Books I Love - Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Please note that this post contains SPOILERS.
However, since the book was first published in 1908, I think people have probably had ample time to read it.
I recently reread a childhood favourite, Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery. I hadn’t read this story since I was young but I have always loved it, not in small part due to the wonderful adaptation starring Megan Follows in the titular role.
Having attempted to watch the recent Netflix version, Anne with an E, I decided to go back and read the book. I wanted to see what it was that sat so fondly in my heart that made me unable to finish watching the show as it veered so completely from the original story after such a promising start.
Anne of Green Gables is a story about a neglected and probably traumatised little girl who begins to heal when she finds a home on a farm with an aging brother and sister. She receives unconditional acceptance and loving indulgence from Matthew, and firm, but ultimately kind boundaries and guidance from Marilla. It is all that she needs to flourish. And while they give her the grounding she needs to grow; she gives them just as much in return.
Reading the book as an adult myself, I am much more attuned to the two parental figures in the book. Although we don’t really hear about their childhoods or upbringing, Matthew and Marilla are upstanding people who through whatever quirks of life are solitary and set in their ways. Constant companions throughout their lives.
The arrival of Anne brought both of them out of their shells in different ways. Matthew discovered a connection to another person and the ability to love another in a way that I don’t think he had ever had the courage to explore before. And Marilla’s stern and proper exterior was cracked open, at least a little. While she still struggled with what was right and proper, the joy she took in Anne (even when she kept it so tightly to herself) softened her heart. As Mrs Rachel Lynde said, “Marilla Cuthbert has got mellow.”
I believe that Marilla hid her heart behind a wall after she left it too late to forgive John Blythe and he didn’t come back for her. The similarity between her experience and Anne’s, where she had done the same thing with Gilbert, makes me think that Marilla was more like Anne than she probably wanted to let herself or anyone else believe, but she had closed herself up so long ago that she had forgotten. Anne coming into her life began to dismantle her walls and I believe that Anne did just as much for the old brother and sister as they did for her.
I found it difficult to stomach how often Anne was reminded to be a good girl and how much she believed she was not good. It seemed that she, being an orphan, was held to a much higher standard than everyone else. She was never actually bad, she just got distracted or carried away. Yet she was punished when others weren’t. Gilbert got away with doing nasty things like calling the girls names or pinning their hair to the chair so they couldn’t stand up, yet when Anne stood up for herself, even when Gilbert tried to own up to his part in the incident, she is the one who got in trouble.
Mrs Rachel Lynde said some awful things to Anne when she first met her. Mrs Lynde was described as outspoken yet Anne, having responded in kind, was wicked and bad and she was forced to apologise. Now I understand that Mrs Lynde was Anne’s elder and at you were expected to respect your elders but still, how could you expect a neglected little girl to know better when that was the kind of treatment she was exposed to by people who thought themselves her better.
“I know they meant to be just as good and kind as possible. And when people mean to be good to you, you don’t mind very much when they’re not quite – always.”
As I read I felt like Anne’s flights of fancy and her imagination had been a way of keeping herself safe in her earlier childhood. They allowed her to keep her innate optimism and appreciation for everything around her as she was raised in households where she was little more than maid/nanny and where she was exposed at least to one of the men in the families being a drunk (and possibly a violent drunk if the state of the glass doors on the bookcase in the sitting room was any indication). The fact that she spoke well of the two women who had taken her on as a child, spoke volumes of Anne’s character and her kind nature – even though she could get very feisty when insulted.
The book was a delightful read, with wonderful characterisations of the various personalities in the story, as well as enchanting descriptions of the settings and the seasons of Prince Edward Island. I could almost smell the flowers, feel the breezes on my skin and see the colours of the sunsets.
The story touched my heart and I was as engaged by the characters and their lives as I had been when I first discovered Avonlea as a child.
And although I knew it was coming I still had tears in my eyes (and running down my face, if I’m honest) when dear old Matthew died. He was such a sweet, lovely old fellow with a tender heart that I tear up even now thinking of him.
And just when the tears began to dry, as Anne decided selflessly to stay at Green Gables, the actions of Gilbert Blythe and then Anne finally giving in and speaking to him set me off again.
Anne of Green Gables did not disappoint. It was a thoroughly charming read and I dare say I will continue to re-read the further adventures of Anne Shirley with great joy.
“She came out of her reverie with a deep sigh and looked at him with the dreamy gaze of a soul that had been wandering afar, star-led… ‘It’s the first thing I ever saw that couldn’t be improved upon by imagination’.”