I just heard a discussion on "The Next Chapter", a CBC program all about authors and readers and books. They agreed with you about Anne and highlighted Marilla as a particularly strong example of the best of Canadian women in that time.
Most of my reading is trashy fantasy at the moment: vampires, werewolves, and lots of sex (which I omit because it's so dull). The wholesomeness of Anne is very refreshing, although I can't take too much in one go.
Most of my reading is trashy fantasy at the moment: vampires, werewolves, and lots of sex (which I omit because it's so dull). The wholesomeness of Anne is very refreshing, although I can't take too much in one go.
I bet there's some fanfic that satisfies both requirements...
As I promised, some questions. As usual feel free to ignore as many of these as you like, and add your own.
1a If you had not read the book before, was it what you were expecting? 1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads? 2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book? 3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes? 4 What did you think to the other characters in the book? 5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads? 2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book? 3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes? 4 What did you think to the other characters in the book? 5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
1b This time I noticed how each chapter could stand alone and how Anne learned a small lesson in each one.
2b I love Anne, her imagination, her courage and her amazing ability to look on the bright side of things. I liked seeing her growth but never wanted her to lose all her impulsive emotions or completely tame her temper.
3b Yes. Moral lessons even.
4b Matthew will always be my favorite but this time I liked Marilla better than ever before and was more aware of her (firmly hidden) sense of humor.
5b I read the others long ago and don't remember them as well. It's this young Anne who really captured me.
@LilyPad, The Blue Castle is my very favorite,L.M. Montgomery book, too.
I'm pretty sure the author wrote some stories as serials for the papers. Does anybody know if AoGG was the same? It would explain the episodic structure with the lessons at the end of each.
1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
I hadn't read it since high school maybe, and the reading experience that really sticks with me is the first one, when I was 10 or 11, judging by the handwriting I used to write my name on the flyleaf. So the novel seems like a very different thing to me now.
This time I was struck by the prejudice against the "French" -- are these Quebecois or French immigrants? And this bit from Marilla early on was both jarring and confusing (and I skated right past it when I was a kid):
At first Matthew suggested getting a Home boy. But I said 'no' flat to that. 'They may be all right - I'm not saying they're not - but no London street Arabs for me,' I said. 'Give me a native born at least. ...'
Is the "Home" some kind of orphanage in Ontario that's different from the one in Nova Scotia that Anne comes from?
Another thing that struck me was the way the episodic narrative moves faster and faster as it goes along. We get loads of details of the first few weeks, and a lot about the first year, then less and less -- the Queen's class is formed, and two chapters later the pass list is out. The year at Queen's is summarized in a single chapter, with no actual scenes between the first day or two and the end of the academic year.
And finally, where my sympathies were of course with Anne when I was young, at 57 my sympathies are with Marilla and to a lesser extent with Mrs. Rachel Lynde. As an unsophisticated reader I hadn't noticed how useful Mrs. Rachel was as a narrative device, but now I see what a great idea it is to have a meddling gossip in the story. The times when Marilla holds it together until Anne is out of earshot and then bursts out laughing were so much fun; when I was young I just thought she was mean!
I read it as a child and can barely remember it. I have just started reading it to Dafling Major before bedtime. I was hoping for a book that would have nice gentle chapter endings conductive to going to bed in a pleased expectation of finding out what happens next the following evening, as opposed to having to read a couple of extra pages before one goes to bed because the Dafling Major absolutely has to find out what happens.
So far (the middle of chapter two) the book has not lived up to my hopes.
Both I and Dafling Major laughed at the description of Rachel Lynde as able to manage her own affairs and that of other folks as well.
1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
This time I was struck by the prejudice against the "French" -- are these Quebecois or French immigrants? And this bit from Marilla early on was both jarring and confusing (and I skated right past it when I was a kid):
At first Matthew suggested getting a Home boy. But I said 'no' flat to that. 'They may be all right - I'm not saying they're not - but no London street Arabs for me,' I said. 'Give me a native born at least. ...'
Is the "Home" some kind of orphanage in Ontario that's different from the one in Nova Scotia that Anne comes from?
The French would be the Acadians who were able to escape the "Grand Dérangement" or "Expulsion of the Acadians" toward the end of the 1700's. This is a link to the Acadian museum on Prince Edward Island. https://museeacadien.org/
There is still a large Acadian population on PEI and many live in the Rustico and North Rustico area which is close to the Anne of Green Gables property in the National Park.
The Home Children are the over 100,000 children who were sent over from England from the mid-1800's to the mid-1900's. They were orphans and children from work houses and so forth and were sent to help populate Canada. Many had good lives but many had very hard lives working in houses and on farms. There is a current effort to identify the children and to trace their families. A link to the Home Children of PEI is here https://peihomechildren.com
The thing that struck me most about the first book is Anne's optimism, and imagination. There was something very engaging about that, at least on the page. (I suspect someone as perky as that in real life would get very tiring.)
Must have been a huge contrast in that home from two older siblings to have Anne there. Having any child in the house adds a lot of energy but she was quite the character.
This book has been on the curriculum for students in Japan for many years. It is quite fun to be at the airport when Japanese tourists arrive with the young women wearing straw hats and with their hair in braids. Anne is so popular that there is a regulrar need for tour guides who speak Japanese.
1a If you had not read the book before, was it what you were expecting?
Not at all! I think I was prepared to read something less detailed and more childlike. Actually, I debated whether or not I would read this month's book, but decided to because it was already loaded on my reader. It was included in an anthology of 25 novels.
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
She reminded me of some children I've known who could talk a person's ear off! As Anne's imagination became more practical (is that the right word?) as she aged, I found myself missing the small child she had been.
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes?
The times Anne could just not go to school because of one crisis or another made me laugh out loud! I know Anne was crying, so I felt a little bit guilty about that. But goodness, what a drama queen (or princess!) she was! Green hair might, however, be a good excuse to miss school.
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
I really liked Marilla. For seeming so hard at the beginning, she really had a tender heart. The people, both adults and children, who made fun of Anne's red hair really bothered me. I never have understood how people through the ages have scorned red hair. I think it's beautiful.
5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
I have not, but rather than go back to the series I was reading (which was suggested by you Shipmates, btw), I've started Anne of Avonlea.
5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
I've read all of these books many times. My perennial fav is House of Dreams. And I think Anne's life panned out exactly as Lucy Maud Montgomery's did not.
@Lily Pad : Thanks, that's fascinating! So the "London street Arabs" Marilla imagines were British children. I had no idea.
This could almost go on the Language Difference thread. Until your comment I had no idea the phrase could be misunderstood. The minute I read what you said I realised what an odd expression it is, but I hadn't seen that before. (I think the Baker Street Irregulars, in the Sherlock Holmes stories, are described as "Street Arabs", but I can't be sure.)
Great to have so many interesting comments, and very useful insight. I hadn't realised that the 'home' children were those shipped over from the UK before.
I'll answer the other questions later but first my thoughts on this one.
. 1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
I must have read this book as a child, I hoovered up everything I could find in the children's library and was a big fan of E. Nesbit, so I'm sure I'd want to read other books set in that era. However the first time I can really remember it was when I was a young adult working in public libraries. At the time it was the descriptions of the natural world I really enjoyed. I still like those, but know I find Anne's re-naming of everything and more poetic flights of fancy rather annoying. Maybe I am supposed to, as Montgomery is certainly poking gentle fun at her character when she starts writing fiction with the story club. What I noticed this time was that Anne seemed to be accepted by her class mates in class much more easily than modern children's fiction would allow. There would be some pretty serious bullying first. I also found the first few chapters where loads of disasters are strung together a bit disjointed. When the novel gets into its stride I think it really takes off.
1a If you had not read the book before, was it what you were expecting?
Yes. I’d heard enough about the book to have a clear expectation.
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
I liked her openness, honesty and self awareness. Her defiance and chattiness annoyed me but I can see these qualities are downsides (perhaps not the right word) of those positive traits.
Her growing maturity was well portrayed.
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes?
No particular favourite scenes, but I loved the description of the seasonal changes in the garden and countryside. Her fanciful names for various areas were irritating. (Agreeing with Sarasa here.)
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
Again, I had no particular favourites but I liked the prickliness ,difficulties and joys of interpersonal relationships, both with adults and children.
I’d like to comment on the word ‘romantic’ which was used a lot. I understand this word to mean a loving relationship. Here it was used more as a fanciful notion, I think. I have a personal anecdote; in The Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island I was enjoying watching the dancing fountains with a group of other tourists. A lady from Alberta I got chatting to admired the quite plain, but orange and yellow top I was wearing and she described it as romantic, which I didn’t understand. I wonder if there’s a general pond difference with regard to this word? Or maybe it’s just me.
It's a style of writing (fictional, the opposite of "gritty realism"), a style of dress (flowing, pretty, the opposite of dull and practical), and in Anne's case, a way of looking at the world (imaginative--discounting the boring, ugly, dull or practical in favor of their opposites). See also the term "romancing" (in the sense of "making up fanciful stories") and "romance" (as in, fictional tales, e.g. "The Romance of the Rose"--that is, the Story of the Rose). See also Romantic poetry and landscaping, which go in heavily for dark woods dripping with moss and brooding peaks--exactly the sort of place a bored teenager with too many humdrum chores would fly to in imagination. Wuthering Heights will give you an example.
That was something that surprised me. Presumably Anne had been taken on to work around the place, but she doesn't seem to do much. (I'm now in Rainbow Valley, and Una is a good example of a working girl. I would imagine her experience was far commoner than Anne's.)
1a If you had not read the book before, was it what you were expecting?
1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
I first read the book at 13, but had watched the 1980s mini series before that, and have read it many times since, but not for a few years. My paternal grandmother introduced me to the TV series and gave me 'Anne of Green Gables', 'Anne of the Island' and 'Anne of Ingleside' for my 13th birthday. Later I bought the other books up to 'Anne's house of Dreams' and later still read the last books in the series on the Gutenberg Project website (all the books can be read there for free).
One thing I noticed in this reread is though I like Marilla, she is often the cause of Anne's disasters. Sometimes she apologises, as in the case of the amethyst broach, but other times she rather unfairly lays all the blame on Anne. Two examples are Diana getting drunk because Marilla forgot she had moved the raspberry cordial and had left a bottle of homemade wine where she told Anne to look; and Anne flavouring the cake with anodyne liniment because Marilla had put it in the vanilla bottle and had not changed the label and stored it in the same place! Apparently that sort of carelessness was common in the past. One of my ancestors from the same time died of strychnine poisoning, by mistaking a bottle of strychnine for the pain medication he was taking for a broken leg in the middle of the night. At least that is what the coroner concluded! Today Marilla (and maybe Matthew) would definitely be held responsible for those 'disasters', especially as Diana and Anne were left unsupervised when Diana got drunk.
I was always confused about the prejudices by both the characters and seemingly L. M. Montgomery of the French. When I first read the book I thought the French must not be white, as the stereotypes and attitudes come across as similar to racist attitutudes towards African Americans or Native Canadians. Doing a quick google search it seems some Acadians did have Native Canadian ancestry. There is a short story by Montgomery called 'Tannis of the Flats' about a mixed race young woman (for which she uses words that would now be slurs) which demonstrates Montgomery believed Indigenous Canadians had inherent negative and wild, uncivilised traits and would never fit in or be equal to white society and white people. Just reread the story in 'Further Chronicles of Avonlea' and it is blatantly racist, despite Tannis being the hero in the end. She is considered more heroic in the story than a white woman would be in her situation because she is seen as less capable of self-sacrifice and more vengeful than a white woman due to her race.
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
I like Anne as a fictional character, though I do skim some of her speeches as they can be long and rambling! She becomes a bit too perfect as an adult, but I still enjoy the series for a bit of escapism and the kindness and help Anne gives to others, including lots of characters that others ignore or judge (though they are mainly English/Scottish descent and respectable middle class, not poor or French).
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes?
My favourite scenes are the heartwarming ones: Anne finding out she is to stay at Green Gables, Matthew's gift of a dress with puffed sleeves, Anne succeeding exceptionally in her exams. I do like the comedy too, though sometimes it is a little painful, like when poor Matthew is trying to buy the fabric for the dress and ends up being so awkward he buys things he doesn't need.
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
Gilbert is a bit too good to be true, but as someone who got crushes on boys at a younger age than Anne I couldn't understand why Anne didn't fall madly in love with him by the end of this book. They Pyes are fun to love to hate. Everyone would like a friend like Diana - it is nice that she accepted Anne so readily despite Anne not having a 'nice' upbringing as she did. Matthew and Mr. Barry are lovely role models for men and I liked that Anne had them in her life after her dreadful 'foster' fathers. Like others I appreciate Marilla and Rachel Lynde better with age, though I didn't like that it was acceptable for Rachel to be strong, but her poor husband Thomas gets judged for letting her be the leader in their marriage.
5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
Even though I am still (mostly happily) single myself, I definitely wanted Anne's life to pan out as it did with a fairytale/Hollywood romantic ending and a big, loving family. I would have liked if she had more success in writing as Jo March has in the 'Little Women' series. Jo manages to run a school and write as well as being a wife and mother, but Anne (if I remember correctly) doesn't go on with her writing career. Montgomery's other character Emily Starr has more focus and success with writing though.
My favourites among the sequels are 'Anne of the Island' and 'Anne of Windy Willows/Poplars', with 'Anne's House of Dreams' a close second. As a staunch pacifist I hated the Rilla book set in World War 1 when I first read it and was so sad that Anne was so war mongering. It didn't seem anti-war to me at all. However on reading it later I could see it as of it's time and realistic to the views most contemporary people would have had.
Montgomery wrote a 3 book series "Emily of New Moon" also set on PEI, which was also made into an equally sweet TV series to the 1980s Anne series around 2000. We visited the film set 20 years ago, and apparently it may be watched for free on the youtube.
Not fond of "Anne with an E" series. It changes the emotional tone of the books and prior series. In fairness, we have a vision of a crueller world today that we did in the 1980s, but some of the scene writing made it frankly mean. IMHO.
That was something that surprised me. Presumably Anne had been taken on to work around the place, but she doesn't seem to do much. (I'm now in Rainbow Valley, and Una is a good example of a working girl. I would imagine her experience was far commoner than Anne's.)
This is a good point, though I imagine part of the problem (?) is that boring chores are ... boring, at least to write about. Una gets more because she is a motherless child with an abstracted father and three siblings to care for, and so the chores become an integral part of the survival plot.
Really, I'm not sure how much use a girl would be to Matthew and Marilla in their circumstances. I doubt she would be allowed/expected to do the rough work of the farm, for which they already have at least one servant, and Marilla strikes me as the kind of person whose house is always as neat as a pin no matter when you check. So there might not have been that much for Anne to do, except shelling peas and the like.
Maybe I've used the wrong name. By Una I meant the abused girl the Vicarage family adopts. She had been badly beaten for not working hard enough, and I suspect that was common.
Not fond of "Anne with an E" series. It changes the emotional tone of the books and prior series. In fairness, we have a vision of a crueller world today that we did in the 1980s, but some of the scene writing made it frankly mean. IMHO.
I quickly gave up on Anne with an E. I think it was Wood who said here that nobody wanted a gritty reboot of Anne of Green Gables.
It's a style of writing (fictional, the opposite of "gritty realism"), a style of dress (flowing, pretty, the opposite of dull and practical), and in Anne's case, a way of looking at the world (imaginative--discounting the boring, ugly, dull or practical in favor of their opposites). See also the term "romancing" (in the sense of "making up fanciful stories") and "romance" (as in, fictional tales, e.g. "The Romance of the Rose"--that is, the Story of the Rose). See also Romantic poetry and landscaping, which go in heavily for dark woods dripping with moss and brooding peaks--exactly the sort of place a bored teenager with too many humdrum chores would fly to in imagination. Wuthering Heights will give you an example.
Thank you for this explanation LC. I know the word for novel in French is roman, but apart from that I think romance is a word I’ve only understood before in a loving relationship context.
I did not get around to rereading the book for this month after all, but if it's OK I still want to jump in, having read it so many times over the years. I've reread some of the series within the last couple of years -- Rilla of Ingleside twice on various Remembrance Days, and Anne of the Island and Anne of Windy Poplars when I was doing some research that caused me to want to seek out contemporary fictional accounts of the life of a woman college student, and a schoolteacher, in that era (these books are very good for writing about slices of life, particularly Canadian female life, that you don't see portrayed a lot in other fiction of the time). But I haven't gone back to reread the original Anne book.
(In my comments below, I've spoiler-tagged some things from the later books - I don't know if that's really necessary or not, and I didn't try to conceal the fact that Anne eventually marries and has children, but I didn't want to give away anything more specific than that if there's anyone who worries about being "spoiled").
I certainly find the flowery sentimentality and preachiness of the books dated now -- but no more so than most other 19th century novels, and the realism of details of everyday life seems to balance it out. Anne is, perhaps, most like Pollyanna in her relentless optimism and cheeriness, but I most often hear women of my generation class her along with Jo from Little Women as an inspiration -- a model for how to be a strong, independent-minded young woman.
Emily of New Moon (and sequels) is, as noted above, a better model of the woman writer than Anne -- after publishing a few short stories in her young adulthood, Anne pretty much shelves her writing ambitions when she marries and starts having children. (In the very memorable and, in many ways, troubling story arc at the end of Anne of Ingleside where she thinks
Gilbert is falling out of love with her, there's a scene where she meets a woman who, I think, was in love with Gilbert years earlier,
and this woman asks if Anne has given up her writing. Anne says something like, "I'm writing living epistles now" -- implying that her creativity has gone into raising her children, and that she is content with that).
Emily, on the other hand, publishes at least one novel and makes becoming a writer her whole focus, so it's a much more interesting study of the writer's career in that time period -- an interesting parallel to Jo March.
The parallels with Alcott's work (Alcott was earlier, of course) are interesting -- I think most girls, like me, who read Anne of Green Gables before Little Women expected that the Jo/Laurie relationship would end the way Anne/Gilbert does (in Anne of the Island -- with the woman eventually realizing
she's truly loved this good friend all along. Of course that whole Anne/Gilbert relationship plays out as part of Anne's idea of "romance": she can't imagine that "love" could involve a good friend you've known from childhood -- it has to be with a dark, mysterious stranger. In fact, the whole original trilogy is, I would argue, about Anne deciding that what she identifies as "romance" is overrated and that everyday life is actually beautiful for its own sake -- and this is what culminates in Anne of the Island with her rejection of Roy's proposal and her eventual realization she's in love with Gilbert.
I have SO much more to say in response to what other people have said -- about the various dramatic versions of the story, about LM Montgomery's prejudices (OMG I had forgotten all about "Tannis of the Flats" -- how awful! And the short stories themselves could be a whole other thread!) but I've probably taken up enough time for someone who didn't actually do the re-read!
Sorry, who is Anne with an e? Isn't that the Green Gables girl?
When Anne told people her name, she specified that it was Anne with an 'e'' She didn't like the name very much, but she thought that Anne was much better than Ann.
"Anne with an E" is a more recent televised series, accurately described by Ruth as a gritty reboot. The only thing I like about it is the casting, as I think the lead actress for this version of Anne was a good choice.
@LilyPad, The Blue Castle is my very favorite,L.M. Montgomery book, too.
Just when you think you can't be surprised by things you read on the internet anymore. I reread The Blue Castle every five years or so, reread it last year.
I think I'm going to have to read The Blue Castle after all these recommendations.
To get back to Anne of Green Gables, I like Marilla and Mrs Rachel Lynde and the way their characters develop over the book, Montgomery has a strong line in feisty women, there is Mrs Marshall Elliott in the later books as well. I find it odd that Montgomery is a very strong advocate of women's education, and their right to earn their own living, but has such a strong thread of racism and xenophobia running through her writing. I thought she might have examined her own views a bit more closely, but from what others have said it is a recurring theme in her books.
I like Matthew and the way he is such a support to Anne. The episode where he tries and fails to buy her a dress is very funny, but the fact he observed that she looked different to her friends, worked out the importance to girls of that age of fitting in and rectified it says a lot about his character.
I do wonder why Matthew and Marilla never married. There is a hint that Marilla could have married Gilbert's father, but apart from his acute shyness, no reason is given for Matthew's single state. Given his observations about girl's clothing I would imagine it would be tempting for a modern version of this to suppose that he is gay. I've not seen Anne with an 'E', but is that one of the twists they come up with?
My favorite adaptation is the mini series starring Megan Follows [url="http://"
I first lent, then gave, this to a friend of mine whose granddaughters had to watch it every time they visited. It warms my heart to think a new generation born in 2010 loves Anne.
I just fell in love with Richard Farnsworth's Matthew in this version. I think he was just tongue tied around women and one reason he was so happy with Anne was that she did all the talking from the very first moment so all he had to do was listen.
Someone has recently written a novel called Marilla of Green Gables that attempts to fill in Matthew and Marilla's backstory from their childhood and youth. I read it and admired the attempt, but there were aspects of the story, particularly its (mis) handling of some events in Canadian history, that I didn't like.
My favorite adaptation is the mini series starring Megan Follows [url="http://"
Yes, that is "Anne" for me. I've also been to see the musical at the Charlottetown Festival many times and as each of you mention the scenes from the novel, the music and story from the stage repeats in my mind.
@Trudy I haven't read "Marilla of Green Gables" but may look to get a copy from the library. The problem with history, of course, is looking back. I sat with a former teacher in one of Canada's residential schools and listened to her for an entire afternoon. She showed me many lovely letters from former students and spoke of how hard the people of the area worked to put together bundles for each student that contained dresses and nightgowns and all of the things that a new student would need. A few weeks later, I was listening to former students telling their stories of abuse and cultural genocide at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. It was hard to reconcile, that's for sure.
Love the musical! Saw it once myself as a kid, on our first trip to PEI in the 70s, and then again in 2009 with our own kids at about the same age I'd been when I saw it. They loved it too.
I found it very sad that Anne at the end gives up going to college in order to stay and help Marilla. But having just spent the past 11 years of my life having my mother live with me so I could take care of her, I can’t say Anne is wrong. Indeed, even without my personal history, I can’t say Anne is wrong. But I still find it sad that she had to give up college.
Maybe it’s just one of those hard things about adulthood: sometimes there’s no good choice and you have to make the choice that seems best or at least, least bad, to you in terms of your core values.
I have read this book, and the whole series, quite a few times. It was a favourite of my mother's, and I read it to her when she lost her reading ability after a stroke.
I also like watching adaptations of my fav stories, and I've got to say that I think that "Anne with an e" nails it from a personality POV. Many times, Anne becomes Polyanna.
I'm re-reading it again, quite happily, on-line because the only one of the series that I can find handily is Anne's House of Dreams. My biggest a ha moment is that this is an abused child who is gently healed by Matthew and Marilla. I don't know that "abused" ever shouted at me as it did with this reading.
I found it very sad that Anne at the end gives up going to college in order to stay and help Marilla. But having just spent the past 11 years of my life having my mother live with me so I could take care of her, I can’t say Anne is wrong. Indeed, even without my personal history, I can’t say Anne is wrong. But I still find it sad that she had to give up college.
Maybe it’s just one of those hard things about adulthood: sometimes there’s no good choice and you have to make the choice that seems best or at least, least bad, to you in terms of your core values.
Doesn't Anne go to college in one of the later books, or am I mis-remembering? It's a long time since I read the other books.
1. If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
I have certainly read this before, but not for many years; not, I don’t think, since adulthood. My husband remembers reading it with our daughter, so I guess that explains why I didn’t!
Two things: a much greater appreciation of the adult characters, especially Marilla – her strength but also her humour. She begins to see the funny side of Anne’s scrapes, but dare not let Anne know this, for fear of not teaching the right moral lesson. But as Mili has aready commented, at least some of the scrapes are actually caused by Marilla’s carelessness. Rachel Lynde seemed a tyrant when I was a child, now her good sense is much more apparent – still, you’d want to keep the right side of her. I think most churches have a Rachel – well-meaning, efficient but bossy!
Secondly, a recognition that Anne could drive you mad with her chatter, especially the more fanciful stuff.
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
In spite of the chatter – which I guess many tuned out – Anne is a likeable character, with her enthusiasm and optimism, and essential good heartedness. Too good – well perhaps, but this was written as a children’s book, and her scrapes make her ‘not too good’ in kids’ eyes. She certainly matures through the book.
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourite scenes?
I liked the scene where Matthew puzzles over what is different about Anne compared with her friends, works it out then sets about providing a dress with puffed sleeves – and the sequel, where Marilla agrees to dress Anne more fashionably for fear that Rachel Lynde will again interfere with her responsibilty/privilege/role of being the family dressmaker.
My daughter, when in her first year of school, had long plaits and did have them pulled by the little boy sitting behind her. She yelled at him (no slates available) and they both ended up in the principal’s office for a talking-to. I did wonder whether the principal saw the parallel – I did!
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
My comments on Marilla and Rachel above. Matthew is a solid if quiet support for Anne throughout, and Diana is so loyal – not even jealous when Anne does so much better academically. Perhaps she’s the one who is ‘too good’.
5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
It’s such a long time since I read the next two or three titles that I can’t really comment, and I don’t think I ever read the whole sequence. But I think I remember that Anne goes to college eventually, and marries Gilbert, which I guess is what the reader expects.
I found it very sad that Anne at the end gives up going to college in order to stay and help Marilla. But having just spent the past 11 years of my life having my mother live with me so I could take care of her, I can’t say Anne is wrong. Indeed, even without my personal history, I can’t say Anne is wrong. But I still find it sad that she had to give up college.
Maybe it’s just one of those hard things about adulthood: sometimes there’s no good choice and you have to make the choice that seems best or at least, least bad, to you in terms of your core values.
Doesn't Anne go to college in one of the later books, or am I mis-remembering? It's a long time since I read the other books.
Anne finally gets to college in Anne of the Island.
@BetteTheRed , the scene where Marilla takes Anne to see Mrs Spencer with the intention of 'giving her back' and then realises what will happen if she does so, and therefore takes her home, well illustrates Marilla's beginning to change her way of thinking. A shame she couldn't have a similar epiphany about 'The French'.
If you have read the two "Story Girl" books by Montgomery, you will see what was expected of a hired boy in the character of Peter, who goes to school in winter and works on the farm in summer. This is presumably what Matthew and Marilla had in mind for the projected boy they were adopting. But it is adoption they are aiming at, not just hiring someone, so when they take on Anne it wouldn't be appropriate to expect her to do a boy's job (not in that time, anyway). Right from that interview with Mrs Spencer, the decision is to take her on as an adoptee, not just for what she can do - which is how Mrs Blewett views her.
I found it very sad that Anne at the end gives up going to college in order to stay and help Marilla. But having just spent the past 11 years of my life having my mother live with me so I could take care of her, I can’t say Anne is wrong. Indeed, even without my personal history, I can’t say Anne is wrong. But I still find it sad that she had to give up college.
Maybe it’s just one of those hard things about adulthood: sometimes there’s no good choice and you have to make the choice that seems best or at least, least bad, to you in terms of your core values.
Doesn't Anne go to college in one of the later books, or am I mis-remembering? It's a long time since I read the other books.
Anne finally gets to college in Anne of the Island.
I think I mentioned above that I reread Anne of the Island when I was researching what college life might have been like for a young woman fortunate enough to go to university in Canada in that era, and found that the book is striking in its absolute lack of detail about any of the actual academic aspects of college life. Occasionally Anne or one of her friends is working on an essay, and one professor gets mentioned by name in conversation, but that's about it. It's always frustrating when you go back to a book you remember as being about a particular thing, and then realize it's not really about that at all.
It's still a perfectly good novel and a nice romance, but sadly not nearly as much of a college book as I'd remembered. But Anne does get a BA from what is obviously Dalhousie although for some reason LMM gives both the university, and Halifax where it is located, a different name (she called Halifax Kingsport throughout much of the series, for reasons unclear to me; can't recall what name she makes up for Dal).
In the early books Anne is delighted to find "kindred spirits", a concept with which I am familiar. In the later books the phrase gets dropped, and replaced with, "the tribe of Jacob," which is new to me in this context. Is it a common expression in Canada, regional to Prince Edward Island, or even an invention by Montgomery?
Currently I'm halfway through "Rainbow Valley" and feeling like giving up on the series. Anne herself hardly appears, and there are too many children, most whom are mere ciphers as a result. It's even worse than worthy but invisible Dora. However, the next book is "Rilla" and comments here have piqued my curiosity so maybe I will soldier on. Generally I've been intrigued because I thought I'd read at least some of these years ago, but hadn't. I think I was getting confused with "What Katy Did".
Comments
It was the excessive wholesomeness - artificial if you like - which turned me off the book.
Wait, that didn't come out right...
1a If you had not read the book before, was it what you were expecting?
1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes?
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
1b This time I noticed how each chapter could stand alone and how Anne learned a small lesson in each one.
2b I love Anne, her imagination, her courage and her amazing ability to look on the bright side of things. I liked seeing her growth but never wanted her to lose all her impulsive emotions or completely tame her temper.
3b Yes. Moral lessons even.
4b Matthew will always be my favorite but this time I liked Marilla better than ever before and was more aware of her (firmly hidden) sense of humor.
5b I read the others long ago and don't remember them as well. It's this young Anne who really captured me.
@LilyPad, The Blue Castle is my very favorite,L.M. Montgomery book, too.
I hadn't read it since high school maybe, and the reading experience that really sticks with me is the first one, when I was 10 or 11, judging by the handwriting I used to write my name on the flyleaf. So the novel seems like a very different thing to me now.
This time I was struck by the prejudice against the "French" -- are these Quebecois or French immigrants? And this bit from Marilla early on was both jarring and confusing (and I skated right past it when I was a kid):
Is the "Home" some kind of orphanage in Ontario that's different from the one in Nova Scotia that Anne comes from?
Another thing that struck me was the way the episodic narrative moves faster and faster as it goes along. We get loads of details of the first few weeks, and a lot about the first year, then less and less -- the Queen's class is formed, and two chapters later the pass list is out. The year at Queen's is summarized in a single chapter, with no actual scenes between the first day or two and the end of the academic year.
And finally, where my sympathies were of course with Anne when I was young, at 57 my sympathies are with Marilla and to a lesser extent with Mrs. Rachel Lynde. As an unsophisticated reader I hadn't noticed how useful Mrs. Rachel was as a narrative device, but now I see what a great idea it is to have a meddling gossip in the story. The times when Marilla holds it together until Anne is out of earshot and then bursts out laughing were so much fun; when I was young I just thought she was mean!
So far (the middle of chapter two) the book has not lived up to my hopes.
Both I and Dafling Major laughed at the description of Rachel Lynde as able to manage her own affairs and that of other folks as well.
After chapter six or seven it settles into chapter-long episodes that are self-contained.
The French would be the Acadians who were able to escape the "Grand Dérangement" or "Expulsion of the Acadians" toward the end of the 1700's. This is a link to the Acadian museum on Prince Edward Island. https://museeacadien.org/
There is still a large Acadian population on PEI and many live in the Rustico and North Rustico area which is close to the Anne of Green Gables property in the National Park.
The Home Children are the over 100,000 children who were sent over from England from the mid-1800's to the mid-1900's. They were orphans and children from work houses and so forth and were sent to help populate Canada. Many had good lives but many had very hard lives working in houses and on farms. There is a current effort to identify the children and to trace their families. A link to the Home Children of PEI is here https://peihomechildren.com
This book has been on the curriculum for students in Japan for many years. It is quite fun to be at the airport when Japanese tourists arrive with the young women wearing straw hats and with their hair in braids. Anne is so popular that there is a regulrar need for tour guides who speak Japanese.
She reminded me of some children I've known who could talk a person's ear off! As Anne's imagination became more practical (is that the right word?) as she aged, I found myself missing the small child she had been.
The times Anne could just not go to school because of one crisis or another made me laugh out loud! I know Anne was crying, so I felt a little bit guilty about that. But goodness, what a drama queen (or princess!) she was! Green hair might, however, be a good excuse to miss school.
I really liked Marilla. For seeming so hard at the beginning, she really had a tender heart. The people, both adults and children, who made fun of Anne's red hair really bothered me. I never have understood how people through the ages have scorned red hair. I think it's beautiful.
I have not, but rather than go back to the series I was reading (which was suggested by you Shipmates, btw), I've started Anne of Avonlea.
I've read them all a lot of times. At the very beginning, Matthew's fear of women is explored and developed; I don't remember noticing that before.
I adore Anne. I always wished, as a child, to be as fearless as she.
I always loved Anne's first temper tantrum at Rachel.
I have a lot of favorites. I like Diana's loyalty, Aunt Josephine's keen eye.
I've read all of these books many times. My perennial fav is House of Dreams. And I think Anne's life panned out exactly as Lucy Maud Montgomery's did not.
This could almost go on the Language Difference thread. Until your comment I had no idea the phrase could be misunderstood. The minute I read what you said I realised what an odd expression it is, but I hadn't seen that before. (I think the Baker Street Irregulars, in the Sherlock Holmes stories, are described as "Street Arabs", but I can't be sure.)
I'll answer the other questions later but first my thoughts on this one.
1a If you had not read the book before, was it what you were expecting?
Yes. I’d heard enough about the book to have a clear expectation.
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
I liked her openness, honesty and self awareness. Her defiance and chattiness annoyed me but I can see these qualities are downsides (perhaps not the right word) of those positive traits.
Her growing maturity was well portrayed.
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes?
No particular favourite scenes, but I loved the description of the seasonal changes in the garden and countryside. Her fanciful names for various areas were irritating. (Agreeing with Sarasa here.)
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
Again, I had no particular favourites but I liked the prickliness ,difficulties and joys of interpersonal relationships, both with adults and children.
I’d like to comment on the word ‘romantic’ which was used a lot. I understand this word to mean a loving relationship. Here it was used more as a fanciful notion, I think. I have a personal anecdote; in The Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island I was enjoying watching the dancing fountains with a group of other tourists. A lady from Alberta I got chatting to admired the quite plain, but orange and yellow top I was wearing and she described it as romantic, which I didn’t understand. I wonder if there’s a general pond difference with regard to this word? Or maybe it’s just me.
That was something that surprised me. Presumably Anne had been taken on to work around the place, but she doesn't seem to do much. (I'm now in Rainbow Valley, and Una is a good example of a working girl. I would imagine her experience was far commoner than Anne's.)
1b If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
I first read the book at 13, but had watched the 1980s mini series before that, and have read it many times since, but not for a few years. My paternal grandmother introduced me to the TV series and gave me 'Anne of Green Gables', 'Anne of the Island' and 'Anne of Ingleside' for my 13th birthday. Later I bought the other books up to 'Anne's house of Dreams' and later still read the last books in the series on the Gutenberg Project website (all the books can be read there for free).
One thing I noticed in this reread is though I like Marilla, she is often the cause of Anne's disasters. Sometimes she apologises, as in the case of the amethyst broach, but other times she rather unfairly lays all the blame on Anne. Two examples are Diana getting drunk because Marilla forgot she had moved the raspberry cordial and had left a bottle of homemade wine where she told Anne to look; and Anne flavouring the cake with anodyne liniment because Marilla had put it in the vanilla bottle and had not changed the label and stored it in the same place! Apparently that sort of carelessness was common in the past. One of my ancestors from the same time died of strychnine poisoning, by mistaking a bottle of strychnine for the pain medication he was taking for a broken leg in the middle of the night. At least that is what the coroner concluded! Today Marilla (and maybe Matthew) would definitely be held responsible for those 'disasters', especially as Diana and Anne were left unsupervised when Diana got drunk.
I was always confused about the prejudices by both the characters and seemingly L. M. Montgomery of the French. When I first read the book I thought the French must not be white, as the stereotypes and attitudes come across as similar to racist attitutudes towards African Americans or Native Canadians. Doing a quick google search it seems some Acadians did have Native Canadian ancestry. There is a short story by Montgomery called 'Tannis of the Flats' about a mixed race young woman (for which she uses words that would now be slurs) which demonstrates Montgomery believed Indigenous Canadians had inherent negative and wild, uncivilised traits and would never fit in or be equal to white society and white people. Just reread the story in 'Further Chronicles of Avonlea' and it is blatantly racist, despite Tannis being the hero in the end. She is considered more heroic in the story than a white woman would be in her situation because she is seen as less capable of self-sacrifice and more vengeful than a white woman due to her race.
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
I like Anne as a fictional character, though I do skim some of her speeches as they can be long and rambling! She becomes a bit too perfect as an adult, but I still enjoy the series for a bit of escapism and the kindness and help Anne gives to others, including lots of characters that others ignore or judge (though they are mainly English/Scottish descent and respectable middle class, not poor or French).
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourites scenes?
My favourite scenes are the heartwarming ones: Anne finding out she is to stay at Green Gables, Matthew's gift of a dress with puffed sleeves, Anne succeeding exceptionally in her exams. I do like the comedy too, though sometimes it is a little painful, like when poor Matthew is trying to buy the fabric for the dress and ends up being so awkward he buys things he doesn't need.
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
Gilbert is a bit too good to be true, but as someone who got crushes on boys at a younger age than Anne I couldn't understand why Anne didn't fall madly in love with him by the end of this book. They Pyes are fun to love to hate. Everyone would like a friend like Diana - it is nice that she accepted Anne so readily despite Anne not having a 'nice' upbringing as she did. Matthew and Mr. Barry are lovely role models for men and I liked that Anne had them in her life after her dreadful 'foster' fathers. Like others I appreciate Marilla and Rachel Lynde better with age, though I didn't like that it was acceptable for Rachel to be strong, but her poor husband Thomas gets judged for letting her be the leader in their marriage.
5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
Even though I am still (mostly happily) single myself, I definitely wanted Anne's life to pan out as it did with a fairytale/Hollywood romantic ending and a big, loving family. I would have liked if she had more success in writing as Jo March has in the 'Little Women' series. Jo manages to run a school and write as well as being a wife and mother, but Anne (if I remember correctly) doesn't go on with her writing career. Montgomery's other character Emily Starr has more focus and success with writing though.
My favourites among the sequels are 'Anne of the Island' and 'Anne of Windy Willows/Poplars', with 'Anne's House of Dreams' a close second. As a staunch pacifist I hated the Rilla book set in World War 1 when I first read it and was so sad that Anne was so war mongering. It didn't seem anti-war to me at all. However on reading it later I could see it as of it's time and realistic to the views most contemporary people would have had.
Not fond of "Anne with an E" series. It changes the emotional tone of the books and prior series. In fairness, we have a vision of a crueller world today that we did in the 1980s, but some of the scene writing made it frankly mean. IMHO.
This is a good point, though I imagine part of the problem (?) is that boring chores are ... boring, at least to write about. Una gets more because she is a motherless child with an abstracted father and three siblings to care for, and so the chores become an integral part of the survival plot.
Really, I'm not sure how much use a girl would be to Matthew and Marilla in their circumstances. I doubt she would be allowed/expected to do the rough work of the farm, for which they already have at least one servant, and Marilla strikes me as the kind of person whose house is always as neat as a pin no matter when you check. So there might not have been that much for Anne to do, except shelling peas and the like.
I quickly gave up on Anne with an E. I think it was Wood who said here that nobody wanted a gritty reboot of Anne of Green Gables.
Thank you for this explanation LC. I know the word for novel in French is roman, but apart from that I think romance is a word I’ve only understood before in a loving relationship context.
(In my comments below, I've spoiler-tagged some things from the later books - I don't know if that's really necessary or not, and I didn't try to conceal the fact that Anne eventually marries and has children, but I didn't want to give away anything more specific than that if there's anyone who worries about being "spoiled").
I certainly find the flowery sentimentality and preachiness of the books dated now -- but no more so than most other 19th century novels, and the realism of details of everyday life seems to balance it out. Anne is, perhaps, most like Pollyanna in her relentless optimism and cheeriness, but I most often hear women of my generation class her along with Jo from Little Women as an inspiration -- a model for how to be a strong, independent-minded young woman.
Emily of New Moon (and sequels) is, as noted above, a better model of the woman writer than Anne -- after publishing a few short stories in her young adulthood, Anne pretty much shelves her writing ambitions when she marries and starts having children. (In the very memorable and, in many ways, troubling story arc at the end of Anne of Ingleside where she thinks
Emily, on the other hand, publishes at least one novel and makes becoming a writer her whole focus, so it's a much more interesting study of the writer's career in that time period -- an interesting parallel to Jo March.
The parallels with Alcott's work (Alcott was earlier, of course) are interesting -- I think most girls, like me, who read Anne of Green Gables before Little Women expected that the Jo/Laurie relationship would end the way Anne/Gilbert does (in Anne of the Island -- with the woman eventually realizing
I have SO much more to say in response to what other people have said -- about the various dramatic versions of the story, about LM Montgomery's prejudices (OMG I had forgotten all about "Tannis of the Flats" -- how awful! And the short stories themselves could be a whole other thread!) but I've probably taken up enough time for someone who didn't actually do the re-read!
When Anne told people her name, she specified that it was Anne with an 'e'' She didn't like the name very much, but she thought that Anne was much better than Ann.
Just when you think you can't be surprised by things you read on the internet anymore. I reread The Blue Castle every five years or so, reread it last year.
To get back to Anne of Green Gables, I like Marilla and Mrs Rachel Lynde and the way their characters develop over the book, Montgomery has a strong line in feisty women, there is Mrs Marshall Elliott in the later books as well. I find it odd that Montgomery is a very strong advocate of women's education, and their right to earn their own living, but has such a strong thread of racism and xenophobia running through her writing. I thought she might have examined her own views a bit more closely, but from what others have said it is a recurring theme in her books.
I like Matthew and the way he is such a support to Anne. The episode where he tries and fails to buy her a dress is very funny, but the fact he observed that she looked different to her friends, worked out the importance to girls of that age of fitting in and rectified it says a lot about his character.
I do wonder why Matthew and Marilla never married. There is a hint that Marilla could have married Gilbert's father, but apart from his acute shyness, no reason is given for Matthew's single state. Given his observations about girl's clothing I would imagine it would be tempting for a modern version of this to suppose that he is gay. I've not seen Anne with an 'E', but is that one of the twists they come up with?
I first lent, then gave, this to a friend of mine whose granddaughters had to watch it every time they visited. It warms my heart to think a new generation born in 2010 loves Anne.
I just fell in love with Richard Farnsworth's Matthew in this version. I think he was just tongue tied around women and one reason he was so happy with Anne was that she did all the talking from the very first moment so all he had to do was listen.
Yes, that is "Anne" for me. I've also been to see the musical at the Charlottetown Festival many times and as each of you mention the scenes from the novel, the music and story from the stage repeats in my mind.
@Trudy I haven't read "Marilla of Green Gables" but may look to get a copy from the library. The problem with history, of course, is looking back. I sat with a former teacher in one of Canada's residential schools and listened to her for an entire afternoon. She showed me many lovely letters from former students and spoke of how hard the people of the area worked to put together bundles for each student that contained dresses and nightgowns and all of the things that a new student would need. A few weeks later, I was listening to former students telling their stories of abuse and cultural genocide at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. It was hard to reconcile, that's for sure.
Link to the score of the musical, "Anne of Green Gables". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oMImV2XNHs&list=PLkLimRXN6NKzq-heQHukpfZH0fOxT_0K8
Maybe it’s just one of those hard things about adulthood: sometimes there’s no good choice and you have to make the choice that seems best or at least, least bad, to you in terms of your core values.
I also like watching adaptations of my fav stories, and I've got to say that I think that "Anne with an e" nails it from a personality POV. Many times, Anne becomes Polyanna.
I'm re-reading it again, quite happily, on-line because the only one of the series that I can find handily is Anne's House of Dreams. My biggest a ha moment is that this is an abused child who is gently healed by Matthew and Marilla. I don't know that "abused" ever shouted at me as it did with this reading.
Doesn't Anne go to college in one of the later books, or am I mis-remembering? It's a long time since I read the other books.
1. If you have read it before anything that struck you that you hadn't noticed on previous reads?
I have certainly read this before, but not for many years; not, I don’t think, since adulthood. My husband remembers reading it with our daughter, so I guess that explains why I didn’t!
Two things: a much greater appreciation of the adult characters, especially Marilla – her strength but also her humour. She begins to see the funny side of Anne’s scrapes, but dare not let Anne know this, for fear of not teaching the right moral lesson. But as Mili has aready commented, at least some of the scrapes are actually caused by Marilla’s carelessness. Rachel Lynde seemed a tyrant when I was a child, now her good sense is much more apparent – still, you’d want to keep the right side of her. I think most churches have a Rachel – well-meaning, efficient but bossy!
Secondly, a recognition that Anne could drive you mad with her chatter, especially the more fanciful stuff.
2 What did you think of Anne, and the way her character developed over the book?
In spite of the chatter – which I guess many tuned out – Anne is a likeable character, with her enthusiasm and optimism, and essential good heartedness. Too good – well perhaps, but this was written as a children’s book, and her scrapes make her ‘not too good’ in kids’ eyes. She certainly matures through the book.
3 It reads, at least to me, in part like a series of anecdotes or short stories, strung together. Any favourite scenes?
I liked the scene where Matthew puzzles over what is different about Anne compared with her friends, works it out then sets about providing a dress with puffed sleeves – and the sequel, where Marilla agrees to dress Anne more fashionably for fear that Rachel Lynde will again interfere with her responsibilty/privilege/role of being the family dressmaker.
My daughter, when in her first year of school, had long plaits and did have them pulled by the little boy sitting behind her. She yelled at him (no slates available) and they both ended up in the principal’s office for a talking-to. I did wonder whether the principal saw the parallel – I did!
4 What did you think to the other characters in the book?
My comments on Marilla and Rachel above. Matthew is a solid if quiet support for Anne throughout, and Diana is so loyal – not even jealous when Anne does so much better academically. Perhaps she’s the one who is ‘too good’.
5 If you have read other books in the series, is that how you would have had Anne's life pan out. Any favourites among the sequels?
It’s such a long time since I read the next two or three titles that I can’t really comment, and I don’t think I ever read the whole sequence. But I think I remember that Anne goes to college eventually, and marries Gilbert, which I guess is what the reader expects.
Anne finally gets to college in Anne of the Island.
@BetteTheRed , the scene where Marilla takes Anne to see Mrs Spencer with the intention of 'giving her back' and then realises what will happen if she does so, and therefore takes her home, well illustrates Marilla's beginning to change her way of thinking. A shame she couldn't have a similar epiphany about 'The French'.
I think I mentioned above that I reread Anne of the Island when I was researching what college life might have been like for a young woman fortunate enough to go to university in Canada in that era, and found that the book is striking in its absolute lack of detail about any of the actual academic aspects of college life. Occasionally Anne or one of her friends is working on an essay, and one professor gets mentioned by name in conversation, but that's about it. It's always frustrating when you go back to a book you remember as being about a particular thing, and then realize it's not really about that at all.
It's still a perfectly good novel and a nice romance, but sadly not nearly as much of a college book as I'd remembered. But Anne does get a BA from what is obviously Dalhousie although for some reason LMM gives both the university, and Halifax where it is located, a different name (she called Halifax Kingsport throughout much of the series, for reasons unclear to me; can't recall what name she makes up for Dal).
Currently I'm halfway through "Rainbow Valley" and feeling like giving up on the series. Anne herself hardly appears, and there are too many children, most whom are mere ciphers as a result. It's even worse than worthy but invisible Dora. However, the next book is "Rilla" and comments here have piqued my curiosity so maybe I will soldier on. Generally I've been intrigued because I thought I'd read at least some of these years ago, but hadn't. I think I was getting confused with "What Katy Did".