To put it simply, this is my favorite romance in all of literature! There I said it!

2023 Review

It doesn't get better than this. I've read it close to a dozen times and still sob at the end.

I know many readers focus on Anne's writing, but she never dreams of being a writer as far as we know, and on this reading of the series I'm attending to her desire to be in a family. It's especially piercing when "Anne felt lonelier than ever" after seeing Diana with her baby and the hearing mother-memories of Mrs. Allan and Diana, right before she learns of Gilbert's illness. Her longing to be attached to a place mark every single title in the series; her longing to be in a family is fulfilled in the course of her life. Feel what you will about Montgomery's decision to not make Anne a writer (and I have beaucoup theories about that!), but I avow that Anne's deepest dream is to be in a family, and seeing her realize that dream is "the sweetest and the best."

2021 Review

Anne of the Island was my favorite of the series for so long, and I still think it's the "best" book of the series, though it has a few flaws. I wish we got to know Gilbert better. He's absent for most of Green Gables because of Anne's cold shoulder, and he should have been more present in Avonlea. We don't get the familiarity with him that we enjoy with Diana, Jane, Phil, or Anne's other dear friends. And I wish we could glimpse more of Anne's life at college, though I am not complaining about the abundance of scenes at Patty's Place, because they are purely delightful. In Avonlea, the former Queen's students talk about their courses and professors, but such things hardly come up except in a cursory way in Island.

I adore the titles of the first three books in the series. In Green Gables, Anne settles into her first home. The description of her room the first night she stays there, and then later in the book before she recites at White Sands, display how much she's home at Green Gables. In Avonlea, we see her taking her place among the adult society of Avonlea, with the A.V.I.S. and developing relationships with Mr. Harrison and Mrs. Lynde. In Island, she proudly proclaims that she's "Island to the core" and learns to stay true to herself, turning down four proposals before finally assenting to an Island man.

The series doesn't quite go downhill from here.* Anne's House of Dreams and Rilla of Ingleside are still strong novels. But Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne of Ingleside, and Rainbow Valley are very different. Windy Poplars and Ingleside were published 15 years after the other books. Montgomery published Island, House of Dreams, Rainbow Valley, and Rilla in a streak of two-year intervals from 1915 to 1921. (Happy 100th birthday to Rilla!) Windy Poplars and Ingleside just aren't the same as the other books, and it's not just Anne's relative absence from Ingleside (and Rainbow Valley and Rilla, for that matter). Montgomery's writing is a bit less coherent, a bit too indulgent with ellipses, and quite a bit darker than the sunny, earlier books. Yet, they're tied up with so much nostalgia for me that I still love them. Montgomery's characters are what keep me coming back. Even the inconsequential side characters are fully realized in a single sentence!

I'm remembering scenes from Windy Poplars that I can't wait to read again. Dear little Elizabeth, the estimable ladies of Windy Poplars and their buttermilk ablutions, Katherine Brooke. Yes, it's scattered, and the epistolary format has never been my favorite (I'd love to sit down with the Apostle Paul and have a wee discussion about form), but it's still charming. Nothing beats Anne of the Island, though the womanly depth of House of Dreams is what I cherish most now, but Windy Poplars provides a nice segue from one to the other. Without it, Anne's marriage would seem rushed--she just got back on good terms with Gilbert--and leaving Avonlea forever would be too harsh. I think the series needed Windy Poplars and I always enjoy a saunter in Summerside.

*Are we counting The Blythes Are Quoted now? It's not a great book, and the Blythes are kind of insufferable in it, but I'm such Montgomery trash that of course I liked it.

2019 Review

Gaaah, why is this book the most perfect thing?! (Not that I'm complaining.)

Anne is a bit more of an observer rather than the center of attention in this book--no scrapes! She gets her BA (not your average feat for a young woman in the 1890s), but Anne of the Island has more about growing into adulthood, dealing with changing friendships and perceptions, and disillusionment. Anne watches a friend die, her bosom friend get married, her family age and change without her, and the love of her life whom she doesn't acknowledge fake-date a woman she'll grow jealous of 20 years down the road for no logical reason besides obeisance to the goddess Plot.

Reading Anne always helps me process my own life. Living with Anne through her grief, relationship struggles, and disillusionment gives me the gift of the human experience through another's eyes. Dear old Anne--may we all become as honest with ourselves as you grow to be.

~ 3 stars ~

I didn't love this one as much as the 2 before as some of the stories felt repetitive and less interesting, but that ending was everything I was waiting for and more. Anne's story is so charming and if there is one thing that I love, it is her persistence to get and education and to live her life to her fullest. Her character growth is an admirable one. And Gilbert! I love Gilbert, he's such a sweetheart.

《هوالحق》
من واقعا این جلد رو دوست داشتم

My expectations didn't match what the book turned out to be about. Anne goes to Redmond College, makes friends and studies. I used to love books about college life, and I expected something of a Daddy-Long-Legs type of vibe. But the real focus was everyone either getting married, engaged, proposed to, or planning/dreaming about it. The studying and the college life occupied about two paragraphs in the whole book. So to me, it felt like wasted potential.

The book spanned 4 years of college, so the narrative seemed to me somewhat disjointed. It skipped over periods of time then lingered for loosely connected anecdotes of questionable importance here and there.

The last chapters were, of course... Ah. The feels.

Overall okay.

n  "In imagination she sailed over storied seas that wash the distant shining shores of "faery lands forlorn," where lost Atlantis and Elysium lie, with the evening star for pilor, to the land of Hearts Desire. And she was richer in those dreams than in realities; for things seen pass away, but the things that are unseen are eternal."n


Dear Lucy Maud,

Thank you.
Love,
Jo.



Dear Manchester,






Anne says hi.

Hope you’re well.
Jo.



Gilbert,
[Censored]

Always,
J.


Mrs Gardner,
You called your son Royal?
ROYAL?
What is wrong with you?

Yours Truly,

J.Williams.

ps. Tell him I say HA.

بی‌ربط به کتاب:
اون‌قدر ریویو ننوشته‌م که یادم رفته باید چه کنم. :)))
سعی می‌کنم تغییر روند بدم.

با ربط به کتاب:
آیا نسبت به ماجرای پایان این جلد غبطه می‌خورم؟ بله. آیا جلدهای قبلی هم همین‌طور بود؟ قطعاً. آیا قصه‌های جزیره هم برام همین‌طور بود؟ بی‌شک! علاقهٔ زیادی به مونتگمری دارم؟ همون پاسخ‌های قبلی.

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the third in the Anne of Green Gables series. Like the other two I completely loved reading it. I have read the whole series years ago and decided to reread them.
With maturity and age I feel a deeper understanding with the writing of L.M. Montgomery. Rereading Anne of Green Gables has been an absolute treasure.

Anne Shirley goes to Redmond, makes friends, discovers boys are A Thing, and returns to Green Gables and Avonlea which she is startled to realize no longer feel quite like home.

Every time I try to approach these books logically to provide a thorough critique and commentary on them, my soul cries out and I'm left clutching fistfuls of tears shouting about my childhood. There's something so intrinsically linked to who I was when I first read them that I can't separate myself from them.

It's just so cozy and heartening reading about the girls settling into Patty's Place and making lives for themselves, even as many of the details get swept to the side in the hurry of cramming four years into one volume. I wanted more of those quiet evenings studying, or the rambunctious evenings when they were home to friends, or the festive nights when they went out to parties and dances.

I was also a bit thrown by some of the casual violence this time around: chloroforming Rusty; hanging the dog; Mrs. Lynde falling down the cellar steps; Ruby's death; Mrs. Josephine Barry's death—I feel like these things were stepped over or rushed over without too much weight.

ALSO, I put from my mind the fact that Anne is "not overly fond" of cats. I mean, really.

In addition, I found myself the smallest bit frustrated with how conveniently perfect everything works out for Anne: Patty and Maria choosing to be gone for 3 years exactly, returning in May after graduation; Mrs. Barry's death giving Anne enough money to stay on at Redmond; etc. It's a wonderful story, but it does make for a kind of easy, eye-rolling sensation of of course it'll all be all right; how could it not? that went down like syrup.

After wanting more about Diana settling into Avonlea, now I'm hungry for a glimpse into Gilbert Blythe's days at college: working at a newspaper, deciding to become a doctor, seeing Anne out and about and feeling heartbroken, befriending Christine and getting along with her without any other expectations.

BUT STILL: "I have a dream," he said slowly. "I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it, a cat and dog, the foot-steps of friends—and YOU!"

PS: Not enough kissing.

I didn't expect to read much beyond the first book in this series, but I'm thoroughly enjoying watching Anne grow up and move along in her charmed life. I enjoy being in her company as she enjoys the simple pleasures of life; spending time with loving friends of all ages, the beauty of nature and tended gardens and and her most important ally, her imagination. Anne makes mistakes as she matures and she learns from these mistakes and moves on. This only adds an element of realism to these mostly cozy novels.

Anne is a little older and goes to school at Redmont with her friend, Prissy. Along the way they meet Phillippa Gordon (who may be my favorite character so far in the series, I mean besides Anne of course!). Phil, Prissy, and Anne find a house to let -- quaint and practically perfect. The house is called Patty's Place and they all soon move in. They find themselves with three cats- a fireplace, and imagination which makes for a lovely setting. Anne is trying to figure out what love is and how she feels about it, she gets proposed to multiple times (a few times elicited chuckles from me) and finally meets Roy Gardner- a wealthy man that meets Anne under an umbrella after "rescuing" her from the sudden rainstorm. (sigh)

I really enjoyed Anne at this age, even still her stubborness got in her own way in regards to Gilbert. I almost got to a point where I would never forgive her, but luckily it all worked out in the end. THis book was more mature and as a byproduct had sadder events that tug at my heartstrings (Ruby Gillis). Looking forward to the next book in Anne's story.

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