What was life before reading this book?

4.5

Some episodes are laugh-out-loud funny, others are philosophical and poignant. The writing is light and lyrical and only seems dated here and there, but this only adds to the charm. Likewise, some of the attitudes are of their time, but the 'negative' ones are often questioned in this context.

Can be read and enjoyed by any age and makes a welcome change to the crash-bang-wallop of most modern books. There is a great sense of magic and poetry brought to the smaller happenings in life and the main character, Anne of the titles, is gentle, wise beyond her years and very likable.

It encourages us all to take time to enjoy the good things, even those small everyday good things we often overlook.

I listened to the first audio book of Anne while Baking Christmas cookies, and thought it was so sweet, I wanted to know more about Anne becoming a teacher. This book too, was very charming. Narrated by 2 different women, but their voices were both similar and wonderful!

Berättelsen om Anne på Grönkulla är en favorit som jag aldrig tröttnar på. Jag mår så bra av den.

(Rating + review only for Anne of Green Gables, have not yet read Anne of Avonlea.)

Best word I can think of for this book is "charming". It really is. The writing is gorgeous, and despite going in with a bit of cynicism and being initially turned off Anne by her incessant yattering, I absolutely fell in love with the characters. The ending broke my heart as Matthew was a favourite. ;_;
I will have to watch "Anne With An E" (the Netflix adaptation) ASAP.

Anne of Green Gables is a book best read in the sunlight. You understand and appreciate the book for what it is much better when the sun is warming up and shining its colour to everything around you, the same way these pages do for your soul.

So, I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was pick up Anne of Avonlea, determined to finish this book today. It was the best way to start off my day. Cheerful, positive, lovely writing and characters. This girl speaks to me like no other character in a story has. It’s that whimsical and imaginative and up-in-the-clouds and kind part of us humans that longs to be expressed out loud but never does, except in bits and pieces here and there, lest they look at us funny. When I first saw the tv show I felt it to be a “kindred spirit”, like Anne says. This book is not different.

This edition consists of two books, both unabridged, Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. The reason I gave it four stars was because of the writing style. While the characters and the vibes were beautiful and exquisite, the writing made it less easy for me to get lost in Anne’s world. There were parts I found unnecessary as they did not contribute to the plot. Which is why a more edited version would have been a better experience as a whole. Another thing, the plot was not very intriguing to follow which allowed its chapters to become more of small short stories that slowly and gradually lead to some progression in Anne’s life in the end.

While life in Avonlea is not very eventful, it has its charms which can often be found in the simple and tranquil things in life. This book’s pages are filled with childhood wisdom inspired by the beauty of nature and the sweet hopeful spirit of an imaginative mind of one Anne Shirley. In its heart, it’s beautiful and inspiring and it’s full of light. I would recommend it to every kid ever, to everyone who loves cottage core, to nature and poetry enthusiasts, to Hufflepuffs, and most definitely, to school teachers.

Even Canada was a pretty awful place to live a hundred years ago. The Anne series seems to be one of those children's series that cloaks pretty retrograde morals in a progressive coating. (Anne is so outspoken and unwittingly rude! Watch as she still becomes a model student and devout Christian, and accepts the rigid role in life that's thrust upon her without even thinking of complaining.)
Still, it's easy to see why the first book, at least, has been popular enough to adapt into movies, TV shows, and cartoons. By the end, its vignette/soap opera kind of story-telling begins to grate, though, and by the second book I was pretty much over it. That that one also introduces a Scrappy Doo in the form of a pointless ward doesn't help.

(Also, if Avonlea is a pun on ``heavenly'', as I strongly suspect it is, please imagine I've given this one fewer star still.)

A continuação de “Anne das Empenas Verdes” (“Anne of Green Gables”).

“Aqueles que conheciam Anne melhor, sentiam, sem perceberem o que sentiam, que a sua maior atração era a aura de possibilidade que a envolvia
- o potencial de desenvolvimento futuro que havia nela. Parecia caminhar numa atmosfera de coisas prestes a acontecer”.

Um diálogo entre Anne e Gilbert:
“A menção à universidade deu uma nova direção aos pensamentos de Gilbert e por algum tempo falaram dos seus planos e desejos - com gravidade, seriedade e esperança, como os jovens adoram fazer, enquanto o futuro ainda é um caminho por percorrer cheio de possibilidades maravilhosas.
Gilbert tinha finalmente decidido que iria ser médico.
"É uma profissão esplêndida", disse ele com entusiasmo. “Uma pessoa tem de lutar contra alguma coisa durante toda a vida - não houve alguém que definiu o homem como um animal lutador? — e eu quero lutar contra a doença e a dor e a ignorância
— que caminham sempre juntas. Quero fazer a parte que me cabe de um trabalho honesto e verdadeiro neste mundo, Anne — acrescentar um pouco ao conhecimento humano que todos os homens de bem têm vindo a acumular desde o princípio do mundo. As pessoas que viveram antes de mim fizeram tanto por mim que eu quero mostrar a minha gratidão fazendo alguma coisa pelas pessoas que viverão depois de mim. Parece-me a única forma de uma pessoa cumprir as suas obrigações para com a raça humana."
"Eu gostava de acrescentar alguma beleza à vida", disse Anne sonhadoramente. "Não quero exatamente fazer com que as pessoas saibam mais — embora saiba que essa é a mais nobre das ambições —, mas gostava que tivessem momentos mais agradáveis devido a mim — que tivessem uma pequena alegria ou um pensamento feliz que nunca teriam existido se eu eu não tivesse nascido."
"Penso que todos os dias concretizas essa ambição", disse Gilbert com admiração.

This book contains the first two novels of this series. Just some clarification: I didn't read the books ever as a kid, and I don't think I ever heard of the character before the Netflix series was released (which I watched until it was cancelled, and like it to a certain degree). A short introduction about the theme of the books: Anne Shirley is an 11 years old orphan who gets adopted by two farmer siblings living in Prince Edward Island, Canada, by the end of the 19th century. These siblings are rather old and never got married, so they are also childless. They decide to adopt a boy, so he could help them in the farm, but instead this skinny red haired girl arrives, and conquers their hearts with her quirky personality. She is very talkative and romantic, full of imagination and passion.
The novels are not my cup of tea. I enjoyed the second a bit more than the first, but it was not enough for me to like the series.

The first novel, Anne of Green Gables, has no plot, just episodes in the life of Anne, sometimes with a big temporal gap in between them. The second one, Anne of Avonlea, is similar in that aspect, but at least by the end there’s an attempt to a plot that develops in several consecutive chapters... But I didn’t find it interesting anyway. The style in these novels is often poor, monotonous, boring, too poetic and pretentious to my taste. Anne's personality is tiresome. At first she seems sweet and quirky, but soon enough she shows to be shallow and extra, to not say plain silly. She pays a lot - A LOT - of attention to her physical appearance, and the one of others, which makes her a very boring character, at least for me. I don’t buy all her poetics if she can be that shallow. I know we're not meant to take Anne's discourse so seriously, especially in the first novel, but being a book for young people it makes me cringe to see that certain ideas get validated by Anne - the hero and protagonist - so often.
In general the characters were not interesting for me, many of them don’t develop much of a personality (even if they are important ones like Gilbert or Diana), or they have a very cliché one. I guess the only character that enjoyed reading was Matthew, and sometimes Marilla.
The writing style of the first novella has a very repetitive structure. The chapters very often go like this: we get an introduction about the season or weather of that day, then Anne attempts to do something and much likely she will make a mistake or something outstanding out of it. And then it ends with Marilla or Matthew making a comment about Anne.
Other common formula for these chapters: Anne is the narrator of what happened lately in her life, so we don't get the author to narrate a situation, but instead there's a description that Anne makes of particular events. So we get these long monologues by Anne quite often, that are obviously not very detailed and again, leave no much room for side character development. Everything seems so focused on Anne that makes the book very boring.
The second novel, Anne of Avonlea, improves in this aspect, and we see things as they happened, with less (but still some) monologues by Anne. Buuut, this one novel had something that it’s quite awful: it validates whipping children as a correct punishment for behaving badly (in school.) I know this book is old, but I can't believe people love these books so much today. Whipping kids has never been a good thing. There are also very awful comments about women, that don’t look like critics from the author. For example, Mr Harrison saying “A woman would forgive a man for beating her sooner than for hinting she was too much pleased to get him.” (p. 480)
So, overall, I don’t recommend these books, even though I enjoyed some bits. But, hey, it’s the first time that I can endure 527 pages of a book that I don’t like and I’m not obligated to read ;p

This is a touching, funny and tear-jerking story of a red-haired, freckled faced, eleven years old orphan girl named Anne Shirley. (although she’d rather be called princess Cordelia!). Anne is delivered to the Cuthbert aging brother and sister Matthew and Marilla who were intending to get an orphan boy to help with their farm at green gables. But words got lost in translation and Anne is mistakenly delivered instead.
Matthew who was set to bring the orphan from the train station is immediately conquered by the little girl’s loquaciousness , scope for imagination, love for romance, beauty and nature, and her affinity for using big large words.
Once home, and after many debates whether to send her back to the orphanage, Anne finally gets to stay in green gables and she couldn’t be happier about it as she already had gratefully set her heart to stay (plus she had renamed all the beautiful glorious places between the station and green gables with more... suitable names.)
Although sometimes she’s a real trial to Marilla, both brother and sister soon grow fond of her, and the Cuthbert house -usually calm and monotonous- is filled with many adventures from Anne’s clumsiness, odd capacity of getting into trouble and making many funny mistakes. The school gets the same treatment from her with a fierce rivalry with a school mate (it was a question of honor!).
Anne’s character is a very touching one. Even though, she makes many mistakes she quickly recovers as everything gets better in the morning. A new day, fresh and so full of possibilities, with no mistakes in it.
Anne’s capacity of living in the moment, of loving life and finding happiness and adventure no matter where she goes, are some of the many things from which we could all use a lesson.
That first book was a lovely delightful read.

The second book “Anne of Avonlea” follows Anne’s adventures over the next five years where she embraces the carrer of a young school teacher. Her studies are becoming even more important for her as she values the worth of education, her old rivalry with an old schoolmate has turned into a good friendship - that I suspect might turn into a sweet romance *__*
We discover a mature version of Anne who, without loosing her vivid imagination and vibrant spirit, is more grounded.
There are also new characters and -mostly children and some are just too cute and attaching.
You can’t help but fall in love with the book and the main characters. It’s a heart-warming story, a very comforting one, and an enchanting novel with great insights into human nature. It’s also beautifully written, dialogue and narration flow making reading so effortless with vivid scenes and strong emotions.
I would recommend this book to every sensitive romantic soul out there. And especially for little girls, that would learn a great from Anne’s personality and it would definitely serve as an inspiring read.
There are many adaptations of the books, movies and animes, and the recent one - Anne with an “e” : the tv show on Netlfix- is a very good one. Although it’s got a much darker interpretation of the story, with much more drama and many modern issues. I would recommend to read the book before watching any.

Anne would have loved the Speak Now album