If sunshine, honey blossoms, and smiles could be a book, it would be 'Anne of Green Gables' by L.M. Montgomery.
I had first read the Canadian children's classic novel when I was much younger, and I inexplicably forgot about the majority of it, or I wasn't impressed by its "lack of plot and point". I don't know why I was such an idiot towards it, but I'm happy to remedy my mistake now, in late 2025, when I needed it most and didn't realise it.
'Anne of Green Gables' is the kind of book that makes you glad books and reading exist. It makes you glad to be alive. I would be hard-pressed by and distrustful of anyone who says they've read it and it didn't make them happy and grateful of the world we live in, at least a little.
It contains some of the best and most beautiful and colourful descriptions of the countryside, trees, firs, flowers, foliage, ponds, creeks, rivers, banks, and nature ever written by human hand and heart. No doubt, the writing is gorgeous, and giddy, sweet, and as bountiful as fields, woods, hills, valleys, avenues, and stars in twilight. (What willows and wisteria there are, too!). L.M. Montgomery achieved the goal of writing Green Gables, Avonlea, and Prince Edward Island in general as marvellous, splendid, pleasurable, idyllic places to live.
The written word is as blithe, genial, sunny, and unique and unforgettable as Anne herself.
Anne Shirley is one of the most delightful, charming, enchanting, precious, adorable, adoring, bonny, special and golden heroines ever. It is she who makes the book the timeless classic it is. A wisp and sprite of a girl with a huge heart and a mouth to match it. She holds nothing back in her extreme natter and chatter - she has no filter whatsoever - and no one would want her any other way.
Anne joins Heidi, Pollyanna, and Sara Crewe on lists of classic children's novel orphan heroines who change the lives of the people around them through their undefeatable optimism and imagination (Dorothy Gale might also count). But unlike those, she is no perfect, angelic, saintly Mary Sue type. Anne has flaws, such as a bad temper, a dramatic disposition, flightiness, over-daydreaming, over-imagining, stubbornness, impulsiveness, capriciousness, restlessness, recklessness, and not thinking before saying and doing things, and these are acknowledged in the text, as are the mistakes and mishaps she makes in each chapter and episode in her life at Green Gables and Avonlea. These make her more grounded and relatable than most heroines written around the time of 'Anne of Green Gable''s publication, and they no less make her a staunch optimist and dreamer, determined to love life and everything it has to offer, and be happy. In that respect, Green Gables is the perfect home for her.
It is nigh impossible not to find Anne's positive attitude and outlook on life infectious.
L.M. Montgomery injected so much personality into her that one can't help but love her.
She is the very idol to look on on why girls and women should have unrestricted freedom of speech, exploration and education. They make for happier and more interesting and lovable people.
I think we should all try to be like dear, darling Anne Shirley, and appreciate and love the simple and pleasant things in life, and never be afraid to speak our minds, wholeheartedly and honestly.
She is a blessed, miraculous gift of a character.
One character flaw to highlight: Anne is obsessed with pretty things, and her idea of femininity is challenged by the other characters: it is always better to be smart than attractive, and it is wrong and stupid to be vain. Is Anne's fixation on narcissi symbolic?! (Though wanting pretty, fashionable dresses is a forgivable vice.) She is doubly, triply obsessed with what is "romantic", and having "kindred spirits", and what provides the "scope for imagination", and who possesses it.
It is also possible she has ADHD and is on the autism spectrum, and could be an icon for the neurodivergent.
I love that, as part of the book's narrative and framing device, many major events that happen are told in passing and through Anne telling Marilla Cuthbert about them after the fact - I have a feeling, an inkling, that this was done because the author knew that nothing and no one but her main chatty child character could divulge the information as effectively, playfully, and beautifully, with her stunning, unchecked imagination, fervour and humour, and proverbs that hold kernels of truth to them. Anne is a storyteller and poet, and she has got to start somewhere.
I could go on and on forever about why Anne is a fantastic heroine, not least of which - slight spoiler - when she grows into an older teenager she is a little reserved and less prone to talking for pages on end, but she still strives for further education and enlightenment for herself - with ambitions like writing poetry, and singing - no matter what occurs in life; whatever strikes as well as sparks. She remains wonderful and different, with extra selflessness, appreciation and compassion for her loved ones. How's that for coming-of-age development!
She doesn't conform to traditional gender roles!
...yet.
Yeah, I've read the premises, synopses and reviews of the sequels, and it is tragic. Tragical! I feel betrayed. Betrayed for the fearless, free-spirited Anne Shirley. It makes me ill to think how she ends up and how she's treated by the author in adulthood. To think she was a product of her time after all, emphasis on product; a discarded, neglected, dreamless tool of conservatism and the patriarchy, who loses her spark and independence. A hollowed out husk of who she was and everything she represented. 'Anne' suffers the same fate as 'Little Women'.
I will keep 'Anne of Green Gables' and pretend it's a standalone; that Anne stays a feminist icon. I will not be reading the rest of the series, if no one minds.
In reading 'Anne', I was also surprised by how funny, witty and clever it is, and how vast its vocabulary is, like a treasure of words on its many wondrous pages.
I will list my other thoughts on the book in scatterbrained bullet points. Again, I had no well planned out review in mind, to do Anne, Green Gables, and her episodes and scrapes any justice, so here's the best a dunce like me has got to offer:
• I'd notice there are a few typos in the beginning of my copy of 'Anne of Green Gables' (one of the newer 2024 editions). I looked into other editions - online and physical, in shops - and some have the same typos, while others don't. I am baffled. Could somebody explain to me how this is? How it's possible? I'd decided to do something I'd never done before and got a pen to correct the errors in my copy - for a classic! I noticed no other typos further along in my reading, however.
• Marilla Cuthbert can be a little mean, nasty, condescending and sarcastic, but it is part of her charm. How she develops, and how Anne ends up warming her hard heart, is beautifully written. Her brother, Matthew Cuthbert, is her exact opposite. He is a quiet, humble, gentle old soul who gets on with things, and is afraid of the female of the species, though he would let them do all the talking for him. One thing he is not afraid of is showing his affection for Anne when he is able, unlike his sister. I love these two surprise parental figures for Anne, who make up her foster family, even though they are still products of their time and are strictly and rigidly conservative Christians.
• In fact, pretty much all the characters are lovable in spite of their flaws and contradictions. They are flawed, real people, which makes them successfully endearing and enduring.
• Speaking of: Mrs Rachel Lynde, the nosy neighbour, Avonlea gossip, and "voice of reason, authority, and experience". What a cow, and like all conservatives she is so brainwashed by societal backwards thinking, and so out of touch, narrowminded and wrongheaded, and so chockfull of contradictions when it comes to various aspects in life, that it's a wonder how she functions as an extroverted person who never shuts up about her opinions on everything. I hate to criticise a woman for being "outspoken", and especially if she should be too-easily referred to as a "nag" - an archaic, sexist term used by the patriarchy to dismiss women's reasonable and rational concerns - but outspokenness should not be a front for thoughtlessness and lack of sympathy and empathy in making her voice heard. She is a political nightmare. Rachel Lynde is the kind of person - who would be called a "karen" nowadays - who makes me want to say to her, "However did you make it to adulthood without realising the entire universe doesn't revolve around you and what you want it to be? And that other people don't exist to just serve your needs and whims - to do what you want them, to make your life comfortable and convenient? And you know it's okay to acknowledge that some of your views are outdated and harmful, right? And it is entirely possible you are wrong, and that's fine?" And yet, Rachel is endearing and amusing because we all know, or have known, people like her in real life. She has her quirks that make her tolerable, and she is willing to concede her faults. She isn't heartless, or she doesn't mean to be. I don't think she is very "good" or "harmless", though. In addition, she one of the book's targets for the author's unfortunate fatphobia, but compared to other books, even modern ones, it is hardly vitriolic, nor pervasive.
• 'Anne of Green Gables' gets surprisingly political in a few spots, but it isn't too preachy or pious in comparison to other children's books of its cloth and era (*cough*LittleWomen*cough*). In depicting the real world, it is as fearless as Anne is.
• The slice-of-life, coming-of-age novel is fast-paced and there are time skips. It takes place in the span of four years, and it seemingly goes by in the blink of a starlight twinkle, but I don't mind. It's refreshing and readable, and never boring.
• I always looked forward to picking up 'Anne of Green Gables' whenever I could, which is a sure sign I was reading a good book.
• Gilbert Blythe appears sporadically throughout the whole novel, for all he is Anne's one true love of the series. It is just the right amount of page time for him when it is Anne's story. When he does show up, he is more amusing and noble than an annoying distraction. He isn't such a bully and nuisance at this stage of development - in fact, if anything he is too good for a boy his age. Though his last line to Anne in the final pages is a bit creepy, demanding and possessive.
• I laughed out loud at the scene where Anne breaks her slate over Gilbert's head at school. Imagine Heidi, Pollyanna, or heck, even Jo March doing anything like that! Another surprise from 'Anne': for its preaching and moralising in most chapters, violent and potentially dangerous acts such as these are shrugged off as no big deal - no real harm done! Even Gilbert easily forgives Anne, and he immediately knows and accepts he provoked her in his teasing. This leads me to:
• The chapter where Anne is dared to walk a ridge-pole on a roof, and she falls and breaks her ankle. She recovers completely in several weeks, and it is barely mentioned again. A serious injury like that is not something that can be moved on from and forgotten about! There are no lasting effects or PTSD from the incident! Later on, Anne doesn't even list it as one of the foolish mistakes she'd made since coming to Green Gables, and what morals she learned from them; what "cured" her of her shortcomings. Why doesn't she bring up the time she accidently got Diana drunk?!
• Oh, how did it take me this long to talk about Diana Barry, Anne's "bosom friend" and one of her "kindred spirits". Theirs is a wonderful, sweet friendship. There is definite queer (and not the old-fashioned meaning of the word) subtext that isn't subtext in their devotion, affection, and words of love for one another. It was inevitable that there would be modern retellings, such as the graphic novel 'Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (Sort Of)', that would stop dillydallying and let them be the romantic, sapphic pair they were always meant to be.
• Diana's little sister Minnie May is hardly a presence, an existence, anywhere, despite playing an integral part in one chapter where Anne literally saves her life and thus wins over Diana's mother after the drunk-Diana incident.
• Childhood girl-friends aside, Anne has a great many adult female role models and "kindred spirits", such as her teacher, Miss Stacy, Mrs Allan the minister's wife, and Diana's great-aunt Josephine Barry. What nice women, even "scary", cranky, spoiled old Josephine.
• The teacher Mr Phillips flirting with a sixteen-year-old student, Prissy Andrews, and sending her love notes, is creepy and inappropriate no matter the time period. Why was that included? Granted, Mr Phillips isn't portrayed in a positive light to begin with, but this crime is treated lightly, if pathetically. Do not approve.
• Another negative criticism: In the chapter where Anne dyes her hair, with disastrous results, and she confesses how it happened to Marilla, the latter accuses her of letting an Italian (read: foreigner) into their house...then Anne says the peddler/possible con merchant who sold her the hair dye was actually a German Jew. So the vagabond and deceitful conman of a child was a foreigner and a Jew. Greeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. This unfortunately tracks with the xenophobia, specifically against Germans, that I've read about concerning L.M. Montgomery's 'Rilla of Ingleside', the final book of the 'Anne' series, and the outright racism in her short story set in Avonlea, 'Tannis of the Flats'. To her, anyone who isn't Canadian and white is dirt to be scorned and scraped off. Antisemitic stereotypes are alive and strong in her work, too. Montgomery was a product of her time (I keep having to say that as a defence--no, excuse, don't I? I'm not proud of it), despite her progressive thinking in other areas. Well, if I can forgive the racism in 'Jane Eyre', which is like an adult 'Anne', due to its phenomenal, raw, atmospheric and unforgettable writing, characters and feminist ideas, then I can do 'Anne of Green Gables' a similar courtesy. Although it is marketed towards children...
• On the subject of Anne's hair, I never got fictional characters hating their red hair with a passion, like she does. Redheads are awesome! Anne Shirley is one of the examples of this, out of multitudes! I'd love to have red tresses. I may be auburn in a certain light, inherited from my naturally redhaired mother.
There is lots to talk about 'Anne of Green Gables', a deceptively simple children's book!
I did not intend to make my review of it this long, trust me. It is suddenly 3am as I write and edit my ramblings!
Once again, I am happy to have given 'Anne of Green Gables' another chance, as an adult nearing my mid thirties. I needed something like it.
We all need it.
In my opinion, it is better than 'Little Women'. It is less saccharine, preachy and moralistic than that children's lit with "romantic" female main characters. To date it is my favourite orphan girl storybook next to 'A Little Princess', and Anne Shirley (as a child and teenager, at least) is one of my favourite literary heroines, and redhaired heroines!
I can't help falling in love with it. It is a glorious delight in book form, and a lyrical ode to nature, optimism and the human spirit, in all its faulty, tricky but unbreakable goodness, no matter the ups and downs of life.
Indeed, I dare say life would be incomplete for anyone who has not read 'Anne of Green Gables' once--no, multiple times.
What a beautiful, soulful, cheerful gem.
I won't be reading the sequels, but it certainly won't be my last L.M. Montgomery book.
Final Score: 4/5
Final Score: 4/5
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