Anne of Green Gables (Arcturus Essential Anne of Green Gables)

by L. M. Montgomery

Read the timeless classic about the beloved Anne Shirley, a red-haired orphan with a fiery spirit, before watching the NETFLIX series--and don’t miss the forward by Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, celebrating the 100th anniversary of this children’s favorite!
 
Eleven-year-old Anne Shirley has never known a real home. Since her parents' deaths, she's bounced around to foster homes and orphanages. When she is sent by mistake to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she wants to stay forever. But Anne is not the sturdy boy Matthew and Marilla were expecting.
 
She's a mischievous, talkative redheaded girl with a fierce temper, who tumbles into one scrape after another. Anne is not like anybody else, the Cuthberts agree; she is special, a girl with an enormous imagination. All she's ever wanted is to belong somewhere. And the longer she stays at Green Gables, the harder it is for anyone to imagine life without her.

"[Anne is] the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice."-Mark Twain

• ISBN10: 0553153277
• ISBN13: 9780553153279
• Publish Date: 1 September 1984 (first published 1 June 1908)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Books Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Digest)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780553153279

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

Yes, this is my first time reading it.  I was book shopping back in January with my 9 year old niece and she was pressuring me to read Little Women, which isn't going to happen, and in a panic, I volunteered to read Anne of Green Gables instead.

Keeping in mind that I'm 40 years beyond the target audience for this book, omg, it's so twee.  468 pages and about 368 of them so twee and precious I almost gave up and dnf'd it.  Suffice it to say, I identified most strongly with Marilla.  But if I skimmed the gratuitous expository narrative, there was a charming story that kept me going (after a 3 month hiatus).  And as Anne grew up, the story got progressively easier to read.  That part of the story earned it the extra half star.

The reasons this book is a classic are clear, though I'm confident I wouldn't have been much more enamoured of this book when I was in its target audience; even as a child I lacked the requisite imagination to feel like Anne was a kindred spirit, and Heidi pretty much killed the orphan sub-genre for me anyway.  But I have one niece for whom this book might be a perfect fit, and I'll be holding in on my shelf for her next visit, assuming that happens before she's old enough to drive, given current border closures.  Or maybe I'll just send it to her in the post.

[readingwithwrin]

4.5 stars

Thank you to Misty for reading this book with me as a buddy read.

Anne of Green Gables is one of those books I always hear about but keep putting off reading because of how many people love it. I did watch the Netflix series Anne with an e before reading this book, but I can assure you that it didn't take away from my reading experience as they are different in several ways and enjoyable on there own and together.

Anne is an orphan who has been adopted by the Cuthberts who are needing someone to help out on the farm. The problem is though that they were expecting a boy, so getting a girl instead was a bit of a shock and took some discussing on there part on what to do. While they do end up keeping her mostly because of Matthew having found her quite entertaining due to how she never stopped talking and the way she saw the world with such hope. Marilla, on the other hand, did take some getting used to when it came to their relationship for several different reasons, but we see them all grow as a family and how they all end up helping each other throughout the book.

We also get to see Anne make friends and even have a rivalry with a fellow classmate. These were extremely entertaining to see happen at times because of all the trouble they got into, while also being fun and showing a real childhood. None of the characters were acting older than they really were and it was nice to see them actually getting to be their age for a change. I know that isn't something I talk about it books, but it is something I've been noticing more and more recently in some new young adult/middle-grade books.

Overall I loved this book. Anne is one of those characters that you want to protect but also find yourself getting annoyed with at times because of the trouble she can get into. The friendships and family dynamic we get to see in this book were so nice to see and I loved how we see Anne and her friends grow up throughout the book. While a lot of Anne's life is packed into this one book, it never felt rushed or like anything was being left out.
The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because of what happened at the end to one of the characters. I was not expecting that at all and I wish we had gotten more time with them.
I can't wait to see what happens in the next book and what happens in the next stage of Anne's life.

[Jane]

I've read this book once before, but my guardians at the time permitted me not to read any more books from the series, because they found it inappropriate—they didn't care for imagination or people who'd gone through hardships having happy endings or pushing through regardless of them, as such was unrealistic thinking and not to be had. I envied girls in school who read the books and talked about them so freely, so when I noticed my grandmother has the set, I had to read them.

I didn't pick up a book until recently, however; life was busy and all that jazz.~

The only issue I've with this book is the lack of commas after transitional phrases and between subordinate clauses, for without them, reading was a bit difficult. I also didn't like how "that" was used so often, but aside from those two things, I loved it. 3

Rare was the fluff-stuffing, something I too often read in books. I dislike redundancy in books and when precious space, ink, time and words are wasted for it.

All reviews in series:
Anne of Green Gables (#1)
Anne of Avonlea (#2)
Anne of the Island (#3)