2 reviews
The Quoddy Tides "Book Nook" (December, 1994)
This deluxe edition is a treasure. Faithful to the 1908 original, it replicates it in every way including the capacious size (approximately 8" x 10"), large print, and unabridged text.
Further enhancing its charm of yesteryear, it features 16 new full-page color illustrations by renowned artist Gabriela Dellosso whose brilliant brush evokes dramatic scenes plucked from the story line. Add to this all the artistic touches that graced the original book nearly 90 years ago and the stage is set for reader pleasure of a rare order.
From the moment she puts in an appearance at the Bright River train station on Prince Edward Island, the volatile, freckled-face Anne captures the reader's heart. It is easy to understand why Mark Twain wrote that she was "the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice in Wonderland." Voluble, impulsive, with a penchant for getting into scrapes, this green-eyed, red-haired blithe spirit, an orphan who is sent to a Prince Edward Island family by mistake, remains a breath of fresh air in the world where the innocence of childhood has become a tragic anachronism.
When author Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, she had no idea it was destined to be a global best seller. A spinster school teacher and a native of Prince Edward Island, she had voluntarily put her teaching career on hold in order to care for her aged grandmother (who lived for another dozen or so years). During this long, difficult period Montgomery wrote stories and poems in her spare time. Because they sold well, in 1904, when she was 30, she decided to write her first novel for young people. It was called Anne of Green Gables, and the plot revolved around a spunky 11-year-old orphan who rises above the hardships and privations of her life by fighting back with what she calls "the scope of my imagination."
"Isn't it splendid," reflects Anne, "to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?"
Still, there were disappointments that triggered her tears. As, for instance, at the beginning of the story when she is mistakenly sent to Prince Edward Island to be adopted by a middle-aged sister and brother, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, whose farm, called Green Gables, is situated on Avonlea, "a little triangular peninsula jutting out into the gulf of St. Lawrence." Wild with happiness over the prospect of having a real home at last, Anne is crushed hen Marilla tells her that what she and her brother had asked for was a boy to help Matthew with the farm chores, and that they were returning her to the orphanage.
Miraculously, the engaging magic or the orphan with the "eager, luminous smile," wins them over and the "lonely, heart-hungry, friendless child" cries again but this time for joy. She finds a "bosom friend" in black-haired, black-eyed, rosy-cheeked Diana Barry and together they grow into young womanhood, with Diana ever loyal to the impetuous, dashing Anne whose escapades frequently made Marilla groan.
When Lucy Maud first sent the manuscript out, it was rejected by so many publishers that in despair she stored it away in a hat box. Three years later she submitted it to the L.C. Page Company, a Boston, Massachusetts, publishing firm. To her great surprise and relief, they accepted it and in 1908 Anne of Green Gables made its bow in the book shops. Instantly, the public took Anne to its heart.
They clamored for sequels and Lucy Maud was forced to write seven such; but the brightest gem in the Anne of Green Gables series was always Montgomery's first novel about Anne.
Anne of Green Gables became and has remained a classic. Why? Perhaps the reason lies in a melange of guesses--the entertaining high jinx of the charismatic Anne, the setting of the stories, Prince Edward Island's incomparable beauty and tranquility, the bygone era in which the story takes place, a time when decency and human values ruled and disciplined the behavior of the villagers.
Then, always and forever, there is the charm and glow of Anne, a gallant little girl who intuitively lived by the wisdom that happiness--true happiness--springs from each person's own fountainhead, a philosophy posited by the Roman writer, Seneca, nearly 2,000 years ago when he wrote, "Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest."
Library Journal (October, 1994)
This version of Montgomery's classic is illustrated with 14 beautiful color prints by artist Gabriella Dellosso. Though many cheaper editions are available, this is really quite nice for the price.