery's beloved classic novel "Anne of Green Gables" passed the centennial of its 1908 publication still in print. Its heroine, the orphan Anne Shirley, continues to captive readers with an irresistable tale of growing up in late 19th century rural Canada.

As the story opens, middle-aged bachelor Matthew Cuthbert and his spinster sister Marilla have decided to take in a young boy from an orphanage to help out on their small farm in the town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. Through a twist of fate, the orphanage sends a scrawny eleven year-old girl named Anne, who has red hair, wide eyes and an active imagination. Matthew is immediately taken with her; Marilla takes longer to warm to the little girl but takes pity on her unloved life of poverty and neglect. They decide to keep Anne.

Anne is a handful to raise, full of good intentions and enthusiasm but dreamy and forgetful. Her spirit has survived a tough start in life, thanks to the armor of her imagination and a good heart. In Avondale, she will make friends, put down roots, and become involved in a series of youthful escapades that will delight the reader. At book's end, on the threshold of young adulthood, Anne will come face to face with a need for mature choices.

"Anne of Green Gables" may be a sentimental story, but that tag fails to do justice to the author's craftsmanship. The story authentically captures its time, its place, and its characters in a sympathetic way. We may no longer understand why the young Anne is embarrassed by her bright red hair, but we can feel her embarassment with her. Similarly, the social mores of an isolated 19th Century small town may seem quaint to a 21st Century reader, but the author's supple prose ensures that we appreciate their effect on the characters.

"Anne of Green Gables" is very highly recommended to readers aged nine to ninety with the imagination to appreciate a timeless story. Jack Zipes provides a concise, well-written introduction to Montgomery and to Anne. "Anne of Green Gables" was the first of a series of books written by L.M. Montgomery, featuring our heroine as she moves through her life. It is a strength of this book that it is both complete of itself and a pathway to the series.

The sad thing is I'm a grown man. I downloaded this book for my daughter because the movie (The 80s version) is really top notch. I was surprised at how well the movie version captured the book. The funny thing is I just got through reading Tom Sawyer, which I enjoyed. I would say this is as good and in some ways better. There is so much dialogue, but in this book it works. I've hardly read such a believable character in children's literature. I would think, most people will be surprised that this book is not at all slow. Just get through to where Matthew pics her up from the train station. After that I was reluctant to stop reading. Enjoy.

Published for the first time in 1908, "Anne of Green Gables" was an enormous success, and spawned a number of sequels and a global following that continues to exist today, more than a century later. Lucy Maud Montgomery's semi-autobiographical heroine has become a cultural icon around the world (especially in Japan), and in Montgomery's home province of Prince Edward Island, the single greatest driver of economic development ever seen in the land. Growing up as I did in Prince Edward Island, I did not read "Anne" until I was in my twenties (though I had earlier seen the musical). For Prince Edward Islanders, Anne Shirley is less a literary character than an all-encompassing fact of life; you scarcely go a day without seeing her image somewhere, if only on license plates. Thus, many Islanders never get around to reading her (you would think it would be required reading in school, but no).

The setup for the story is well-known: an elderly brother and sister duo, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert (both unmarried and childless; I came away from the musical thinking they were a couple, but that's hazy memories from elementary school), send to a Nova Scotia orphanage for a young boy to help out on their farm. Through a miscommunication, they are instead sent an eleven-year-old girl, one Anne Shirley. They initially plan to send her back, but first Matthew then Marilla is won over to the relentlessly cheerful but sadly deprived Anne, and she takes up permanent residence in Green Gables. She gains a 'bosom friend' in Diana Barry, a rival in Gilbert Blythe, and has a variety of comic adventures in rural 19th century PEI, all described in generally concise chapters by Montgomery.

Many Victorian and Edwardian fictions, particularly for children, have not aged very well - the ones that don't fall victim to either excessive sentimentality or excessive moralizing (or both). The single greatest asset that Montgomery gave Anne is a sense of humour. Her books are consistently amusing, from her motor-mouthed little protagonist to the wry comments on the hypocrisies and features of coutnry life (Montgomery often feeling quite alienated in that setting, she had some still-sharper observations that didn't make it onto the page). Anne's an instantly memorable character, and there's a lot of fun to Marilla as well. There are a few much more serious moments, particularly toward the end, that are handled with equal skill.

An enduring classic of Canadian literature.

The Cuthberts are in for a surprise. Shy Matthew and staid Marilla have asked trusted neighbors to help them get a boy orphan to help Matthew with their farm on Prince Edward Island. When he goes to the rail station to pick up the youngster, Anne is there waiting for her new adoptive parents. Well past child-rearing age, and having had none themselves, Anne turns out to be a decidedly mixed blessing. She's an incessant talker, an imaginative dreamer, someone who feels things deeply (enough to be a bit of a drama queen long before the term came to be), and impulsive to an extent that doesn't sit well with Marilla, who has assumed child-rearing responsibility once the Cuthberts decide to give this girl a chance and not return her. Anne is thoroughly good-hearted, wanting greatly to have friends, be loved, be `good' and do well. Her vocabulary is precocious upon her arrival, and that intelligence serves her well in school, as does a willingness to set goals for herself and work hard to attain them. The setting, some five years during the early 20th century, is interesting. Anne's fine imagination and creative language help draw a very pretty picture of the area of Avonlea (so good I was inspired to search out visiting that area). Anne herself is a wonderfully drawn character and the Cuthberts and her friends and neighbors are good support for her. The pace is well-established. I was motivated to read it by a youngster's recommendation and its being the highest book I hadn't read on the YA list of the School Library Journal [...] I thought it terrific. Anne, I love you but I'm really glad you're far away! Middle school and strong intermediate grades readers would enjoy it greatly. Adults will find Anne reminding them of many of the endearing parts of being an adolescent.

Overall Anne Of Green Gables is a nice story. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it because the characters didn't grab my interest. As I continued read it struck something. I think I started to like it because Anne and I share the trait of a vivid imagination. This book tells the struggles of an adventurous young orphan girl named Anne. Throughout the story it tells of her blunders and deeds as she grows up. Whenever one problem is solved another pops up. It keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Some of the main problems are linked to Anne's own foolishness. When wine and juice got mixed up is just one example. When you find out that she gets to stay at Green Gables you almost give a sigh of relief. You laugh out loud at the things the boisterous Anne says. The story is a good classic tale that is very enjoyable.

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, the oddball brother-sister pair of a small town called Avonlea on Prince Edward's Island in Canada, end up with the most imaginative, talkative, and humorous girl around-Anne Shirley! Because of her unique qualities, Anne gets into countless scrapes, such as giving her friend wine instead of raspberry cordial. These same qualities, however, let her make friends, or "kindred spirits," as she calls them, with the most unlikely characters. Though the Cuthberts wanted a boy when they got Anne out of her orphanage, they soon found out that they couldn't have found a boy better than Anne. Lucy Maud Montgomery makes her 1908 book come alive with vivid scenes and characters, the twist in the plot at the end, and the frequent use of foreshadowing, like "This was the last day before sorrow touched her life." These will make any young adult reader not want to put this comedy/historical fiction book down!

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, the oddball brother-sister pair of a small town called Avonlea on Prince Edward's Island in Canada, end up with the most imaginative, talkative, and humorous girl around-Anne Shirley! Because of her unique qualities, Anne gets into countless scrapes, such as giving her friend wine instead of raspberry cordial. These same qualities, however, let her make friends, or "kindred spirits," as she calls them, with the most unlikely characters. Though the Cuthberts wanted a boy when they got Anne out of her orphanage, they soon found out that they couldn't have found a boy better than Anne. Lucy Maud Montgomery makes her 1908 book come alive with vivid scenes and characters, the twist in the plot at the end, and the frequent use of foreshadowing, like "This was the last day before sorrow touched her life." These will make any young adult reader not want to put this comedy/historical fiction book down!