Anne of Green Gables
It’s taken us several weeks to read through Anne of Green Gables together, and I’m sure it will end up being one of our most memorable books. The girls loved Anne’s voluble personality and passionate nature, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard them respond so readily and wholeheartedly to a book we’ve experienced together. It brought Anne into our imaginative family. “Anne would give this trail a really romantic name, wouldn’t she?” Younger Daughter asked with a smile on one of our recent walks. It’s one example of Anne’s personality finding its way out of the book and into our lives.
It’s always interesting to read a familiar favorite as a read-aloud. I notice different things. Reading Green Gables this time around, I noticed Anne’s vindictiveness, and her absolute lack of a sense of humor. She takes everything too seriously. She seems to grow very mature very quickly, and loses some of her quirkiness in being transformed into an ideal. But her great defining trait is her passionate nature. Her heart is right out there, all the time, in everything from friendship to school to nature study to religion. She’s a very accessible heroine, easy to care about and pull for.
I also noticed the range of topics Montgomery includes — religion, feminism, scholarship, death, love, friendship, forgiveness, family. Read-alouds can be such a good bridge, introducing topics that might not be part of the regular fabric of our lives. The cast of characters and personalities is impressive too. About my only complaint is that I blubbered like a baby when Matthew died, and I got choked and quavery in several other touching spots as well. (Sigh.) I am not a dainty crier. But my dignity is a small price to pay for the pleasure we got out of Green Gables.
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7 Comments
Carrie, Reading to Know
:D HA about not being a dainty crier! :D
Yesss! Little girls becoming imaginative like Anne.
You are absolutely right – she had no sense of humor. I never thought of that before. But it’s true!
Barbara H.
I didn’t discover Anne until early adulthood when the film came out on PBS, then I sought ought the books. I think I cried when Matthew died, too, or I’m sure at least felt like it.
I hadn’t thought about her lack of a sense of humor, either, but it is true — she was so intense.
Sometimes in the later books I had to wonder at characters who said to her something like, “You have such a charmed life” or “Everything is so easy for you, you couldn’t possibly understand what I am going through” or “I was jealous of you.” I thought, Seriously? Her life started out pretty rough. Of course, later characters wouldn’t have known that, but I was surprised the author didn’t carry that perspective through. My heart aches for her early life even while it admires the ways she found to cope. I liked her development into a more settled but still imaginative adult.
How neat to be able to share this with your girls!
Janet
I agree, her life starts rough, but there isn’t much reference back to the pre-Green Gables era.
To me, one of the most wonderful themes is restoration — the way Matthew and Marilla get Anne by mistake, then decide to keep her, and the redemption goes both ways.
Maybe she becomes more settled because the need for escape isn’t as strong once she finds a home.
Amy @ Hope Is the Word
I believe I was close to the age of your eldest dd when I first met Anne and fell irrevocably in love with her and her whole world. I haven’t known when to introduce my girls to her (because I know they’re too young right now) for maximum effect, and whether to share GG as a read-aloud or give it to my eldest to enjoy on her own. This is probably disproportionately important/stressful to me, to make the right decision about this one book. ;-)
I don’t think I’ve actually read GG in its entirety in years–decades, even. I think I’m due for a re-read.
Janet
I’ve had that struggle over when and how to introduce certain books! Not so much with this one, though.
For the record, my youngest is 8 and she adored this book.
Ruth
I haven’t read this one aloud. I read them when I was a child, and then again in my early 20s, and then my daughter read them on her own. I think it would have been fun to read them aloud. Oh well, too many books, too little time.
Janet
I’m thinking I’d like them to read the others on their own. But I very much enjoyed introducing them to Anne.