1. A book of bosom buddies & kindred spirits.
Anne of Green Gables
A book of bosom buddies & kindred spirits.

2. Quotables
“Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

3. Overview
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are unmarried siblings who live on their ancestral farm, Green Gables, in the quiet town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Matthew is sixty, and since he is getting too old to handle the farm work on his own, the Cuthberts decide to adopt an orphan boy to help him.
This decision shocks the town gossip, Mrs. Rachel Lynde, who does not think Matthew and Marilla fit to raise a child.

4. Overview
Matthew, who is terrified of women, arrives at the train station and finds a girl orphan instead of a boy; the orphanage sent the eleven-year-old Anne Shirley by mistake.
Anne’s talkativeness and spirit charm Matthew, who shyly tells Marilla that he wants to keep her. Marilla hesitates at first, but after a trial period, she agrees to let Anne stay on.

5. Ch 1 Mrs. Rachel Lynde Is Surprised
The first scene of the story opens on Mrs. Rachel Lynde, a housewife in the town of Avonlea who everyone knows…and who knows everyone.
We're told that Mrs. Rachel Lynde is kind of the ultimate gossip. Her kitchen window looks out onto the only main road in the town of Avonlea, so she sees everyone who enters or leaves the town.

6. Ch 1
Quick geography note: Avonlea is a made-up farming town on Prince Edward Island, which is off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada (north of Maine).

7. Ch 1
Quick geography note: Avonlea is a made-up farming town on Prince Edward Island, which is off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada (north of Maine).

8. Ch 1
Quick geography note: Avonlea is a made-up farming town on Prince Edward Island, which is off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada (north of Maine).

9. Ch 1
Suddenly, Rachel sees Matthew Cuthbert travelling town the road.Rachel Lynde analyzes every detail, Sherlock Holmes-style.
Matthew's wearing a suit, which means he's leaving town, and he's travelling via buggy and sorrel mare (a horse and carriage), which means he'll be travelling far.

10. Ch 1
She knew Matthew should be sowing his turnip seed because she heard him tell a store clerk that yesterday. Scandal-a-lous.
(We can already tell that not too much happens in Avonlea and people really like their routines.)
Rachel decides to visit Matthew's sister Marilla at her house, Green Gables, to investigate.

11. Ch 1
Marilla and Matthew live in an orchard house that's set far back from the road, near the woods. As she walks there, Rachel Lynde thinks that it's no wonder Matthew and Marilla are both a little odd—they see way more trees than they do people.
Marilla Cuthbert takes Rachel into the kitchen, and Rachel keeps on sleuthing.

12. Ch 1
She notices that there are three plates on the table but "every-day dishes" and only one kind of cake, so the company they're expecting can't be too fancy.
Marilla tells Rachel Lynde that Matthew went to pick up a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia (the mainland).
Cue the chapter title: Mrs. Rachel Lynde is surprised.

13. Ch 1
She notices that there are three plates on the table but "every-day dishes" and only one kind of cake, so the company they're expecting can't be too fancy.
Marilla tells Rachel Lynde that Matthew went to pick up a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia (the mainland).
Cue the chapter title: Mrs. Rachel Lynde is surprised.

14. Ch 1
Rachel Lynde goes all worst-case scenario and cites stories from the news about adopted orphans killing their new families.
She reminds Marilla that they're bringing a strange boy into their house they know nothing about.
Marilla points out that there are always risks with having a child, naturally or adopted.

15. Ch 2 Matthew Cuthbert is Surprised
As Matthew drives to the train station at Bright River, readers learn about his shyness. Which is pretty extreme. He's afraid of all women who aren't Marilla and Mrs. Rachel Lynde because he feels like they're secretly laughing at them.

16. Ch 2
There's no one at the station except a little girl. Matthew figures he must be early until the stationmaster tells him the train came already and Mrs. Spencer left that orphan girl for him.
(Matthew's also afraid of little girls.)
He approaches the girl. She's thin, freckled, expressive, and waiting with a carpetbag.

17. Ch 2
There's no one at the station except a little girl. Matthew figures he must be early until the stationmaster tells him the train came already and Mrs. Spencer left that orphan girl for him.
(Matthew's also afraid of little girls.)
He approaches the girl. She's thin, freckled, expressive, and waiting with a carpetbag.

18. Ch 2
Luckily for Matthew, she talks first. And instead of introducing herself, she informs Matthew that if he hadn't come she would have climbed the wild cherry tree in the distance and spent the night there.
Because the girl's extremely chatty, we get to see the drive home through her eyes. Or rather, mouth. Things she talks about: how she hated the orphan asylum, how she wishes she was better looking, how she loves fine clothes.

19. Ch 2
To his own surprise, Matthew finds himself liking her. He tells her she can talk as much as she likes. So she goes on to tell him how she wishes her hair wasn't red.
When they reach a road arched over with apple trees called The Avenue, the girl falls silent. When she speaks again, she explains that she got a thrill from the beauty of the place.

20. Ch 2
When Matthew tells her its name, she doesn't like it and decides to call it "The White Way of Delight" instead.
Her re-naming doesn't stop there.
When they pass their neighbor's pond, she decides to call it "The Lake of Shining Waters.”
As they get close, she correctly guesses which house is Green Gables, saying it just feels like home.
Awkward. Cue a very guilty Matthew.

21. Ch 3 Marilla Cuthbert is Surprised
The chapter title takes place right away, once the girl walks into the house. As Matthew explains to Marilla why he didn't bring a boy home, the girl realizes she isn't wanted and bursts into tears.
Marilla asks her name. She says she wants to be called Cordelia, but when pressed, reveals that her name is Anne Shirley.

22. Ch 3
Dinner doesn't go very well. Anne can't eat because, she explains, she's "in the depths of despair.“
Once Anne is in bed, Matthew asks Marilla if they can keep her, surprising Marilla a second time. She's still against the idea. Meanwhile, poor Anne cries herself to sleep.

23. Ch 4 Morning at Green Gables
Anne wakes up and takes in the sights from her window: a large cherry tree, a garden, a clover-filled field, a brook, barns, fields, and a glimpse of the sea. No wonder she wants to stay.

24. Ch 4
She's also in a better mood. As Marilla comes in to wake her and they have breakfast, she tells Marilla that she's glad there's a brook at Green Gables, and "Isn't it a splendid thing that there are mornings?"
She's still sad, she says, but she eats breakfast and talks endlessly.

25. Ch 4
Marilla tells her to stop talking, but Anne's weird, spacey silence makes her even more nervous.
Later Marilla tells Anne to go outside but Anne refuses, because leaving will be harder the more she falls in love with the place.
Marilla thinks about how Matthew wants to keep Anne and feels herself falling under Anne's spell too, wondering what Anne will say next.

26. Ch 4
Marilla and Anne set out for Mrs. Spencer's to figure out what happened and what to do with Anne. In his quiet way, Matthew makes it clear, when they leave, that he still wants Anne to stay.

27. Ch 5
Anne's History
Anne tells Marilla she's made up her mind to enjoy the drive and immediately starts talking about names again. They're driving down The Shore Road, a name Anne's okay with.
She likes White Sands (their destination) too, but the name she's really into is Avonlea. She thinks it sounds like music.

28. Ch 5
Marilla tells Anne that since she's determined to talk, she might as well tell Marilla about her life. Anne's not so into that idea—she'd rather tell Marilla what she imagines about herself—but Marilla insists, so she begins.

29. Ch 5
Anne was born to schoolteachers who were poor, from out of town, and didn't have any family. They both died of fever shortly after Anne was born. Mrs. Thomas, the woman who scrubbed her parents' house, took her in.

30. Orphans
It’s a hard knock life.

31. Orphans
But when these orphan stories were about girls, they had a formula:
A female orphan offers a service to someone lonely—a single person or widow.
She'll clean for them or watch young children, and she might help them with a problem or save them from illness over the course of the story.
The grown-up grows to like her, and at the end, decides to keep her. (Check out a book called Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L.M. Montgomery and her Literary Classic for more on this.)

32. Orphans
And one little redhead emerged on the scene to break this formula into smithereens.
Anne's the very opposite of a serviceable child. She daydreams, she messes up the housework, and she has a temper. In other words, she's a kid.

33. Ch 5
Mrs. Thomas raised Anne to watch her four younger children. When Anne was eight, Mrs. Thomas's husband died, and Anne was passed off to Mrs. Hammond, to help watch her three sets of twins. Another family, another underage, unpaid job.

34. Ch 5
She was there for two years, until Mr. Hammond died. The kids were divided among relatives, and Anne was put in the orphan asylum, where she stayed for four months until meeting Matthew.
Anne had some schooling, enough to learn how to read. She loves memorizing poetry.

35. Ch 5
Marilla asks Anne if the Mrs. Hammond and Thomas were good to her. Anne gets really flushed and says she thinks they meant to be.
Okay, now Marilla starts to feel bad for Anne and actually considers keeping her.

36. Ch 6 Marilla Makes Up Her Mind
When Marilla explains their predicament to Mrs. Spencer, Mrs. Spencer suggests that they give Anne to a woman named Mrs. Blewett, who needs help taking care of her children.
Marilla's not so sure. Mrs. Blewett has a reputation for being mean and stingy. Her ex-servants have spread stories about her temper. Not a good sign.

37. Ch 6
Mrs. Blewett happens to be walking up to the house for a visit. When introduced to Anne, she makes it clear she'd never see Anne as more than a servant, plus makes the creepy comment that "wiry ones are the best.“
Marilla sees the look on Anne's face and realizes she'll be haunted by it for the rest of her life if she doesn't step in. She claims she has to talk the situation over with Matthew and takes Anne back home.

38. Ch 6 Anne's grateful and says Mrs. Blewett looked like a gimlet.
(Not sure that means what you think it means, Anne. Try a gremlin or goblin.)
Marilla responds by lecturing Anne about respecting her elders.
Later that evening, Marilla fills Matthew in. Matthew says he wouldn't give a dog he likes to Mrs. Blewett.

39. Ch 6
Marilla tells Matthew she's cool with Anne staying, but makes him promise he won't interfere with her parenting methods, which is pretty much a dream for Matthew.
He gets to hang out with Anne without doing the hard stuff.
Marilla decides not to tell Anne until the next day.

40. Ch 7 Anne Says Her Prayers
That night, Marilla instructs Anne on how to act at bedtime, i.e. fold her clothes and say her prayers.
Anne tells Marilla that she never says her prayers. Marilla Cuthbert is, once again, surprised. Anne goes on to explain that she knows who God is but ever since Mrs. Thomas told her God made her hair red on purpose, she's been mad at him.

41. Ch 7 Anne Says Her Prayers
That night, Marilla instructs Anne on how to act at bedtime, i.e. fold her clothes and say her prayers.
Anne tells Marilla that she never says her prayers. Marilla Cuthbert is, once again, surprised. Anne goes on to explain that she knows who God is but ever since Mrs. Thomas told her God made her hair red on purpose, she's been mad at him.

42. Ch 7
Marilla tells Anne to thank God for her blessings and ask humbly for things she wants, so Anne asks God to let her stay at Green Gables and to make her good-looking when she grows up. She signs off "yours respectfully, Anne Shirley.“
Marilla tells Matthew later about the episode. She vows to get Anne a prayer book, and thinks about how her life has been easy until this point, but now her "time has come at last."

43. Ch 8 Anne's Bringing-Up Has Begun
Anne makes it through morning chores without Marilla revealing her fate, but finally decides it would be easier to know than wonder, and asks Marilla whether she's decided if she can say.
When Marilla says yes, Anne's so happy she cries. But Marilla isn't the sentimental type, and tells Anne she cries and laughs too easily.

44. Ch 8
Anne asks if she can call her Aunt Marilla. Marilla says no, because she isn't her aunt. Anne asks if they could imagine she is, and Marilla says she doesn't believe in imagining things differently from how they are.
Probably the biggest difference between these two characters.
Marilla starts Anne's education by telling her to memorize The Lord's Prayer. Anne goes to retrieve the prayer but doesn't return.

45. Ch 8
Marilla looks for her and finds Anne gazing dreamily at the hallway picture: "Christ Blessing the Little Children." Anne had gotten lost in imagining she was one of them.
Remember how Marilla doesn't believe in imagining?
She's not sympathetic.
Back to The Lord's Prayer for Anne.

46. Ch 8
But (surprise, surprise) Anne gets sidetracked again and asks Marilla if she might find "a kindred spirit" in Avonlea. Marilla says the neighbor has a girl named Diana, who is Anne's age.

47. Ch 8
Anne launches into the stories of her former "friends," both imaginary:
Katie Maurice, her reflection that she used to pretend was another girl, and her echo, who she pretended was a friend named Violetta.
Exhausted, Marilla sends Anne to her room to finish learning the prayer. Anne sits in her room and—you guessed it—imagines things instead. But then she thinks about how she is now Anne of Green Gables, and is happy to be "of" somewhere.