Sunday, March 31, 2013

Anne of Green Gables (1908)


Anne of Green Gables is a sweet story about a young girl's adoption, growing up, settling down, and getting an education. It's also the first novel I've read completely online through iBooks. :-)

Anne Shirley, when we first meet her, is an overly dramatic, extremely talkative 11-year old. She has a temper she cannot control and a passion to speak her mind. She is high-spirited, scatterbrained, and always in some kind of innocent but problematic trouble.

As the young girl ages, under the strong care of Marilla Cuthbert and her quiet but loving brother Matthew, Anne becomes more balanced. She works hard, achieves recognition as a scholar, and makes solid decisions that put others before herself.

Mark Twain is said to have called Anne "the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice." The character is certainly well developed with both positive qualities and youthful faults. Anne is driven by her emotions and imagination and later by her ambitions. She can be set apart from other young heroines by her rich inner life. Additional characters within the story are less developed, though, and men are positively absent or barely significant to the plot.

Which of the following portrayals come closest to how you IMAGINE Anne Shirley to look?

Mary Miles Minter
Dawn O'Day
Meghan Follow

2 comments:

Evil Pixie said...

I LOVE Anne of Green Gables. I used to wish I had long red hair. I most closely associate Anne with the Megan Follows portrayal. I went out and bought all the videos, just so me and my sister can watch them as many times as we want.

Hariklia said...

I've heard of it (of course) but haven't read it. I also have not read anything of length electronically, yet. So you are way ahead of me!