The Anne Of Green Gables Series

A Heartfelt Journey Through Anne's Life

Photo by me

Hello my lovely readers!!!

Welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books.. How’s your reading going?

Like I already said last week, this week I’m going to talk about the Anne Of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery.

The series has eight books in total and follows Anne since she's eleven to when she's in her early fifties, covering four decades of her life. It captures various phases of her life like school, college, teaching career, early married life, motherhood, etc. It’s a very nice, heartfelt cosy read. Especially if you read it like I did, during the year-end holiday season.

That beings said, I believe Anne of Green Gables is a far stronger story than the rest of the series. I can list a few reasons for saying so.

The series is targeted towards children, or young readers in general and in Anne of Green Gables, Anne herself is the child who encapsulates that childlike energy. In the later stories that's not the case anymore, so the stories rely on several other child characters. It works, just not as well as Anne of Green Gables.

The reason for this in my opinion lies in the fact that no other child character actually captures the readers’ hearts like young Anne does. Anne's introduction in the story as this highly energetic young orphan girl yearning for acceptance which she might be denied pretty much gives the readers no choice but to root for her. The children who come in the later books simply do not have that emotional appeal.

I also think Anne of Green Gables works better because we have Anne as the single central child character. The subsequent stories except for the last one, Rilla of Ingleside, follow multiple children and as a result, fail to establish that sort of a deep connection with any of them.

I also feel some of the stories lack a strong sense of direction. Anne Of Windy Poplars suffers from this the most. These stories feel like a series of quests following after one another but lacking a proper direction they're heading towards.

In terms of having a proper direction, Anne of Green Gables in my opinion is still the best. Here we see young orphan girl Anne finding a home and a family and building her life. Anne Of The island, too, I think is very good. Here Anne's college life along with her romantic tension with Gilbert and Roy gives the story The drive. Rilla of Ingleside, despite not being that popular, in my opinion is actually one of the better-written stories of the series where the first World War gives the story a proper direction.

Another point is, as the story progresses, Anne appears less and less which is also visible from how Anne’s name is dropped from the titles of the later stories. She’s still there, but as a very passive background figure which isn’t that fun for readers whose main connection to the story is through Anne.

But still, if you're a fan of Anne of Green Gables, I highly recommend reading the entire series, at least once. It’s very wholesome simply following Anne’s life through the years and seeing how she’s faring in life.

What about you? Have you read the full Anne of Green Gables series? Don’t forget to let me know.

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That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻