Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is one of my all time favourite tales as I'm sure it is for many other girls. Who could forget the misadventures & calamities of Anne Shirley (Anne spelt with an 'E'), the red haired orphan girl who comes to live with Marilla Cuthbert & her brother Matthew on Prince Edward Island. They had asked for a boy from the orphanage but a mix up led to them getting Anne instead & what a handful she turned out to be. Who could forget the time she dyed her hair green after the peddler on the road assured her it would turn her tresses into "a beautiful raven black" or when she nearly drowned after the boat sank when she was acting out the Lady of Shallot. One of my favourites would have to be the mouse getting in the sauce after she forgot to put the cover on it and how she described it as "a romantic way to perish.....for a mouse." Intelligent, imaginative & an incurable romantic, Anne worms her way into everyones affections, including one Gilbert Blythe - a fellow class mate whose second encounter with Anne ends up with him having a slate cracked over his head. One of my most beloved scenes is the following where Marilla & Matthew are seeing Anne off at the train station when she is heading off to college:
Marilla: I'm afraid for her, Matthew. She'll be gone so long. She'll get terrible lonesome.
Matthew: You mean, we'll get terrible lonesome.
Marilla: I can't help wishing that she'd stayed a little girl.
Matthew: Mrs. Spencer made a lucky mistake, I guess.
Marilla: It wasn't luck; it was Providence. God knew we needed her.
Matthew: Even with her queer little ways.
Marilla: I loved her for them.
1 comment:
Gorgeous, beautifully written Sue. x Jan
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