Anne of Green Gables - I have questions

[drspouse]

So, I'm listening to this on Sleepy Bookshelf.
I really like it, having not read it as a child, and I'm wondering:
Are all the others worth reading?
What order do they come in? The listed order doesn't seem to match up with the dates.
And very important:
What kind of currants went into the currant wine? Because I understood that blackcurrants were banned in North America. Or is that recent? Or are these redcurrants?

Yes, I loved The Girl of the Limberlost. One of my favourites. Freckles is lovely too.

Wow @SnakeLinguine, that gives me a whole different perspective!!

I read them through Ingleside, but I think I might as well stopped after House of Dreams.

I must say it never occurred to me to have a favorite.

@Choppingonions

Yes, I loved The Girl of the Limberlost. One of my favourites. Freckles is lovely too.

I've got all of Stratton Porter's books on Kindle. Another one I love is Her Father's Daughter.

@tcjotm

Wow *@SnakeLinguine*, that gives me a whole different perspective!!

Plus both she and the man she invited into her bedroom (he was a member of the family she was boarding with during one of her teaching jobs) were engaged to other people at the time. And her diaries make it plain she was also at least kissing the man she was engaged to, because she compares them. Hard to imagine Emily snogging Perry Miller in her ‘bower’! 😀

I've got all of Stratton Porter's books on Kindle. Another one I love is Her Father's Daughter.

We had quite a few Gene Stratton Porter books on the shelves when I was growing up, which I consumed in my teens, but I've not come across that one.

I can’t even @SnakeLinguine. I feel shock like Mrs Rachel Lynde would if she saw what girls wear today. That’s scandalous!

@tcjotm

I can’t even *@SnakeLinguine*. I feel shock like Mrs Rachel Lynde would if she saw what girls wear today. That’s scandalous!

😀😀 I know, it’s quite discombobulating! Her romantic life was actually fairly messy, and she eventually married someone thick, unstable and a Presbyterian minister (who used to say she and their children weren’t in the ‘elect’ who were going to heaven) whom she didn’t seem to like or respect, but clearly felt it was her Christian duty to try to make it work. 😱

Whew. Thanks for that, @snakelinguine. Lucy Maud, was a bit of a strumpet! Sounds like the poor woman had quite a sad life overall so I hope that her younger lusty experiences were of some comfort when she found herself in that unhappy marriage. She married Moody Spurgeon it seems.

But you’re right, I can’t see Anne indulging in any of that. In fact I’ve just remembered in one of the books where Gilbert is described as getting all hot and bothered after catching sight of the curve of Anne’s virginal neck. The wholesomeness!

I'm totally getting a copy of LM Montgomery's diaries now.

L.M. Montgomery had an incredibly emotionally deprived childhood and she also seems to have suffered from bipolar disorder. Her husband may have been unwell or he may have been overmedicated. She then also took medication which caused side effects that she interpreted as dementia. She had no idea how to have a stable, happy home life. No one seems to know if her husband was fine or ill but either way, they were catastrophically unhappy together. One of her sons was an enormous consolation to her and she seems to have become enmeshed with him. He turned out to be a paedophile. It was all too much for her and she committed suicide.

Bringing a man into her room at a time when she was young, desperately vulnerable and unloved was the least significant thing that happened to her. That she achieved as much as she did and gave so much in her friendships and writing is remarkable.

She wrote her diaries for the purpose of providing material for future biographies. They were edited versions of the real diaries and she seems to have become paranoid and lost as she grew older. I wouldn't judge her by her diaries or her rather unpleasant biography. The person who comes through in her work, especially the earlier work, is a rare and precious character. This, and the touch of genius she had, was the essence of L.M. Montgomery. Time doesn't fade her.

I didn't realise her life was as consistently bleak as that. Poor woman.

Well it wasn't really when she was living it because she had that joy that is in the books. It sounds awful but she was so good at friendship and loving beauty. But it was always against a backdrop of utter bleakness which eventually enveloped her.

That's all rather sad @choppingonions I had no idea.

Are the Emily books loosely autobiographical? Somebody may have already said, or I spotted it when having a quick search for LMM's diaries.

I do think an Anne books reread/read thread would be well received. Not that I'm volunteering to start one, however!

There are lots of similarities between Emily's character/situation and the author's. I think it's considered fair to say the character of Emily is heavily autobiographical.

If anyone is interested in Montgomery's early life, Maud (by Melanie Fishbane) is a wonderful historical/biographical novel that explores her teen years. Fishbane based the novel on Montgomery's teenage diaries, as well as other meticulous research. The novel is technically YA, but it really spans both YA and adult fiction.

Just posting to say I thought Rainbow Valley was the final one and I had read every single Anne book. I had no idea that Rilla of Ingleside existed. I'll have to hunt it down.

I've loved reading this thread. I've read the whole series multiple times since childhood (I have memories of lying on my parents' bed reading my mum's old hardback copies from when SHE was a child) and recently gave the whole set to a 13yo friend who adored them; I've really enjoyed chatting about them with her as she sped through the whole lot in a few weeks!

Anne of the Island is probably my fave; Rilla is also great, after the relative dullness of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley. I think we would all have loved to be part of the gang in Patty's Place... baking cakes, going to dances, studying impossibly hard Greek and Latin, chloroforming cats.. (??!!). I also do enjoy Windy Willows which I know is generally not a favourite with other people, but there are some good moments in it.

Totally agree that Anne should have named her firstborn son after Matthew and not Captain Jim. I think LMM wanted a 'Jem' instead of a Matt.

I love the Megan Follows version (I start crying as soon as I hear the music start, just thinking about Matthew) but can never watch after it starts deviating from the books. I've never watched any other adaptations and don't think I will, I love the books too much. I love all the humour in the dialogue, the side characters, the contrast between the dreaminess of Anne and the forthrightness of other characters like Mrs Lynde and Mr Harrison.

I read the Story Girl and the Emily series relatively recently and didn't particularly enjoy either, but I do love Jane of Lantern Hill and I enjoyed The Blue Castle.

That’s really sad @Choppingonions, I had no idea. I must say the bipolar bit is very interesting. Her descriptions of nature are very much how I felt about nature when I had undiagnosed bipolar. Obviously everyone can enjoy it but those bipolar hypomania/mania often describe those very vivid connections with nature and beauty and the crystal clarity/heightened senses; basically much of the way she describes Anne’s relationship with nature. Now Anne doesn’t have bipolar but her way of viewing the world is very relatable to me, as someone who does. From what you’ve said, that might’ve been a gift that LLM gave her.

Loved Windy Willows! esp the dinner party with the sulking man, and the spoilt little rich girl who failed to ruin the school play!

The one I never liked as much as Anne of the Island. Adolescent me was furious with her for turning down Gilbert.

@tcjotm

You’ve all reassured me about not watching Anne with an E. I keep seeing it but it scares me. I’ll stay away.

Love the Megan Followes version, at least at first. I think it’s a tragic waste of such amazing casting that they diverged so far from the books in later series.

Gilbert was definitely concerned about Anne’s health re- babies. And with reason. Three uneventful pregnancies ( though the first was a bad delivery), then the fourth was twins and the 5th nearly killed her. Nowadays we’d say they had two healthy boys and two healthy girls, quit while ahead. He probably really regretted Shirley and Rilla probably terrified him though worked out ok.

Wasn't her first baby a stillbirth? I remember reading that when we were going through miscarriage after miscarriage and just sobbing at the descriptions. We always like to throw off child mortality in the old days with a "eh, they expected it" but of COURSE mums were heartbroken, duh.

I actually loved the first two series of Anne with an E - it's not a faithful adaption of the books but doesn't aim to be. I thought it was beautifully filmed in lovely locations, and did some interesting representations of the characters, for example, with a believable "Anne with trauma and attachment disorder" spin.

But then they didn't have the courage to kill off Matthew and took a sharp turn into wokedom, centring the show around new characters representing The Issues, in a really weird way.

@illyawasthebest no, baby Joy lived for a day - she was born as the sun came up and passed away as it went down. Anne talks about that 'brief day' - it's incredibly sad and the descriptions of 'something in Anne's smile that wasn't there before and would always be there now' makes me sob.

I love the Megan Follows version (I start crying as soon as I hear the music start, just thinking about Matthew)

Me too!

[quote Waitwhat23]@illyawasthebest no, baby Joy lived for a day - she was born as the sun came up and passed away as it went down. Anne talks about that 'brief day' - it's incredibly sad and the descriptions of 'something in Anne's smile that wasn't there before and would always be there now' makes me sob.[/quote]
I remember that very well. It left an impression on me, though I was very young when I read it.

I have downloaded the collection on Kindle. Time to go down Memory Lane:)