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?

Paul was very annoying. Katherine was great, I loved her prickly self - and yes, the K is important because Catherine is a dreary sanctimonious name but Katherine is exciting and dramatic.

How has nobody mentioned Susan yet? 😁
She's an absolute baller in Rilla of Ingleside.

Might have to start using "and that you may tie too" in every day conversation.

I also love Miss Cornelia.

Sorry haven’t read the whole thread but did anyone else find the character of Walter (Anne’s son)interesting. Didn’t he have s platonic friendship with a girl but never a romance. He hated war and loved poetry and was a gentle child. I often wonder if the author intended this to be a nod to his sexuality? Maybe I’m looking too much into it though!

@Ladylornax12 oh I loved Walter. I never thought he was gay though - just had his mind on higher things! Una was clearly in love with him and his death was just so sad. I love Rilla of Ingleside even more than the books about Anne as it's such an interesting period of history.

The Emily books are good too but much darker and there's one character there who certainly be considered a groomer these days

I loved Anne of the Island. The end with Anne’s book of revelation I thought was wonderful. I found it in a school library recently when DD was at an activity and wallowed in it.

Loved the Meghan Followes version

And Rilla and Dog Monday. 🥲

Walter wrote poetry 'to' Faith Meredith as a teen, didn't he? Although I like to think he appreciated Una by the end, even though he wasn't in love with her.

Susan's proposal is one of my favourite things ever

Considered Katherine with a K for my daughter, with a K was because I have the Anne books.
Jonathan Crombie was a wonderful Gilbert its sad he died so young.

The Emily books are good too but much darker and there's one character there who certainly be considered a groomer these days
Dean Priest?

Thanks kindred spirits, think I'll skip watching Anne with an E and instead re-read the entire series.

Last time I stopped at Anne's House of Dreams as it was just too heart wrenching. I also find Captain Jim boring!

Seconding a call for a re-read thread.

I wanted Marilla as a middle name for DD but DH refused, she got Anne instead.

@TheMarzipanDildo - totally agree re Anne with an E - made me really cross. I’ve always had a soft spot for Anne of Ingleside but agree Windy Poplars dull. I also quite like the chronicles. I have them all and re read when knackered.

@TrashyPanda - he had sticky out ears as well as a cumbersome name!

@sueelleker

The Emily books are good too but much darker and there's one character there who certainly be considered a groomer these days Dean Priest?

Yes.

@AKASammyScrounge - I’ve read A Girl of the Limberlost! It was Gene Stratton Porter though not LMM.

Did anyone else notice the Susan age thing - when she is installed in the house of dreams she is described as 'Susan Baker, a grim-faced, kind-hearted elderly spinster of the Glen,

24 ish years later when she is proposed to by Whiskers-On-The-Moon she is 64

@Classica

She did, but Matthew deserved more than middle name place. Some annoying, overly-chatty, johnny-come-lately neighbour being given top billing irked me

All along I was going to name a boy after my dead brother. But when it came to it I didn't, I gave him it as a middle name.

I always felt that Ruby Gillis is a bit like Lucy in Dracula in that her flirtatious nature means she is the one to die of consumption and she is shallow so has no consolation.!

@GenialHarryGr0ut

Did anyone else notice the Susan age thing - when she is installed in the house of dreams she is described as 'Susan Baker, a grim-faced, kind-hearted elderly spinster of the Glen,

24 ish years later when she is proposed to by Whiskers-On-The-Moon she is 64

Lavendar Lewis had snow-white hair at 45.

You may enjoy Pat of Silver Bush series too. Maybe a bit more sickly sweet than Anne but the equivalent of comfort eating for me. I loved the Emily books, really resonated with teenage conflicts, jealousies and embarrassments.

@EmpressaurusWitchDoesntBurn
Yes! And she was portrayed as elderly (until Paul's father reappeared)
I loved Mrs Lyndes take on their romance

Thank you all for inspiring me to order the entire Anne series from Amazon. Has been many years since I read it and am loving it.
I am desperate to rewatch the Megan follows Anne series. It was my absolute most beloved tv programme ever. Has anyone ordered the dvd recently? The ones on Amazon get very mixed reviews on quality. I am tempted to order from Sullivan entertainment and get the remastered ones but is 70 dollars. Anyone have advice?

One aspect I find interesting as an influence on my own life is that there are quite a lot of very content ‘old maids’ in her stories. Growing up in a very dysfunctional home I thought this sounded like a delightful thing to be. While everyone else was pairing up, I just couldn’t stomach the idea of settling down (trapped, agh!) so I’ve pretty much always been single. The books gave me a nice blue print for how happy an eternally single life could be.

Of course I have to work for mine and the women in LMM’s stories who are happy like this have inherited property from their parents. Those living with siblings are a bit less happy and I appreciate it would’ve been quite different to be single and without assets. But I really liked how it showed that you didn’t have to marry. Even now the world just pushes towards an entwined coupled life and that’s not for me.

Thirding a call for a reading thread!

Lavendar Lewis had snow-white hair at 45.

Given that hair dye may have been unreliable in that era, probably quite a few people did.

@ErrolTheDragon

Lavendar Lewis had snow-white hair at 45.

Given that hair dye may have been unreliable in that era, probably quite a few people did.

True, but I realise how quickly you were considered an ‘old maid’ in the world of the LMM books. I skimmed Anne of Windy Willows recently, to find that the ‘hawkish’, sullen Nora Nelson, only unmarried daughter of six Nelson girls, her age continually remarked on and described by Anne as ‘a lot older than I am’ is 28! And Katherine Brooke, depicted as a dried-up old maid, is also 28 (when I thought she was closer to 40!)

Yeah pretty sure people looked askance at Anne marrying ‘late’ at 25.