Lucy Maud MONTGOMERY : Anne of Green Gables (#1) - book review

As soon as Anne Shirley arrives at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she is sure she wants to stay forever... but will the Cuthberts send her back to the orphanage ? Anne knows she's not what they expected - a skinny girl with fiery red hair and a temper to match. If only she can convince them to let her stay, she'll try very hard not to keep rushing headlongs into scrapes and blurting out the first thing that comes to her mind.
Anne is not like anyone else, the Cuthberts agree ; she is special - a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreams of the day when she can call herself Anne of Green Gables.

How can I put it ?... I went into reading this book absolutely persuaded that I wouldn't like it. You know, I don't like children's classic novels much (except a few), I hate pink, I hate romantic stories that make you bawl, I hate hands forming heart shapes, I hate people that talk a lot. But Lucy loved it, Sophia loved it, Trish loved it, Katherine loved it, and so on, so I tried. I went down fighting but I have to concede the victory to Anne : I loved this book.

Not those two or three sentences about Arabs, Italians and French people. I'll put it aside, thinking that story was written in the beginning of the 20th century and that's quite possible that people living isolated on an island would say such things.

If there is one of those famous "kindred spirits" in this story, it's Marilla for me, no-nonsense Marilla. But even she gives up :
"Dear me, it's only three weeks since she came and it seems as if she's been here always. I can't imagine the place without her. Now don't be looking I told-you-so, Matthew. That's bad enough in a woman, but it isn't to be endured in a man. I'm perfectly willing to own up that I'm glad I consented to keep the child and that I'm getting fond of her, but don't you rub it in, Matthew Cuthbert."
I must add that Mrs Lynde ("Rachel Lynde, who'd pick faults in the Angel Gabriel himself if he lived in Avonlea") did remind me of a particular inhabitant of the village I live in ! The very day I moved in, she went straight at me, shaking my hand and wrought out every bit of information she could ; 15mn later, the whole village knew about it.

When I first read Anne talking, my jaw almost fell on the floor : that girl does have a stunning power of speech ! She reminds me of my youngest, who has never lost her voice in her whole life and talks a lot and asks questions that come out of nowhere. Let you be the judge of it :

• "For pity's sake, hold your tongue", said Marilla. "You talk entiely too much for a little girl."
• Anne talked Matthew and Marilla half-deaf over her discoveries.
• "I'll not talk any more just now, Marilla." "Thanks be to goodness for that", breathed Marilla in devout relief.
• "Anne, you have talked even on for ten minutes by the clock", said marilla. " Now, just for curiosity's sake, see if you can hold your tongue for the same length of time."

Anne grew on me. She loves trees, flowers, the sky, nature, the countryside, and people - even people who are not likable at first. She flips them over like pancakes ! She tries and sees the good in bad situations and as much as I laughed and smiled many times, I cried when you know what happened to you know who. But I really laughed about the story club (when the kids form a club to help them write stories) : "Diana puts too many murders into hers. She says most of the time, she doesn't know what to do with the people so she kills them off to get rid of them." ; "Miss Josephine Barry wrote back that she had never read anything so amusing in her life. That kind of puzzled us because the stories were all very pathetic and almost everybody died" (the epitome of romantism for Anne).

Conclusion : I'll read Anne of Avonlea. I can admit when I'm beaten !