anne-girl.

if you thought Anne of Green Gables [and Anne of Avonlea] were exceptionally quotable movies, read the books!

i just finished reading Anne of Green Gables this evening, after slowly perusing it for the past month or two. while it isn't flashy or demanding of binge-reading, it's effortlessly lovely. i have 5 or 6 continuing volumes on my bookshelf, of which i intend shortly to begin the next! i've read parts of some of them, and the whole of one or two... but this time it's straight on through until i'm finished with them all, no matter how long it takes me.

i am somewhat abashed to proclaim that heretofore i had never yet read straight through my copy of Anne of Green Gables... and i received it from an aunt at Christmas 1990. [p.s. that was 20 years ago] incredible! i've missed out! i thought i had the movies so well-learned backward and forward that i had no need to read the book... and that very reasoning kept me away from it for years, in favor of lesser known titles. well, as Solomon said, "to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven;" and this happened to be my season for Anne! i couldn't have enjoyed it more.

there is something so sweet about these books. the movies are so very endearing, but the viewer of a film can only see to a certain extent, and only based upon one person's interpretation. the reader, on the other hand, can see with even greater clarity through use of their own imagination, as well as tasting, smelling, hearing, and well-nigh touching the lovely scenes through the written page. oh how i love books. and these in particular. they engage the reader in the beauty of the setting and the thoughts and ideals of the characters, not merely just by a quick-moving story. i do love a good adventure story, but there is something so deeply satisfying, and peaceful, and winsome, and wholesome, about savoring bits here and there from a thoughtfully, lovingly written book such as this.

i've come to love the simple delights in Anne's countryside just as much as she loved them. perhaps soon i'll go through this first volume again and write down a few of the most quotable quotes. for now, here's the last bit of the last page.

Anne sat long at her window that night companioned by a glad content. The wind purred softly in the cherry boughs, and the mint breaths came up to her. The stars twinkled over the pointed firs in the hollow and Diana's lights gleamed through the old gap.

Anne's horizons had closed in since the night she had sat there after coming home from Queen's; but if the path set before her feet was to be narrow she knew that flowers of quiet happiness would bloom along it. The joys of sincere work and worthy aspiration and congenial friendship were to be hers; nothing could rob her of her birthright of fancy or her ideal world of dreams. And there was always the bend in the road!

" 'God's in His heaven, all's right with the world,' " whispered Anne softly.

-page 382, Anne of Green Gables

by Lucy Maud Montgomery