The Annotated Anne of Green Gables (1997)
Edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones
New York: Oxford University Press, 1997
Synopsis
Since its publication in 1908, Anne of Green Gables has been a continuous international bestseller, enjoying successful television adaptations on PBS and The Disney Channel and captivating children and adults alike with the irresistible charms of its remarkable heroine, Anne Shirley. This wildly imaginative, red-headed changeling tries to fit into the narrow confines of Victorian expectations, but her exuberant spirit keeps leaping delightfully beyond the bounds. Indeed, when Maud Montgomery decided to reject the sermonizing formulas of the children’s books of her day, she brought to life a character much closer to Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, and Tom Sawyer—also orphans, like Anne—than to the self-sacrificing, conformist heroines then in demand. In doing so, Montgomery subtly questioned the values of her society—especially the restraints it placed on women—while giving readers all the pleasures of her considerable story-telling gifts.
Now, in this first fully annotated edition of Anne of Green Gables, readers will appreciate more clearly than ever before the scope and depth of this extraordinary novel. Editors Wendy Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary Doody Jones provide a richly illustrated, completely revised text, along with hundreds of notes describing the real-life characters and settings Anne encounters, the autobiographical connections between Anne and Maud Montgomery, and the book’s astonishing range of literary, Biblical, and mythological references. Additional essays offer fascinating background information on such topics as the geography and setting of Prince Edward Island (where Anne takes place); the education, orphanages, music, and literature of Anne’s time; and the horticulture, homemade artifacts, and food preparation that are so prevalent in the story. Margaret Anne Doody supplies a comprehensive introduction which situates the novel in its literary and social contexts, explores those aspects of Montgomery’s life most relevant to the story, examines revisions in the manuscripts, and provides an overall sense of both the impulses that drove Montgomery to write Anne of Green Gables and the larger concerns it dramatizes so compellingly. This edition also contains a chronology of Montgomery’s life, an extensive bibliography, songs and poems that appear in the text, and a selection of original reviews of the book. This wealth of material enables readers to grasp the marvelous multi-layeredness of the novel and to understand more fully its place in both its own time and in ours.
Elegantly and beautifully designed, with generous illustrations from previous editions, photographs of the places the novel inhabits, and explanatory drawings that reproduce the texture of Anne’s world, The Annotated Anne of Green Gables is a major event in the publishing history of one of the world’s most charming stories.
Contents
Preface (vii)
Chronology of the Life of Lucy Maud Montgomery (3-8)
Introduction / Margaret Anne Doody (9-34)
The Annotated Anne of Green Gables (35-396)
Variants between Editions (397-398)
Textual Notes (399-414)
Appendices
The Geography of Anne of Green Gables / Wendy E. Barry (415-418)
The Settlers of P.E.I.: The Celtic Influence in Anne / Wendy E. Barry (418-421)
The Exceptional Orphan Anne: Child Care, Orphan Asylums, Farming Out, Indenturing, and Adoption / Mary E. Doody Jones (422-429)
Education on P.E.I. / Mary E. Doody Jones (430-434)
Gardens and Plants / Margaret Anne Doody (434-438)
Homemade Artifacts and Home Life / Margaret Anne Doody (438-443)
Food Preparation, Cookery, and Home Decoration / Margaret Anne Doody (443-452)
Breaking the Silence: Music and Elocution / Mary E. Doody Jones (452-457)
Literary Allusion and Quotation in Anne of Green Gables / Margaret Anne Doody and Wendy E. Barry (457-462)
Songs
[Nelly of] The Hazel Dell (464)
Far Above the [Gentle] Daisies (465)
My Home on the Hill (466)
Literary Works and Recitation Pieces
The Battle of Hohenlinden (467)
Edinburgh After Flodden (467-469)
Bingen on the Rhine (470-471)
On the Downfall of Poland (471-472)
The Dog at His Master’s Grave (472)
Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight (473-474)
How Sockery Set a Hen (474-475)
Mary, Queen of Scots (475-477)
The Society for the Suppression of Gossip (477-480)
The Fairy Queen (480)
Mars La Tour, or, The Maiden’s Vow (481-482)
Book Reviews (483-489)
Bibliography (490-492)
Acknowledgments (493-494)
Illustration Credits (495-496)
Reviews
Feingold, Ruth P. Review of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones. The Lion and the Unicorn 24, no. 2 (April 2000): 311-16.
Findon, Joanne. Rev. of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones. University of Toronto Quarterly 68, no. 1 (Winter 1998-1999): 510-11.
Flowers, Ann. Review of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones. Horn Book Magazine 74, no. 2 (1998): 238.
Garner, Barbara Carman. “Roads to Yesterday: New Readings of L.M. Montgomery.” Review of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones; Children’s Voices in Atlantic Literature and Culture: Essays on Childhood, edited by Hilary Thompson; Harvesting Thistles: The Textual Garden of L.M. Montgomery, Essays on Her Novels and Journals, edited by Mary Henley Rubio; Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery, by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston; Kindling Spirit: L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, by Elizabeth Waterston. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 50-2.
Lawson, John. Review of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery. School Library Journal 44, no. 3 (1998): 246. Reprinted in Children’s Literature Review 91, edited by Scot Peacock, 183. Detroit: Gale, 2004.
Litster, Jennifer H. “An Annotated Anne: The History and the Dream.” Review of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones. Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse 88 (Winter 1997): 61-72. Reprinted in Children’s Literature Review 91, edited by Scot Peacock, 174-83. Detroit: Gale, 2004.
Morley, Patricia. Review of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones. In Canadian Book Review Annual 1997, edited by Joyce M. Wilson, 274. Toronto: CBRA, 1998.
Rubio, Mary Henley. “The Hidden Life of Anne.” Review of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones. The Globe and Mail, 4 October 1997, D9.
