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I absolutely do love love love Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, and indeed, especially the third book, in particular her Anne of the Island is and always will be a total favourite, and yes, a very special and personal favourite that I have in fact and actually read more than ANY of the other series books, including the first novel, including Anne of Green Gables (with my conservative guesstimate being that my reading amount for Anne of Green Gables is probably around ten times but that I have read, laughed and cried over Anne of the Island probably twenty times and perhaps even considerably more than that).
Honestly and truth be told, I definitely and certainly massively both adore and appreciate absolutely everything about Anne of the Island. Anne Shirley finally going to Redmond College to get her BA, her rather humorous but also a bit frustrating travails trying to learn how to write proper and not too exaggerated, too overwrought fiction, her on and off again romantic entanglements with Gilbert Blythe and yes, even poor Ruby Gillis' death from consumption (although part of me has always chafed that L.M. Montgomery could not have let Ruby live), all of these (and of course many many more) episodes and anecdotes, they always make me feel comforted, and like a hot cup of tea, Anne of the Island is to and for me a panacea to and for both my and the world's ills and woes. But still and nevertheless, even though totally like a blanket of loveliness and softly positive wonder, Anne of the Island also portrays sadness (and even tragedy) at times, albeit always in a manner that is easily digestible and tolerable, acceptable, perhaps even necessary and required, and with the glowing and very much appreciated fact that L.M. Montgomery makes most of her characters, makes Anne, Stella, Priscilla, Philippa, Diana etc. appear, act as realistically conceptualised individuals with both positive and negative characteristics, and also has them make their share of mistakes (such as for example how Anne Shirley at times a bit callously approaches and deals with Gilbert Blythe, and her acceptance and then rather harsh refusal of Roy Gardiner before finally managing to realise that Gilbert truly is the one for her) being the absolute icing on the cake for me (even though I do sometimes tend to find that episode of Gilbert being ill with typhoid before Anne realises how much she loves him just a bit too much). For what makes the Anne of Green Gables series as a whole and what in my opinion makes especially Anne of the Island so delightfully wonderful and readable, relatable, is how deeply developed and nuanced Montgomery's characters for the most part are, how none or at least how the vast majority of them are never one-sided, are both lovable and sometimes indeed most annoyingly infuriating (that the characters who inhabit the pages of Anne of the Island have been rendered by Montgomery as basically real and breathing, living human beings, individuals whom one can both like/love but also occasionally not stand, a wonderfully both imaginative and realistic reading experience that is like a breath of fresh air and a total personally enchanting and endearing comfort whenever I decide to reread).
Honestly and truth be told, I definitely and certainly massively both adore and appreciate absolutely everything about Anne of the Island. Anne Shirley finally going to Redmond College to get her BA, her rather humorous but also a bit frustrating travails trying to learn how to write proper and not too exaggerated, too overwrought fiction, her on and off again romantic entanglements with Gilbert Blythe and yes, even poor Ruby Gillis' death from consumption (although part of me has always chafed that L.M. Montgomery could not have let Ruby live), all of these (and of course many many more) episodes and anecdotes, they always make me feel comforted, and like a hot cup of tea, Anne of the Island is to and for me a panacea to and for both my and the world's ills and woes. But still and nevertheless, even though totally like a blanket of loveliness and softly positive wonder, Anne of the Island also portrays sadness (and even tragedy) at times, albeit always in a manner that is easily digestible and tolerable, acceptable, perhaps even necessary and required, and with the glowing and very much appreciated fact that L.M. Montgomery makes most of her characters, makes Anne, Stella, Priscilla, Philippa, Diana etc. appear, act as realistically conceptualised individuals with both positive and negative characteristics, and also has them make their share of mistakes (such as for example how Anne Shirley at times a bit callously approaches and deals with Gilbert Blythe, and her acceptance and then rather harsh refusal of Roy Gardiner before finally managing to realise that Gilbert truly is the one for her) being the absolute icing on the cake for me (even though I do sometimes tend to find that episode of Gilbert being ill with typhoid before Anne realises how much she loves him just a bit too much). For what makes the Anne of Green Gables series as a whole and what in my opinion makes especially Anne of the Island so delightfully wonderful and readable, relatable, is how deeply developed and nuanced Montgomery's characters for the most part are, how none or at least how the vast majority of them are never one-sided, are both lovable and sometimes indeed most annoyingly infuriating (that the characters who inhabit the pages of Anne of the Island have been rendered by Montgomery as basically real and breathing, living human beings, individuals whom one can both like/love but also occasionally not stand, a wonderfully both imaginative and realistic reading experience that is like a breath of fresh air and a total personally enchanting and endearing comfort whenever I decide to reread).
