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Created | Updated Dec 18, 2002
The 'Anne' books by LM Montgomery
Introduction
This series of 10 books was written by a Canadian minister's wife in the early 1900's. The best known is Anne of Green Gables, the story of how a young orphan girl is mistakenly sent to a farm on Prince Edward Island in place of the expected boy.
Synopses
Anne of Green Gables: the story starts with Anne's tumultuous arrival at Green Gables. It continues through her schooldays and her many childhood scrapes, such as dying her hair green and getting her best friend drunk, as well as her early feud with Gilbert Blythe.
Anne of Avonlea: covers Anne's early teaching career and her growing friendship with Gilbert. Anne's idealism brought back down to earth by the realities of life on several occasions!
Anne of the Island: follows Anne's progress through Redmond college to gain her BA. This book also tells of Anne's 'ideal romance', and the discovery of her true feelings for the real love of her life.
Anne of Windy Willows: covers the period of Anne's engagement to Gilbert, and is written in a different, epistolary style to the other books. Anne is now a headmistress, and overcomes many obstacles (in her usual imaginative and partly accidental style) to gain the respect of her staff and pupils.
Anne's House of Dreams: aimed at a much more 'grown up' audience than the earlier books in the series. Anne moves away from Avonlea upon her marriage, and her first years in her 'home o'dreams' are tinged with both tragedy and adventure.
Anne of Ingleside: Anne's family has grown considerably by the beginning of this novel, and the emphasis is much more upon their various experiences and scrapes.
Rainbow Valley: another book focusing on the Ingleside children and their friends, the Merediths. By this point the books have much more of a community feel and Anne is somewhat sidelined.
Rilla of Ingleside: Here the series degenerates into a war/love story focusing on Anne's youngest daughter, and loses some of its fanciful, carefree beauty. Still a good story but heading towards the melodramatic.
Chronicles and Further Chronicles of Avonlea: both books contain stories and anecdotes of the lives and loves of Avonlea folks (bits Montgomery couldn't work into the main Anne books basically).
Note: all these books will make you cry. Many a bus journey has been spent trying to choke back the tears at the end of every chapter, particularly in Annes's House of Dreams and Rilla of Ingleside.
Characters
Anne herself can be rather a saccharine pill to swallow. She can be funny, but her niceness, specialness, imagination and loveability is a laboured point. This is particularly obvious in the 'Chronicles', which drag references to her into every story despite their irrelevance.
Although Anne is the central character and the plots of the eight main novels revolve around her, there are many well-drawn supporting character who, more often than not, steal the show, and add salt to the mix. These include Mrs Rachel Lynde, a gossiping neighbour who is never afraid to speak her mind; young Davy, a tearaway orphan who is adopted by Marilla (Anne's guardian) in Anne of Avonlea; Captain Jim, an old sailor whose spellbinding life story and gentle charm make everyone love him; Miss Cornelia, the man hater who calmly gets married one day; and Susan Baker, who is happy being an old maid 'and that you may tie to'. The final books are the best sources of such characters, and it seems Montgomery enjoyed her Four Winds commuunity even more than teh Avonlea folks.
The books have been serialised by Sullivan Productions in recent years, with some degree of success - it has been said that the 'Continuing Story' is fairly excerable though.
Introduction
This series of 10 books was written by a Canadian minister's wife in the early 1900's. The best known is Anne of Green Gables, the story of how a young orphan girl is mistakenly sent to a farm on Prince Edward Island in place of the expected boy.
Synopses
Anne of Green Gables: the story starts with Anne's tumultuous arrival at Green Gables. It continues through her schooldays and her many childhood scrapes, such as dying her hair green and getting her best friend drunk, as well as her early feud with Gilbert Blythe.
Anne of Avonlea: covers Anne's early teaching career and her growing friendship with Gilbert. Anne's idealism brought back down to earth by the realities of life on several occasions!
Anne of the Island: follows Anne's progress through Redmond college to gain her BA. This book also tells of Anne's 'ideal romance', and the discovery of her true feelings for the real love of her life.
Anne of Windy Willows: covers the period of Anne's engagement to Gilbert, and is written in a different, epistolary style to the other books. Anne is now a headmistress, and overcomes many obstacles (in her usual imaginative and partly accidental style) to gain the respect of her staff and pupils.
Anne's House of Dreams: aimed at a much more 'grown up' audience than the earlier books in the series. Anne moves away from Avonlea upon her marriage, and her first years in her 'home o'dreams' are tinged with both tragedy and adventure.
Anne of Ingleside: Anne's family has grown considerably by the beginning of this novel, and the emphasis is much more upon their various experiences and scrapes.
Rainbow Valley: another book focusing on the Ingleside children and their friends, the Merediths. By this point the books have much more of a community feel and Anne is somewhat sidelined.
Rilla of Ingleside: Here the series degenerates into a war/love story focusing on Anne's youngest daughter, and loses some of its fanciful, carefree beauty. Still a good story but heading towards the melodramatic.
Chronicles and Further Chronicles of Avonlea: both books contain stories and anecdotes of the lives and loves of Avonlea folks (bits Montgomery couldn't work into the main Anne books basically).
Note: all these books will make you cry. Many a bus journey has been spent trying to choke back the tears at the end of every chapter, particularly in Annes's House of Dreams and Rilla of Ingleside.
Characters
Anne herself can be rather a saccharine pill to swallow. She can be funny, but her niceness, specialness, imagination and loveability is a laboured point. This is particularly obvious in the 'Chronicles', which drag references to her into every story despite their irrelevance.
Although Anne is the central character and the plots of the eight main novels revolve around her, there are many well-drawn supporting character who, more often than not, steal the show, and add salt to the mix. These include Mrs Rachel Lynde, a gossiping neighbour who is never afraid to speak her mind; young Davy, a tearaway orphan who is adopted by Marilla (Anne's guardian) in Anne of Avonlea; Captain Jim, an old sailor whose spellbinding life story and gentle charm make everyone love him; Miss Cornelia, the man hater who calmly gets married one day; and Susan Baker, who is happy being an old maid 'and that you may tie to'. The final books are the best sources of such characters, and it seems Montgomery enjoyed her Four Winds commuunity even more than teh Avonlea folks.
The books have been serialised by Sullivan Productions in recent years, with some degree of success - it has been said that the 'Continuing Story' is fairly excerable though.
