Anne of Green Gables

by L. M. Montgomery

Overview

My dislikes: Being an orphan, having red hair, being called 'carrots' by Gilbert Blythe.

My likes: Living at the Green Gables with Marilla and Matthew, my bosom-friend Diana, dresses with puff sleeves.

My regrets: Dying my hair green. Smashing a slate over Gilbert Blythe's head.

My dream: To tame my temper. To be good (this is an uphill struggle). To grow up to have auburn hair!

Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can find out about the real Green Gables, the plucky author and more!

Vintage Children's Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from Peter Pan and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448161539
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	06/06/2013
Series:	Anne of Green Gables Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

L. M. Montgomery, known as Maud, was born on Prince Edward Island, off the coast of Canada, in 1874. Maud's mother died when she was just a baby and so she had a rather unhappy childhood growing up in the care of her strict grandparents. She was just sixteen when she had her first poem published. As a young woman she worked as a teacher and although she didn't enjoy it much it gave her lots of time to write. Maud wrote hundred of short stories, poems and novels throughout her life but it was the hugely popular Anne of Green Gables and its sequels that made her famous. She died in 1942.

Read an Excerpt

This Dark World

The infant was taken, within a week of its birth, to the precincts of the church; the child of wrath must be reformed into the image of God, 'the servant of the fiend' made into 'a son of joy'. At the church-door the priest asked the midwife if the child were male or female, and then made a sign of the cross on the infant's forehead, breast and right hand. He placed some salt in the baby's mouth according to custom; then the priest exorcised the devil from its body with a number of prayers, and pronounced baptism as the sole means 'to obtain eternal grace by spiritual regeneration'. The priest spat in his left hand and touched the ears and nose of the child with his saliva. Let the nose be open to the odour of sweetness. It was time to enter the church itself, the priest taking the right hand of the new-born child who had with the salt and saliva been granted the station of a catechumen.

The litanies of the saints were pronounced over the baptismal font; the priest then divided the water with his right hand and cast it in the four directions of the cross. He breathed three rimes upon it and then spilled wax in a cruciform pattern. He divided the holy water with a candle, before returning the taper to the cleric beside him. Oil and chrism were added, with a long rod or spoon, and the child could now be baptised. Thomas More, what seekest thou? The sponsors replied for the infant, Baptism. Dost thou wish to be baptised? I wish. The child was given to the priest, who immersed him three times in the water. He was then anointed with chrism and wrapped in a chrismal robe. Thomas More, receive a white robe, holy and unstained, which thou must bring beforethe tribunal of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest have eternal life and live for ever and ever. The candle was lit and placed in the child's right hand, thus inaugurating a journey through this dark world which ended when, during the last rites, a candle was placed in the right hand of the dying man with the prayer, 'The Lord is my Light and my Salvation, whom shall I fear?' Whom shall this particular child fear, when it was believed by the Church that the whole truth and meaning of baptism was achieved in the act of martyrdom? 'Baptism and suffering for the sake of Christ', according to a second-century bishop, are the two acts which bring full 'remission of sins'.

It was considered best to baptise the child on the same day as its birth, if such haste were practicable, since an infant unbaptised would be consigned to limbo after its death. To leave this world in a state of original sin was to take a course to that eternal dwelling, Limbus puerorum, suspended between heaven, hell and purgatory. There the little unbaptised souls would dwell in happy ignorance beside the more formidable and haunting Limbus patrum, which contained the souls of Noah, Moses and Isaiah together with (in Dante's epic) Virgil, Aristotle, Socrates and all the good men who lived on earth before the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Adam had already been dragged from this place at the time of Christ's crucifixion, but there was continual debate within the Church about the consequences of denying new-born children the eternal comfort of paradise. Could a child be saved by the desire, the votum, of its parents? Thomas More himself would eventually concede only that 'those infantes be dampned onely to the payne of losse of heauen'.

In various late medieval pictures of baptism, in manuscripts and devotional manuals, the priest stands with his surplice and stole beside the font. Sometimes he seems to be balancing the infant in the palm of his hand, yet the child is so unnaturally large and alert for such an early stage in its life that we can only assume it acquired mental consciousness with its spiritual renovation. A clerk with a surplice stands behind the priest, while two sponsors and the child's father are generally seen beside the font. In some depictions of this first of the seven sacraments, an image of the dying Christ hangs behind the human scene. But the mother was rarely, if ever, present.

In the more pious households, she would have worn a girdle made out of manuscript prayer rolls in the last stages of her pregnancy, and it was customary in labour to invoke the name of St Margaret as well as the Blessed Virgin. She remained secluded after giving birth, and two or three weeks later was led out to be 'churched' or purified. When she was taken to the church, her head was covered by a handkerchief, as a veil, and she was advised not to look up at the sun or the sky. She knelt in the church while the priest blessed her and assured her, in the words of Psalm 121, that 'the sun shall not burn her by day, nor the moon by night. It was a ceremony both to celebrate the birth of the child and to give thanks for the survival of the mother. This is the late fifteenth-century world into which Thomas More was baptised.

Table of Contents

1 Mrs Rachel Lynde is Surprised 9

2 Matthew Cuthbert is Surprised 17

3 Marilla Cuthbert is Surprised 30

4 Morning at Green Gables 37

5 Anne's History 44

6 Marilla Makes up Her Mind 50

7 Anne Says Her Prayers 56

8 Anne's Bringing-up is Begun 60

9 Mrs Rachel Lynde is Properly Horrified 68

10 Anne's Apology 75

11 Anne's Impressions of Sunday School 82

12 A Solemn Vow and Promise 88

13 The Delights of Anticipation 94

14 Anne's Confession 99

15 A Tempest in the School Teapot 108

16 Diana is Invited to Tea, with Tragic Results 123

17 A New Interest in Life 134

18 Anne to the Rescue 141

19 A Concert, a Catastrophe and a Confession 151

20 A Good Imagination Gone Wrong 163

21 A New Departure in Flavourings 169

22 Anne is Invited out to Tea 179

23 Anne Comes to Grief in an Affair of Honour 183

24 Miss Stacy and Her Pupils get up a Concert 190

25 Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves 195

26 The Story Club is Formed 205

27 Vanity and Vexation of Spirit 212

28 An Unfortunate Lily Maid 219

29 An Epoch in Anne's Life 227

30 The Queen's Class is Organised 236

31 Where the Brook and River Meet 247

32 The Pass List is Out 253

33 The Hotel Concert 261

34 A Queens Girl 271

35 The Winter at Queen's 278

36 The Glory and the Dream 283

37 The Reaper whose Name is Death 289

38 The Bend in the Road 296

What People are Saying About This

EBOOK COMMENTARY

The dearest and most lovable child in fiction.

Mark Twain

The dearest and most lovable child in fiction.

Editorial Reviews

"Anne is a captivating heroine, a whirlwind of energy and good intentions"

EBOOK COMMENTARY

When mischievous orphan Anne Shirley arrives at the Cuthbert farm Green Gables, she knows she wants to stay forever. But the Cuthbert's were expecting a boy orphan -- someone strong enough to help with their farmwork. Can spunky Anne win their hearts? This beautiful picture book adaptation of L. M. Montgomery's classic novel will delight the author's many fans -- and captivate a new audience of younger readers.

barnesandnoble.com

This simplified picture-book retelling of how the 11-year-old orphan comes to Prince Edward Island is adapted from L.M. Montgomery's classic. Ages 5-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Montgomery is the latest author to join Running Press's ongoing "Courage Classics'' series of budget hardcover reprints of classic works. Along with the full text, this edition includes excerpts from the author's journal. Also new in the line is Short Stories and Tall Tales by Mark Twain ( ISBN 1-56138-323-6 ), which offers pieces gleaned from Running Press's The Unabridged Mark Twain . At this bargain price, both titles are excellent choices.

Library Journal

Gr 5-8-The nostalgic charm of Avonlea comes alive in Lucy Maud Montgomery's heart-warming tale set on the quaint island of Prince William about an aging brother and sister, Mathew and Marilla Cuthbert, and their decision to adopt a young boy to help with chores around their farm. However, as the result of a misunderstanding the boy turns out to be a feisty, independent, and wildly imaginative redheaded girl named Anne. Marilla's first reaction to this news is, "What use is she to us?" Wherein Mathew replies, "We might be of some use to her." Throughout this moving story these two statements mix and meld together so richly and completely that they become one truth. Three lives are changed so dramatically that none can imagine life without the others. Each new day brings a new set of adventures, often hilarious and always uplifting. Anne's vivid and overactive imagination is the cause of many mishaps, but her saving grace is her heart of gold. Her best friend and "kindred spirit," Diana, and her handsome admirer, Gilbert Blythe, often find themselves unintentional victims of Anne's escapades. Narrator Shelly Frasier's pleasant voice is especially enjoyable during the rapid ramblings of Anne and as the soft-spoken, slow-paced Mathew. Her voice reflects the human qualities of each character, switching seamlessly between broken and despaired, curt and crisp, or dreamy and absent-minded. This perennial classic, divided into convenient three minute tracks and containing a short biography of the author, is a must have for expanding audiobook collections.-Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg High School, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

This keepsake or gift edition provides a beautiful hardcover illustrated by Laura Fernandez and Rick Jacobson and using the complete, unabridged text used in the first 1908 edition of Anne. Any who love the story of the red-headed spunky orphan will consider this a fine keepsake edition.

"Aficionados of the auburn-tressed waif will find Anne of Green Gables lavishly illustrated."
–Smithsonian Magazine

From the Publisher

Narrator Barbara Caruso's engaging descriptions of Green Gables, a farm on Prince Edward Island, takes listeners there as they make the acquaintance of a special 11-year-old, Anne Shirley. Caruso also perfectly captures feisty Marilla Cuthbert and her shy brother, Matthew, who begins most of his sentences with a hesitant, old-fashioned "Well now . . ." Her best creation is Anne, who displays exuberance or the depths of despair, depending on the situation. The friends and neighbors Anne meets in her new home are realistic as they warm to her sweet nature. Listeners will enjoy meeting orphan Anne and her unlikely new family. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

MAY 2014 - AudioFile