‘Dear old world,’ says Anne Shirley, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.’ Books like this, the long beloved Anne of Green Gables b‘Dear old world,’ says Anne Shirley, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.’ Books like this, the long beloved Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, make me feel this sentiment deep in my bones. Despite it all, how can I not love a world and a humanity that brought this into existence. This book is perfectly splendid and I only wish I had read it as a child. Yet, traveling across Canada recently with this book, I was pleased to discover it could still build a bonfire in my adult heart to warm me with joy, still bring a frequent smile to my face and outbursts of gleeful laughter. ‘Anne with an ‘e’’ is an early ADHD icon who’s poetic ‘thoughts rove all over creation’ whom—as the rest of Avonlea soon discovers—is impossible not to love and I saw so much of my younger self in her. A coming-of-age tale wrapped in a sweet innocence that champions being yourself and embracing mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow, what really brought this novel to heart for me were the ways in which Anne’s offbeat personality cracks the stale and rigid expectations of a community and allows everyone to grow along with her. Community and shared growth are central to this story and this is as much a story about Avonlea as it is the Anne who makes it her home. Still touching hearts young and old since it was first published in 1908, Anne of Green Gables is an endearing and enduring classic.
‘ I shall give life here my best, and I believe it will give its best to me in return.’
There is a lot to love about Anne of Green Gables, but also a lot of messages to take to heart. An aspect I am particularly fond of in literature aimed at children is how the most successful ones can distill important themes in accessible ways that can enter our hearts to bathe us in pure shining light that always feels so pleasantly positive and empowering. There's multitudes to learn from Anne. For instance:
—Always embrace and learn from mistakes: ‘Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.’ —Find the good and fun in everything: ‘Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.’ —A positive attitude makes a big difference: ‘It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.’ —Pay attention to the small joys and details in life: ‘All things great are wound up with all things little.’ —Give people a chance: ‘Miss Barry was a kindred spirit after all…you wouldn't think so to look at her, but she is.’ —Always prepare for setbacks: ‘There is always another bend in the road.’ —Start over fresh and don’t let setbacks get you down: ‘Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.’
There are many more, such as the importance of friendship, admitting faults and embracing imagination not just for oneself but to help it flourish in others. Going through these got me thinking how delightfully quotable and altogether memorable this novel is and it is no surprise this novel has continuously been endeared as an enduring classic. Even those who haven’t read the novel are likely familiar with certain scenes or lines, like the often quoted ‘I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers,’ which happens to arrive at the start of the same chapter in which the famous scene occurs where Anne accidentally gets Diana drunk on currant wine thinking she is serving raspberry cordial. The novel plays out in rather episodic moments such as this (which lends itself to the many tv series adaptations both animated and live action) with fairly contained action-consequence-resolution formats that build on each other to follow the course of Anne’s childhood into young adulthood. And it is a joy to watch Anne grow up.
[image]
Diana and Anne drink currant wine in the 2017 Netflix adaptation Anne With an E
What makes this book truly great are the characters. Anne, of course, but Marilla and Matthew are just as charming and engaging. I love Marilla who is struggling but earnest about trying to understand Anne and comes to really love her. As Matthew tells her, raising Anne won't be difficult 'if you only get her to love you,' and watching the relationship grow between her and Anne is so heartwarming. While sometimes she just wants Anne to shut up and stop being weird she can't help but privately enjoy how offbeat she is. I suspect this is a novel where those who read it in youth will identify with Anne but those who read it as adults (and especially as parents) will have a real appreciation for Marilla much like how everyone talks about which daughter from Little Women they are until they reread it as an adult and realize how much Marmee speaks to them. That was the case for me at least. But also wow did Anne speak to my heart and remind me of my pre-teen self.
'There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.'
The fictional town of Avonlea is nestled upon Prince Edward Island in Canada, which was also the birthplace and childhood home of author Lucy Maud Montgomery. While not an orphan as Anne was, Maud lost her mother at the age of two and when her father remarried she was sent to live with her grandparents. So one can see a twinkle of inspiration for the young Anne who (for those who don’t know the story), due to a misunderstanding, is sent to be adopted by aging siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. ‘She’s been a blessing to us,’ they learn, ‘and there never was a luckier mistake.’ Maud was fond of reading as a child and, like Anne, loved poetry. ‘Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back,’ Anne states, and in Anne we find quite the poet as well with long rambling chatter that moves ‘from safe concrete to dubious paths of abstraction.’ In an essay Montgomery discusses how novels were banned in her grandparents house but she had access to all the poetry she liked, and in her own writing there is certainly an impressive and delightful sense of the poetic. Montgomery pops off with excellent consonance quite frequently with phrases like ‘the waif of the world,’ but her vibrant imagery is certainly pure poetry. A favorite moment occurs right from the start with the images of Avonlea in bloom with an enraptured Anne finally rendered speechless. It is a critical image because it is in Avonlea that Anne is also able to bloom into the amazing person she becomes.
[image]
Prince Edward Island
‘What good would she be to us?’ Matthew asks Marilla when she questions keeping Anne, reminding her ‘we might be some good to her.’ This idea permeates the text and we see how community is so important. ‘True friends are always together in spirit,’ Anne teaches us and there are few more lovely friendships in fiction than Anne and her ‘bosom friend’ Diana. To watch Anne grow up is also to watch Diana grow up and to watch them love and support each other (I quite agree with the more recent adaptations, such as the modern-setting graphic novel Anne that portray them as a sapphic romance, besides *nose in air*I don’t think Gilbert is good enough for my Anne). Anne also comes to think of others as ‘kindred spirits’—such as Aunt Josephine who essentially becomes her benefactor after taking a liking to Anne while she apologizes for jumping onto her in bed by accident—and that we can find kindred spirits everywhere if we are willing to get to know people.
‘Evidently she did not like talking about her experiences in a world that had not wanted her.’
Friends are also important to Anne as she never had them before, unless you count Katie Maurice (her reflection) or Violetta (her echo). Her attachment to them is rather telling because not only was it a sign of her strong imagination but also because they were simply an extension of herself–Anne only had herself and coming to Avonlea. But we also see how Anne struggles at concepts like religion, which Marilla realizes is not due to irreverence but rather how can Anne comprehend divine love if she’d never experienced love from another before (though her distaste for God for having given her red hair—a constant struggle that leads to a very humorous scene about dying her hair and also is a point of contention where Gilbert calling her “carrot” cuts far too deep—is quite amusing). Anne had to learn community in general. Over the novel we see she thrives at this due to her imagination, something she says is easy ‘if you’d only cultivate it.’ Anne perfects how to bring out the imagination in others, something that—following in the footsteps of her mentor, Miss Stacy—makes her career as a schoolteacher a perfect fit to utilize such abilities. Sure, sometimes imagination can backfire like when she becomes afraid of the haunted woods, but it is also a path through that fear.
‘Ever since I came to Green Gables I’ve been making mistakes, and each mistake has helped to cure me of some great shortcoming.’
Though one of the greatest lessons in this book, I think, is the rather optimistic approach to embracing mistakes and learning from them. Each moment of growth comes from something initially thought of as an error (getting Diana drunk, almost drowning in the river) and finding it to be a teachable moment for the self. Though this extends beyond Anne too, as some of the friction Anne comes up against in the community becomes an opportunity for growth for them as well, or even with the Cuthberts who quickly learn that adopting a child is more about the child being an asset to the farm but a person to help grow and cultivate love, and be loved in return.
‘We ought always to try to influence others for good.’
This is such a lovely novel, one that encourages imagination, friendship, love, and appreciation of the world around us. For Anne, simply being out in nature and basking in the light of life is enough to ‘feel a prayer’ and in our encounters with Anne we too can feel it within ourselves. Though this is also a story of hard work, finding joy in simply learning and not having to always be the best, and also the importance of persistence. Anne of Green Gables is a marvelous story for readers both young and old, and I greatly enjoyed my time in Avonlea.
‘Doors are very powerful things. Things are different on either side of them.’
If the whimsy for a magical adventure oozing with charm and full of unfo‘Doors are very powerful things. Things are different on either side of them.’
If the whimsy for a magical adventure oozing with charm and full of unforgettable characters ever strikes you, might I direct your attention to the Diana Wynne Jones’ endlessly entertaining Howl’s Moving Castle. It is a story where assumptions are tested and often overturned and the characters are full of as much nuance as they are personality, making for an engaging read that will keep you on your toes. Sure, there is the Miyazaki film adaptation, but the two are different enough to each stand on their own and this novel is such an fun-filled event I stayed up far too late to finish the book but do not regret yawning my way through the following workday. Howl’s Moving Castle is a quirkily endearing coming-of-age story in a fanciful realm of magic and mystery that explores ideas of freedom, family and that appearances can be deceiving.
[image]
The film adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle by Studio Ghibli
What really sticks this story straight into the readers heart are the characters that populate the magical realm of Ingary. Jones creates a world that is adjacent to our own, with characters such as Howl’s sister Megan still residing there (her frustration with her brother often hinging on not knowing he is in fact a magic user in Ingary instead of pursuing a job). The story follows Sophie, the oldest of three sisters and ‘it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst.’ A run-in with the Witch of the Waste leaves her cursed to have the body of a frail, elderly woman, but Sophie is a fiery and determined woman who seeks an end of her curse and forces herself into the employment of Howl, a wizard with a dangerous reputation who roams the countryside in…you guessed it, a giant moving castle.
'My shining dishonesty will be the salvation of me.'
Howl is an absolute delight as a character, and also rather insufferable (which is half the fun). Appearing at first to be a villain, the more we learn about Howl the more endearing and completely aggravating he is. To the reader and especially Sophie. Prone to tantrums (he trashes the castle over a bad hair dyeing), being overdramatic (‘I'm going to bed, where I may die,’ he says of a minor cold), and reckless womanizing that leaves behind a string of broken hearts, Howl is ‘fickle, careless, selfish, and hysterical,’ says Sophie. He is a ‘slitherer-outer,’ with his cowardly side keeping him from action, yet there is another side of him that makes him shockingly likable. Jones jokes in interviews that when girls say they are in love with Howl she says to not do that as he is awful, joking that in response to them saying they would like to marry Howl she says 'Howl would be one of the most dreadful husbands one could possibly imagine.' But his duality gives him charm and a weight as a character that is rather infectious, and, yo, this dude is supposed to be HOT so I get it.
’Half the time I think he doesn’t care what happens to anyone as long as he’s all right— but then I find out how awfully kind he’s been to someone. Then I think he’s kind just when it suits him—only then I find out he undercharges poor people.’
Howl is a perfect representation of how appearances can often be deceiving in this novel, and Jones writes really excellent gray characters that were fairly nontypical for the children’s fantasy novel genre in 1986 when it was released, which is part (along with the great humor for sure) of what makes this just as engaging for an adult to read. Sophie looks old and frail, but is determined, the fire demon Calcifer looks ‘extraordinarily evil’ but he is an anxious and charming, even the castle seems like a massive evil building but is actually just Howl’s home bewitched to be able to move about without ever actually leaving. This latter example plays into another theme where the character’s homes tend to represent them, Howl’s being a wandering sort that is actually all just smoke and mirrors or the Witch living in the middle of nowhere as a representation for her isolation from everyone.
‘A heart's a heavy burden.’
Every character seems simple but are always hiding a tangled web of motivations beneath the surface. Howl and the Witch also tend to take advantage of their appearances in order to get what they want. This contrasts well with Sophie, who is prone to brash action without thinking. The catch in the book, however, is that one’s identity often becomes a sort of imprisonment to them. Destructive patterns get them into trouble, Howl’s good looks play havoc on his relationships and Sophie’s lack of self-esteem is a major obstacle for her to overcome throughout the course of the book. This also plays into overcoming expectations, such as the curse placed on Howl using a John Donne poem about impossible tasks. The ultimate task, to find a 'woman true and fair,' does smack of some misogyny that Jones delights in overturning, but overturning and subversion is the name of the game here. This is a world where nothing is impossible, and if we let ourselves be stopped simply by expectations, what are we missing in life? In what ways are we self-sabatoging?
It is impossible to not think of the Miyazaki version of this book when, to be fair, it is what lead me to reading Jones’ original. Being loosely based on the book and taking it in different directions, I feel the two are easily enjoyed separate from each other and I never feel compelled to “prefer” one or the other. I do enjoy how the movie takes a much greater anti-war stance, something that Miyazaki often features in his film and is vocally anti-war in his personal life. He did not attend the Academy Awards when his film Spirited Away won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and told the LA Times ‘The reason I wasn’t here for the Academy Award was because I didn’t want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq.’ Diana Wynne Jones enjoyed the film, saying ‘I was thrown back in my seat with amazement’ (there is a good interview of her talking about the film you can watch here), and had made special requests of Miyazaki to not change anything of Howl’s personality. Howl’s love of all animals and refusal to kill is emphasized well as a theme of pacifism in the film.
Howl’s Moving Castle is destined to become a classic, and is effortlessly charming and nearly impossible to put down. It is a wonderful statement about moving away from our defensiveness and out of the prisons of the self we either self-impose or have assumed of us based on appearances. This is a story where the only thing to expect is the unexpected and it makes for a fun and often very funny ride. Definitely would recommend.
4.5/5
‘I think we ought to live happily ever after.’...more
‘There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.’ -Marcel Proust
I loved this book so much as a chi‘There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.’ -Marcel Proust
I loved this book so much as a child that I quite literally named a child after it. Matilda by Roald Dahl is a beloved children’s classic for a reason and one that still warms the hearts of kids and adults today. Who doesn’t love a book that celebrates the empowerment of reading, that tells a story of overcoming tyrants and surviving abuse while retaining a love for the world? Wrap that all up in a story of a girl with magical powers and a will to freedom and love aided by librarians and a caring teacher and you’ve got yourself a winning story. While I noticed some problematic aspects returning to this again as an adult, I was reminded how much this story meant to me as a kid and how much it grew inside me through my whole life.
‘The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.’
For the uninitiated, Matilda is the story of a young girl who ‘longed for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous people in her books.’ Her parents neglect her and are involved in shady dealings, her principal is a nightmare who hates children and loves punishment, but she has discovered her magic powers and will right the wrongs in order to thrive. There is a fantastic film adaptation I used to watch constantly as a kid and this, coupled with movies like The Pagemaster, was an early start to my love of libraries and books. We see how books can comfort the lonely, can inspire and empower, and there’s nothing I love more than the idea that money is not an obstacle to reading when you have a library card. Flash forward to today, I work in a library and in a bookstore and, likely thanks to Matilda, have devoted a large part of my life to getting good books to the people who need them.
‘So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.’
The idea that books remind you ‘you are not alone’ is something that has always struck me hardest. I used to leave favorite poems all over trees for that very reason, to say ‘I was here’ but also ‘you are not alone’ and picked passages that might comfort or inspire. Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote ‘A poem in a difficult time / is beautiful flowers in a cemetery,’ and I believe this applies to books too. A good book can help in times of need, can comfort, uplift, can be a friend when you need one. And in good times too, a book can elevate your day and be a companion in your mind, something you can’t wait to return and read more. ‘There is no frigate like a book / to take us lands away,’ wrote Emily Dickinson, and Franz Kafka reminds us that a ‘book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us,’ so I have always believed in the power of books. Reading helps build empathy and opens us to new ideas, so read widely and often and definitely read to children if you have any available.
Dahl is a complicated figure, however, and there were some aspects that raised my eyebrow while reading. You can always find discourse on Dahl all over the internet, such as the extremely frustrating fact of his vocal antisemitism, or his use of racist tropes, and claims of fatphobia and misogyny abound. A big debate is often about the way he writes about women, as The Witches is hotly argued, though many consider Matilda to be a feminist work. Sure, we have Ms Honey, a single woman who is able to rise about on her own, and Matilda, a young, determined girl who can overthrow tyrants. But the depiction of Agatha Trunchbull are a bit unpleasant as it seems an anti-lesbian structuring. Called simply by her last name, Trunchbull is vaguely based on Soviet Olympian Faina Melnik and is described as big and bulky and, well, rather masculine. It would seem, as a contrast to Ms Honey, that Dahl finds women acceptable only if they perform femininity in the “right” way. Trunchbull is pretty blatantly queer and he depicts her in a way that is very similar to accusations thrown against queer women at the time, such as wanting to destroy the nuclear family (after the children spell ‘difficulty’: ‘Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY,’ Trunchbull is outraged and snaps ‘why are all these women married?’) and for not being sexually desirable the way society thinks they should be. It all seemed a bit off, and a quick internet search showed I wasn’t alone in thinking this, so, as a queer person myself, that's a bit of a bummer. The book does focus on breaking the cycle of child abuse and a lot of it is very good, but this was rather awkward as an adult. Also the reading list in the book is very much white, male cannon. So take that as you will, I still find the book worth reading and enjoyable, and I have to give a hand to Pam Ferris for a knockout performance as Agatha Trunchbull in the film. Separating art from an artist is something that people will do at their own comfort level and we should give space for everyone for that.
This book looks at the mentality of ‘I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it,’ and tells it to sit down and shut up. This is an underdog story (well, an underdog with magic) and one that celebrates reading. I loved Matilda as a child and now look at me, I’m writing about books constantly of this website hoping people might see them and be inspired, and spending my working hours getting books into people’s hands. Books, they are the coolest.
The origin story of my intrusive thoughts. Just a normal day shelving books, keeping it real and suddenly my brain will start exclaiming “DO YOU CHOOSThe origin story of my intrusive thoughts. Just a normal day shelving books, keeping it real and suddenly my brain will start exclaiming “DO YOU CHOOSE TO CHEW GOO, TOO, SIR?! IF, SIR, YOU, SIR, CHOOSE TO CHEW, SIR, WITH THE GOO-GOOSE, CHEW, SIR. DO SIR!!” Or maybe a quiet walk in the evening. Sun is low, spirits are high. My brain: “ When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetls battle with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle. THIS is what they call—” Shut up brain! But for real, this is a classic for a reason. It will haunt me eternal....more
A master class in suspense and successful twist endings. Hollywood, take note.
But for real, this was my now-13 year olds favorite book for a long timeA master class in suspense and successful twist endings. Hollywood, take note.
But for real, this was my now-13 year olds favorite book for a long time. I do find this book to be oddly sadistic too, like Grover is begging you not to send him to the monster and your child is supposed to just…gleefully knock down the ramparts he is frantically building and giggle all the way. The pure childhood giggle of joy or murder, who knows!? Anyways, I just found this photo from 2011 [image]...more
I always loved Clifford as a kid. Now that I am an adult, I occasionally notice certain things in kid's books that now strike me as strange or a bit tI always loved Clifford as a kid. Now that I am an adult, I occasionally notice certain things in kid's books that now strike me as strange or a bit twisted. Here is a prime example: In Puppy Days, Emily Elizabeth tells of all the trouble caused due to Clifford being so tiny as a puppy. He causes quite a commotion in a bakery, ruins a wedding cake, and a little boy lets his Saint Bernard clean the frosting off of Clifford. [image]
Everyone is happy in the end and Emily says the boy's dog is the biggest she has ever seen until Clifford grew up.
[image]
But wait, somehow we have skipped over the real story that I want to know: why is the little boy now crippled and in a wheelchair?! What happened there Norman Bridwell?
s.penkevich
>
Books:
childhood_classics
(6)
Loading...
