The story of Anne of Green Gables is equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming. It is a portrait of a time, a place, a found family, and above all, love. Montgomery invents an iconic protagonist with Anne, someone who you cannot help but fall in love with. You want Anne on your team and you want to root for her. Her enthusiasm is infectious, her imagination is grand, and she is ambitious, kind, and driven. Montgomery’s descriptions are poetic, moving, full of wonder and were inspired by her own life in PEI. You can tell that she is attentive to and appreciative of the littlest details in nature, the changing seasons and weather, because she paints the most gorgeous landscapes which made this book a visual treat for me.
I was baffled when I found out this book was first published in 1908. Even after over a century it seemed fresh, maybe that’s what makes a classic. I know Green Gables will remain with me for a long time and someday I shall love to revisit Anne and the Cuthberts there. I hope I can visit PEI at some point, especially in autum.
Here are some of my highlights. I am highly amused when Anne is being melodramatic which is more often than not.
- “I can’t. I’m in the depths of despair. Can you eat when you are in the depths of despair?”
- “It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
- “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
- “My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.”
- “Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer.”
- “Anne always remembered the silvery, peaceful beauty and fragrant calm of that night. It was the last night before sorrow touched her life; and no life is ever quite the same again when once that cold, sanctifying touch has been laid upon it.”