Anne of Green Gables Manuscript: L.M. Montgomery & the Creation of Anne

January 19, 2023 2:30 PM

Explore the annotated manuscript of Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
posted by toastyk (10 comments total)

This is a rather lovely site: a mix of rich text interpretation and simple manuscript presentation. Good luck reading LMM's handwriting, though!

Visiting Cavendish, PEI is incredible. Coach-loads of women disembark who instantly become the age they were when they first read Anne: there is much squealing and excited running about. The picnic benches around the site are soon littered with bored husbands who frankly can't see what the fuss is all about and would rather be down the pub. That there isn't a pub nearby is a major loss to the island's revenue.
posted by scruss at 3:36 PM on January 19, 2023 [13 favorites]

For a period television show that's constantly having it's fictional characters meet, interact with, and "inspire" the works of real historical figures, Murdoch Mysteries felt the need to add the following disclaimer at the end of an episode which featured a young L.M. Montgomery:

Despite the story you have just seen there is no evidence to suggest that Lucy Maud Montgomery met Constable George Crabtree or that her work was influenced by him. (He's not real).

This is the same show that cheekily had Inspector Brackenreid talking to Conan Doyle about visiting the highlands and suggesting that he write a story called "Hell Hounds of the Highlands". The same show where Detective Murdoch casually used the phrase "call of the wild" when talking with with a young Jack London. Hell, this show had an entire episode where Frank Lloyd Wright built Detective Murdoch a house that had a custom walk-in microwave oven. None of those episodes had any disclaimers about the ahistorical depiction of real people, except the L.M. Montgomery episode.

That's how untouchable Green Gables is. A show that once had an episode where Canada secretly invents the airplane first and another where Canada launches an orbital rocket in the early 1900s added a disclaimer to remind the audience that it's depiction of how L.M. Montgomery came to write Anne of Green Gables while taking a creative writing workshop offered by George Crabtree was in fact a work of fiction.

And I think that's one of the most hilarious and meta things this completely bonkers show has ever done.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:45 PM on January 19, 2023 [12 favorites]

I am planning on visiting Canada April/May this year to catch up with two female friends for their respective birthdays in Toronto and Calgary.

BUT I am definitely going to go to PEI just to explore.

Also have been reading more of her books on Project Gutenberg. "The Blue Castle" is astonishingly modern for something written in 1926.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 5:00 PM on January 19, 2023 [4 favorites]

I think you'll enjoy it. Anne or no Anne, PEI is a lovely place.
posted by humbug at 5:27 PM on January 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

→ I am planning on visiting Canada April/May this year

Ooh, neat. That is very off-season for PEI, though; I'd check if anything was open.
posted by scruss at 6:11 PM on January 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

On a related note, if you want to listen to an audiobook of Anne of Green Gables or Anne of Avonlea read by an absolutely divine voice actor, check out The Sleepy Bookshelf (it’s free).
posted by ReginaHart at 6:24 PM on January 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

The picnic benches around the site are soon littered with bored husbands who frankly can't see what the fuss is all about and would rather be down the pub.

This husband, at least, would rather not be down at the pub.

I'm reading the Anne series with my youngest daughter (current book: Anne of the Island) and loving it. I also loved the TV series as a kid, but the books have been a revelation in their depth, poetry, humanity, and humor.

The FPP opens up some much-appreciated background, thanks for posting!
posted by swift at 7:10 PM on January 19, 2023 [9 favorites]

"The Blue Castle" is astonishingly modern for something written in 1926.

This is a wonderful book - my favourite of all of hers (and I believe that I have read all of them published in her lifetime). I used to dream of a movie adaptation, but NOT by Kevin Sullivan. Maybe Merchant Ivory could have done it justice.
posted by jb at 9:06 PM on January 19, 2023 [7 favorites]

Finally, an excuse to share my Anne of Green Gables tattoo I got earlier this year! (Link to the artist’s Instagram post.)
posted by skycrashesdown at 10:19 PM on January 19, 2023 [8 favorites]

that tattoo is gorgeous, skycrashesdown
posted by elkevelvet at 7:15 AM on January 20, 2023 [1 favorite]