Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Publisher: Waldman Publishing
Rating: WORTHY!
Today marks the first of December. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, and 26 days until Boxing Day (the day after Xmas). Coincidence? I think not! So to celebrate this mathematically calendrical discovery, for the first 26 days of this month, I'll be posting reviews in alphabetical order, one each day, starting with 'A'.
Anne of Green Gables is a very short novel. The version I had was replete (on every other page!) with simplistic illustrations reminiscent of the ones in the Sherlock Holmes stories. One summer, when Anne Shirley is twelve and has enough imagination for twelve people, she's removed from her orphanage, and unceremoniously deposited at a railroad station in Prince Edward Island to await pick-up by her new adoptive family. Anne doesn’t know that the family is expecting a boy, not a girl, and feels insecure, scared, upset and rejected when she learns of this; however, the family decides to keep her.
Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are an older pair who are really looking for a slave - an unpaid worker who will help around the house and small farm which they own. Matthew is much more open to keeping Anne than is Marilla, but Marilla changes her mind - or rather, has it changed for her - the next day when she sees the harsh, if not cruel, woman Anne would end up with if she and Matthew gave her up. The adoptee remains with the Cuthberts.
Anne proves herself to be very opinionated and outspoken as well as imaginative. When a woman who is visiting describes Anne, to her face, in unflattering terms (despite these being pretty much the same terms in which Anne has described herself earlier, to Matthew), Anne retorts in a similar manner in return, and of course gets into trouble for it. She ends up having to apologize, but gets no apology in return.
Anne is fitted out with new clothes, but is very dissatisfied with them, feeling them to be plain, and out-dated. When she attends church, she adds some flowers to her hat to brighten things up a bit, but this merely renders her into a object of fun for the delightfully non-judgmental (or maybe just mental) supposedly Christian children at the church.
When she attends school that fall, she proves herself to be extremely intolerant of teasing from a boy named Gilbert, and breaks her slate over his head. She's punished for this and Gilbert is not, and at the end of the day she takes all of her things home with her, resolving to never return to school, and to never forgive Gilbert for his trespasses against her. We'll see how long that lasts!
Anne accidentally dyes her hair green (but with no gables) when trying to dye it black, because she uses some cheap and nasty dye she bought from a peddler. Marilla has to cut it short to hide the apparently permanent green coloring, but it ends-up looking better as it grows back: softer and more muted in color. How, exactly, that happens is a bit of mystery, but that's neither here nor hair. Just rest assured that Anne's magical hair grows extremely quickly! I wonder if she's related to Harry Potter?
Speaking of speed, Anne becomes fast friends with her nearest neighbor, Diana Barry, but one day Anne serves her alcohol by mistake at a tea party which just the two of them hold, resulting in Diana becoming rather drunk. Mrs Barry forbids Anne to visit with Diana any further, which forces Anne to return to school since this is the only way she will get to see her best friend. The other children are thrilled to have her back because she's so likable, but she refuses to have anything to do with Gilbert, not even after he apologizes profusely, and not even after he conveniently rescues her when she gets stuck under a bridge after the boat she is in sinks.
Shortly afterwards, Diana's young sister gets the croup, and apparently there are no family members there, and no doctors anywhere to be found, so it’s Anne to the rescue. She knows precisely what to do, and it’s resolved quickly. This recovers her friendship with Diana, and the two are allowed to visit with each other again.
When she turns sixteen, Anne goes to the Queen's Academy with a handful of others from her school who have been fast-tracked by a new teacher. She's a hard-working and very bright student who is upset to lose to Gilbert in a contest for a scholarly medal, but she is thrilled to be awarded the top honor - the Avery scholarship which would lead to a degree and a secure and stellar career in teaching.
Unfortunately for her career prospects, Matthew dies of a heart-attack leaving Marilla and Anne alone in the world. On top of this, the Cuthbert's bank fails and leaves them penniless. I tell ya, if I had a penny for every time a character's left penniless, then I’d be the one stealing all their cash. Marilla decides that she must sell Green Gables to adapt to her impoverished circumstances and failing eyesight, but Anne can’t bear the thought of losing the home she loves. She resolves to give up the scholarship, and forgo college. She already has a teaching certificate, so she can start teaching locally, and stay at her only home to help Marilla.
She's rather surprised to discover that Gilbert chooses to remain behind too, and the two resolve to be friends. At this point, she changes her name to Mary Sue. (That last sentence might be a lie).
Despite the simplicity and Mary-Sue-ness of the story, I found myself liking this, which was intriguing, because I didn’t think I would when I resolved to make this the first book of my alphabetical assault on December. It was perky, bouncy and fun. Anne was a delight until she grew older when, I'm devastated to say, she turned out to be tame and quite average.
The story was very uneven. In the beginning, events moved slowly and we saw lots of days go by in Anne's life with lots of detail. She was interesting and funny and feisty, but in time she became completely domesticated, which lost her some of her charm, and time began to flash by so quickly she almost went beyond ludicrous to plaid. But overall, the story was fun and light. There is no teen angst here or inner monologue, no love triangles or fraught scenes, and perhaps it was this refreshing change of pace after so many over-wrought YA novels which made this so refreshing and delightful to read.
