New Leaf February 2020 Discussion • Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

[issybird]

From Wikipedia:

In writing the novel, Montgomery was inspired by notes she had made as a young girl about a couple who were mistakenly sent an orphan girl instead of the boy they had requested, yet decided to keep her. She drew upon her own childhood experiences in rural Prince Edward Island, Canada. Montgomery used a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit, which she had clipped from New York's Metropolitan Magazine and put on the wall of her bedroom, as the model for the face of Anne Shirley and a reminder of her "youthful idealism and spirituality."

Montgomery was inspired by the "formula Ann" orphan stories (called such because they followed such a predictable formula) which were popular at the time and distinguished her character by spelling her name with an extra "e".

[issybird]

Was Anne a kindred spirit? Did we find scope for imagination in Anne of Green Gables?

Let’s have at it!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I saw an Instagram quiz yesterday asking to choose the best literary couple: Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy versus Anne and Gilbert.

I enjoyed the development of their friendship in this book in spite of Anne’s best efforts to crush it with her unforgiving temper and competitive spirit.

[Dazrin]

Matthew's always been my kindred spirit.

I am not much of a talker but have always been fascinated by people like Anne who can keep going and going and going.

I ended up getting derailed in my reading so I'm not finished yet (barely 30% even) but although it's been a while since I read this isn't a new book for me. I should finish this week.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Matthew's always been my kindred spirit.

I am not much of a talker but have always been fascinated by people like Anne who can keep going and going and going.

I ended up getting derailed in my reading so I'm not finished yet (barely 30% even) but although it's been a while since I read this isn't a new book for me. I should finish this week.

I suspect that you might be describing your own home life as the father of daughters! Anne is definitely filled with energy.

I love how Anne grows in Matthew's heart despite her talkative nature and her outgoing, fiery personality compared to his reserve. Even though she is not a boy to help with the farmwork, he can't return her to the orphanage, and then he is the one to indulge her fancies like fashionable dresses. Fathers and daughters - a special bond.

This book just makes one smile.

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I enjoyed the development of their friendship in this book in spite of Anne’s best efforts to crush it with her unforgiving temper and competitive spirit.

Me too, and she certainly did do her best to drive him away. Gilbert was a very forgiving fellow!

For me, it was a delight reading this again. I read it first as a child, and absolutely adored it. I loved the whole Anne series, along with most of Montgomery’s other books. I read it for a second time about 35 years ago, and the only impression I remember from the rereading was surprise to find myself laughing.

This was my third reading, and I found Montgomery’s description of daily life in the small farming community very interesting. There were many parallels with my own childhood. In particular, village life and characters, and also how every little brook and field had it’s own name and character. Granted I grew up just a few hours away from Cavendish (Avonlea) but there was a separation of half a century, and my community was primarily French Acadian. Maybe farming communities are similar, whenever and wherever they are.

This time around, I was surprised to see that the book is mostly a series of little vignettes. The mistaken perspective I’d retained from my childhood was that it was a long involved novel.

[CRussel]

This was my first reading of Anne, and I listened to the Rachel McAdams narration while knitting myself a sweater. It seemed appropriate, somehow.

I must say I was quite enchanted. Anne is such an irrepressible character, and Matthew was such a dour one except for how he interacts with Anne.

I'll have a bit more to say, especially about the role of Anne in the Canadian consciousness, but that will have to wait until later in the long weekend.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I am very curious about the Canadian perspective.

[Bookpossum]

Sorry Canadian cousins, but I have to be a dissenting voice.

The book is well enough written, but it is a fairy tale that Montgomery has written for herself because she had a wretched childhood, for which she certainly has my sympathy.

I found the book quite unbelievable. Anne was a child who for 11 years had been unloved and unwanted. She had quite obviously been ill-treated, and been a drudge. She received no education until she was put into the orphanage.

Yet this child was an optimistic chatterbox, prepared to express her feelings of despair when she thought she once again wasn’t wanted. Able to socialise with other children and be popular with them. Really?

I can accept that she could be extremely intelligent, pick up her lessons very quickly and learn how to interact with others. But all that confidence and social skill from the moment we meet her? I doubt it more than somewhat.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I don't believe Anne is meant to be realistic as read by an adult perspective or with a modern understanding of abuse/mental trauma/PTSD/etc. She's meant to be idealistic yet relatable and an aspirational role model for young children. She's a heroine, yet she's not sinless or flawless. She has her trials to overcome as she matures to be a young adult, but she's optimistic and resilient. The cozy, heart-warming aspect is why it has endured over 100 years, countless adaptations have been made, and those who read it in childhood can re-read it as an adult with the same happy feelings and nostalgia.

[Catlady]

Late again--tight work deadline, so it'll be a few days before I can comment.

[gmw]

I'm not finished yet. I can't remember if I've read it before or if the story is simply familiar from being so famous. Maybe I saw a film adaptation, I don't remember that either.

I really liked a lot of the opening sequences. They evoke a very pleasant mood and neatly introduce the setting and the main characters ... but eventually it all becomes too much. It wasn't long before what it evoked was that old saying: makes my teeth itch.

Like Bookpossum, I find Anne rather hard to accept. The outspokenness of her seems quite outlandish to me - could it be that children actually got away with speaking back to adults in this way back in the 1870s?

I think you are right Bookworm_Girl, that Anne is idealised, and perhaps more to the point, as you said an "aspirational role model for young children". That latter is definitely something I can see, Anne drawn by adults as they imagine such a child should be (but not as they'd ever allow one to act).

I do like the setting, and I like the way it plays such an important part of this story.

... Now I should probably get back to finishing it.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Sorry Canadian cousins, but I have to be a dissenting voice.

The book is well enough written, but it is a fairy tale that Montgomery has written for herself because she had a wretched childhood, for which she certainly has my sympathy.

I found the book quite unbelievable. Anne was a child who for 11 years had been unloved and unwanted. She had quite obviously been ill-treated, and been a drudge. She received no education until she was put into the orphanage.

Yet this child was an optimistic chatterbox, prepared to express her feelings of despair when she thought she once again wasn’t wanted. Able to socialise with other children and be popular with them. Really?

I can accept that she could be extremely intelligent, pick up her lessons very quickly and learn how to interact with others. But all that confidence and social skill from the moment we meet her? I doubt it more than somewhat.

This is my first time reading the book and initially I too found Anne’s character very difficult to accept. She was simply too bouncy and cheerful for a child who had gone through a dreadful abusive childhood. Montgomery tries hard to make her character believable by giving us a whole chapter concerning Anne’s horrible past and showing her terror at the possibility of being farmed out again. But I don’t think it works. In the end I simply took Anne as given.

Once I did that I found a great deal to enjoy. The description of the locale and the natural surroundings gave a radiance to the book. The other characters were nicely portrayed and Anne did grow upon me as the story developed. I think I’ll read the sequels.

Just as a coda, I did read the “Emily of New Moon” series and in that case I found Emily to be a far more believable and complex character than Anne.

[gmw]

Catlady, on the thread looking for new theme ideas, you asked of one of my suggestions: "Morality Tales--after Aesop's Fables, what fits?"

I can now give you an answer you will understand: Anne of Green Gables. Every chapter a moral, in some chapters several or reiterations of past morals.


I finished. Nothing unexpected. Like I said in my previous post, I'm not sure exactly where my familiarity comes from. If this was not a club read I'd probably have stopped at around 30%. Not that it was a bad read as such, just that it felt too condescending, too childish, too dated in its mores, for my tastes. I like a lot of kids books, and some authors of strongly moral tales are among my favourites, but this didn't work for me. I liked the elements (many of the characters and the setting), but didn't much like the whole.


I can't be the only one here that cringed when reading about the attention the teacher, Mr Phillips, was paying to his 16yo student Prissy Andrews. Apparently the attention was considered appropriate in those times, and it appears to have worked out acceptably well, at least for the times, but to modern eyes it is quite disturbing (or so it seemed to me).

[gmw]

Just thought I'd add: I purchased the Delphi Classics collection: The Complete Works of L.M. Montgomery. The Anne of Green Gables story in the collection had images from the first edition, and was prefixed with images from various film adaptations; it was perfectly readable but I was a little disappointed to discover quite so many errors in the text. ("for" instead of "far", mismatching left/right quotation marks etc.) I'm still glad to have the collection because there are other books by Montgomery that I like much more than Anne, but I had expected better from Delphi Classics.