The Books: Anne of Avonlea (L.M. Montgomery)

Daily Book Excerpt: YA/children’s books:

Next book on the shelf is Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables, Book 2) by L.M. Montgomery.

As Anne fans will remember: at the end of Anne of Green Gables – [SPOILER ALERT – THIS SPOILER ALERT IS MAINLY FOR TRACEY WHO HASN’T READ THEM YET BUT WHO REALLY SHOULD – JUST BECAUSE I REALLY REALLY THINK SHE WILL FLIP OVER THEM]

Okay – so at the end of Anne of Green Gables (excerpt here) Matthew dies, and this huge life-event puts Anne’s plans into a tailspin. She had graduated from Queen’s College – a 2 year teaching college – and was going to go on for further education. The first girl on the Island to do so. But in lieu of the changed circumstances, she really didn’t feel like she should leave Marilla all alone. Gilbert Blythe had been “given” the Avonlea school – he was going to be teaching there in the fall – but when he heard about Anne’s situation, he secretly went to the Board and asked if Anne could take the position in the school, instead of himself. Because it would be so convenient for her – she could live at home, to help Marilla, AND have a job. It is a selfless act on Gilbert’s part … and for most of the book of Anne of Green Gables – she and Gilbert have been sworn enemies. Because he had pulled her hair and called her “carrot-top”. When he was 11 years old. Anne is still holding a haughty grudge at age 17. hahahaha Actually, I wouldn’t say that she and Gilbert are sworn enemies – because that would imply Gilbert feeling the same way. I think it’s just that Anne considers Gilbert to be her sworn enemy, and even as she grows older – she feels that she just cannot give up her grudge. She is too proud for that. (Naturally, in the context of the book – all of this is VERY romantic.) So anyway – the fact that her sworn enemy would make such a sacrifice to help HER out – sort of snaps her out of her haughty hatred of him. He would do this … for her??? The last scene in Green Gables is Anne going up to Gilbert – as they pass each other on the lane – and saying, “I don’t know how to thank you …” and finally, finally, these two people make up. They don’t KISS and make up – oh no – not yet – we have a couple more books to wait for all THAT stuff to start happening … but they shake hands, and from them on – they are friends. It’s like they have walked out of childhood in that moment. They’re going to be adults now. Adults don’t hold grudges. And these two should definitely be friends. Gilbert, in a way, with his male intuition (often more primal and instinctive than female intuition), always sensed the, shall we say, chemistry between the two of them. He might not have been like, “I will marry her some day!” But he was like: “Wow. Look at that new girl. I NEED her to notice me. Because I think she’s smart and I bet we could get along great.” So – in his 11 year old boy personality – pulling her hair and shouting “carrot top” was his way of doing that, of saying “I like you. You;’re different. We should be friends.” Anne is a bit slower to catch onto this. She truly believes that she hates Gilbert. Sometimes you want to SHAKE ANNE out of her ridiculous ideas! Especially when you get to Anne of the Island (excerpt here). I mean: GILBERT IS RIGHT THERE, ANNE. AND YOU GO OUT WITH THAT DARK-HARIED FOP??? OPEN YOUR EYES! Oh well, I guess we all have to go through something like that – although I have usually been on the Gilbert side of the fence, staring in horror at some guy I truly believed was IT – a guy I loved more than anything – and watching, in horror, as he marries some bossy bitch who treats him like shit.

But I digress.

So the next book in the series is about Anne’s year of teaching in the little Avonlea schoolhouse.

There are some great episodes in this book – and one of my favorite ones in ALL the series happens in this book – when she and Diana are going to ask a neighboring woman if they can buy her platter (they really need it – and they THINK she has one just like the one they need) – and the lady is not home, so Anne crawls up onto the roof (Anne. That is so inappropriate) of the little pantry shed so that she can peek through the window in the roof, I believe, just to PEEK and see if she can see the platter. She doesn’t want to STEAL it, she just wants to SEE it. And naturally the roof caves in. But not entirely. Anne is stuck halfway down. So her torso emerges from the damn roof, and her legs dangle down into this lady’s shed. I am laughing out loud as I type this. I laugh out loud every time I read the episode. Diana tries to pull her out – but the beams poke into Anne’s side – it cannot be done. So they just have to wait for the lady to return. Naturally, a huge rainstorm comes. Diana runs to the buggy, gets the umbrella, and gives it to Anne – then Diana sits in the buggy. So there is Anne, sticking halfway out of a neighbor’s roof, HOLDING AN UMBRELLA. Seriously – I am laughing out loud right now. And naturally, the lady drives up the lane right at this point. And she is, naturally, somewhat amazed to see a girl sticking up out of her roof holding an umbrella. I just can see the whole tableau in my mind and it NEVER strikes me as anything less than hilarious.

I also love when she accidentally sells her neighbor’s cow. She thinks she is selling her own cow, but in reality – she sells Mr. Harrison’s cow. Like: Anne. Please don’t sell other people’s livestock. Her response when she discovers what she has done … and of course, in true Anne fashion, she goes over to confess to her scary neighbor what she has done … and eventually, they become lifelong friends. He is an old crank, a true curmudgeon – but there’s something about Anne that delights him. She seems to have that effect on people.

Other episodes from the book (and please, dear fellow readers – tell me your favorite episodes from this book!!) are:

— befriending Paul – her favorite student. A fanciful little boy who Anne truly believes is a genius
— dealing with Anthony Pye – the sullen bully of the school
— Marilla adopts twins. Marilla! Davy and Dora … they are orphaned … they are 8 years old, I believe and they come to stay at Green Gables. Davy is an absolute terror and Dora is goodness personified. Davy gets into some horrible scrapes – but of course – you love him more. You always love those who struggle more.
— Oh, and Miss Lavender!! Diana and Anne discover an old romantic stone house out in the middle of the woods one day … and there’s a beautiful “old” lady living there – her hair is white, but I think she’s only in her 40s. She is sort of like Anne – living in a fantasy world – only she’s a full adult. Anne recognizes a kindred spirit immediately. They become friends. Dear dear friends. of course there was a sad thwarted romance in Miss Lavender’s past – we eventually hear the whole thing (Lucy Maud is very big on MISUNDERSTANDING being the root of all evil. So many of her huge plot points, especially with romances, hinge on one person completely misunderstanding the message. Or not getting the message at all. “40 years ago, I wrote you a letter asking you to come join me and marry me!” The response is: “I never got the letter.” Etc.)

Let’s see. What else. Oh yes – Anne and Diana create an “Improvement Society” – they want to plant public gardens in Avonlea, and have rotted trees removed, and have so and so pull down his old crumbling barn, and basically improve the look of the place. A group of their friends join – and they take subscriptions and deal with resistance – and in general, try to shake Avonlea into some sense of civic responsibility.

There are many more great episodes – I’d love to hear some of your favorites.

The book ends with Mr. Lynde dying – and Rachel Lynde decides to move in with Marilla. Although they bicker and snipe at each other, they are truly good friends, and a comfort to one another. Mrs. Lynde can help raise the twins and help out Marilla. Which then frees Anne up. She then decides that she will go to college. The book ends there – on the crossroads. Anne is going to go to college. Her year of teaching is at an end. Oh – and Gilbert will be at the same college. So …. hmmmmmmm

Anyway, I had a hard time picking an excerpt – but I decided to go with something that I think demonstrates the true special-ness of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s storytelling ability (as well as her writing). In a lot of her books – we read the protagonist’s letters. Windy Poplars (excerpt here) is almost ALL letters. In the Emily series (which I actually like better than the Anne series – amazing!!) – the second book in the series has extensive excerpts from Emily’s private journal. Lucy Maud doesn’t just go for straight narration.

And listen to this letter. Anne is describing her teaching experiences to a friend. But what I really get from this excerpt is how many STORIES Lucy Maud has to tell. This letter feels REAL to me – as though she might have copied it verbatim from a letter she either once wrote or received. It seems that real to me. It also makes me laugh out loud. The student “Barbara Shaw” is the most clumsy girl in school. Disasters follow in her wake. Stoves blow up. Roofs cave in. Barbara is a magnet for tripping, falling, rolling, bruised knees … anyway, the excerpt ends with Barbara’s composition. We have already gotten to know Barbara’s disasters. So listen to what she writes.

Excerpt from Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables, Book 2) by L.M. Montgomery.

“Teaching is really very interesting work,” wrote Anne to a Queen’s Academy chum. “Jane says she thinks it is monotonous but I don’t find it so. Something funny is almost sure to happen every day, and the children say such amusing things. Jane says she punishes her pupils when they make funny speeches, which is probably why she finds teaching monotonous. This afternoon little Jimmy Andrews was trying to spell ‘speckled,’ and couldn’t manage it. ‘Well,’ he said finally, ‘I can’t spell it but I know it means.’

“‘What does it mean?’ I asked.

“‘St. Clair Donnell’s face, miss.’

“St. Clair is certainly very much freckled, although I try to prevent the others from commenting on it … for I was freckled once and well do I remember it. But I don’t think St. Clair minds. It was because Jimmy called him ‘St. Clair’ that St. Clair pounded him on the way home from school. I heard of the pounding, but not officially, so I don’t think I’ll take any notice of it.

“Yesterday I was trying to teach Lottie Wright to do addition. I said, ‘If you had three candies in one hand and two in the other, how many would you have altogether?’ ‘A mouthful,’ said Lottie. And in the nature study class, when I asked them to give me a good reason why toads shouldn’t be killed, Benjie Sloane gravely answered, ‘Because it would rain the next day.’

“It’s so hard not to laugh, Stella. I have to save up all my amusment until I get home, and Marilla says it makes her nervous to hear wild shrieks of mirth proceeding from the east gable without any apparent cause. She says a man in Grafton went insane once and that was how it began.

“Did you know that Thomas a Becket was canonized as a snake? Rose Bell says he was … also that William Tyndale wrote the New Testament. Claude White says a ‘glacier’ is a man who puts in window frames!

“I think the most difficult thing in teaching, as well as the most interesting, is to get the children to tell you their real thoughts about things. One stormy day last week I gathered them around me at dinner hour and tried to get them to talk to me just as if I were one of themselves. I asked them to tell me the things they most wanted. Some of the answers were commonplace enough … dolls, ponies, and skates. Others were decidedly original. Hester Boulter wanted ‘to wear her Sunday dress every day and eat in the sitting room.’ Hannah Bell wanted ‘to be good wihtout having to take any trouble about it.’ Marjory White, aged ten, wanted to be a widow. Questioned why, she gravely said that if you weren’t married people called you an old maid, and if you were your husband bossed yo; but if you were a widow there’d be no danger of either. The most remarkable wish was Sally Bell’s. She wanted a ‘honeymoon’. I asked her if she knew what it was and she said she thought it was an extra nice kind of bicycle because her cousin in Montreal went on a honeymoon when he was married and he had always had the very latest in bicycles!

“Another day I asked them all to tell me the naughtiest thing they had ever done. I couldn’t get the older ones to do so, but the third class answered quite freely. Eliza Bell had ‘set fire to her aunt’s carded rolls.’ Asked if she meant to do it she said, ‘not altogether.’ She just tried a little end to see how it would burn and the whole bundle blazed up in a jiffy. Emerson Gillis had spent ten cents for candy when he should have put it in his missionary box. Annetta Bell’s worst crime was ‘eating some blueberries that grew in the graveyard.’ Willie White had ‘slid down the sheephouse roof a lot of times with his Sunday trousers on.’ ‘But I was punished for it ’cause I had to wear patched pants to Sunday school all summer, and when you’re punished for a thing you don’t have to repent of it,’ declared Willie.

“I wish you could see some of their compositions … so much do I wish it that I’ll send you copies of some written recently. Last week I told the fourth class I wanted them to write me letters about anything they pleased, adding by way of suggestion that they might tell me of some place they had visited or some interesting thing or person they had seen. They were to write the letters on real note paper, seal them in an envelope, and address them to me, all without any assistance from other people. Last Friday morning I found a pile of letters on my desk and that evening I realized afresh that teaching has its pleasures as well as its pains. Those compositions would stone for much. Here is Ned Clay’s, address, spelling, and grammar as originally penned.

“‘Miss teacher ShiRley
“‘Green gabels.
“‘p.e. Island can

“‘birds

“Dear teacher I think I will write you a composition about birds. birds is very useful animals. my cat catches birds. His name is William but pa calls him tom. he is oll striped and he got one of his ears froz of last winter. only for that he would be a goodlooking cat. My unkle has adopted a cat. it come to his house one day and wouldent go away and unkle says it has forgot more than most people ever knowed. he lets it sleep on his rocking chare and my aunt says he thinks more of it than he does of his children. that is not right. we ought to be kind to cats and give them new milk but we ought not to be better to them than to our children. this is oll I can think of so no more at present from

“‘edward black ClaY.’

“St. Clair Donnell’s is, as usual, short and to the point. St. Clair never wastes words. I do not think he chose his subject or added the postscript out of malice aforethought. It is just that he has not a great deal of tact or imagination.

“‘Dear Miss Shirley

“‘You told us to describe something strange we have seen. I will describe the Avonlea Hall. It has two doors, an inside one and an outside one. It has six windows and a chimney. It has two ends and two sides. It is painted blue. That is what makes it strange. It is built on the lower Carmondy road. It is the third most important building in Avonlea. The others are the church and the blacksmith shop. They hold debating clubs and lectures in it and concerts.

“‘Yours truly,
“Jacob Donnell.

“‘P.S. The hall is a very bright blue.’

“Annetta Bell’s letter was quite long, which surprised me, for writing essays is not Annetta’s forte, and hers are generally as brief as St. Clair’s. Annetta is a quiet little puss and a model of good behaviour, but there isn’t a shadow of originality in her. Her is her letter; —

“‘Dearest teacher,

“‘I think I will write you a letter to tell you how much I love you. I love you with my whole heart and soul and mind … with all there is of me to love … and I want to serve you for ever. It would be my highest privilege. Taht is why I try so hard to be good at school and learn my lessons.

“‘You are so beautiful, my teacher. Your voice is like music and your eyes are like pansies when the dew is on them. You are like a tall stately queen. Your hair is like rippling gold. Anthony Pye says it is red, but you needn’t pay any attention to Anthony.

“‘I have only known you for a few months but I cannot realize that there was ever a time when I did not know you … when you had not come into my life to bless and hallow it. I will always look back to this year as the most wonderful in my life because it brought you to me. besides, it’s the year we moved to Avonlea from newbridge. My love for you has made my life very rich and it has kept me from much of harm and evil. I owe this all to you, my sweetest teacher.

“‘I shall never forget how sweet you looked the last time I saw you in that black dress with flowers in your hair. I shall see you like that for ever, even when we are both old and gray. You will always be young and fair to me, dearest teacher. I am thinking of you all the time … in the morning and at the noontide and at the twilight … I love you when you laugh and when you sigh … even when you look disdainful. I never saw you look cross though Anthony Pye says you always look so but I don’t wonder you look cross at him for he deserves it. I love you in every dress … you seem more adorable in each new dress than the last.

“‘Dearest teacher, good night. The sun has set and the stars are shining … stars that are as bright and beautiful as your eyes. I kiss your hands and face, my sweet. May God watch over you and protect you from all hard.

“‘Your afecksionate pupil
“‘Annetta Bell.’

“This extraordinary letter puzzled me not a little. I knew Annetta couldn’t have composed it any more than she could fly. When I went to school the next day I took her for a walk down to the brook at recess and asked her to tell me the truth about the letter. Annetta cried and ‘fessed up freely. She said she had never written a letter and she didn’t know how to, or what to say, but there was a bundle of love letters in her other’s top bureau drawer which had been written to her by an old ‘beau’.

“‘It wasn’t father,’ sobbed Annetta, ‘it was someone who was studying for a minister, and so he could write lovely letters, but ma didn’t marry him after all. She said she couldn’t make out what he was driving at half the time. But I thought the letters were sweet and that I’d just copy things out of them here and there to write you. I put “teacher” where he put “lady” and I put in something of my own when I could think of it and I changed some words. I put “dress” in place of “mood”. I didn’t know just what a “mood” was but I s’posed it was something to wear. I didn’t s’pose you’d know the difference. I don’t see how you found out it wasn’t all mine. You must be awful clever, teacher.’

“I told Annetta it was very wrong to copy another person’s letter and pass it off as her own. But I’m afraid that all Annetta repented of was being found out.

“‘And I do love you, teacher,’ she sobbed. ‘It was all true, even if the minister wrote it first. I do love you with all my heart.’

“It’s very difficult to scold anybody properly under such circumstances.

“Here is Barbara Shaw’s letter. I can’t reproduce the blots of the original.

“‘Dear teacher,

“‘You said we might write about a visit. I never visited but once. It was at my Aunt Mary’s last winter. My Aunt Mary is a very particular woman and a great housekeeper. The first night I was there we were at tea. I knocked over a jug and broke it. Aunt Mary said she had had that jug ever since she was married and nobody had ever broken it before. When we got up I stepped on her dress and all the gathers tore out of her skirt. The next morning when I got up I hit the pitcher against the basin and cracked them both and I upset a cup of tea on the tablecloth at breakfast. When I was helping Aunt Mary with the dinner dishes I dropped a china plate and it smashed. That evening I fell downstairs and sprained my ankle and had to stay in bed for a week. I heard Aunt Mary tell Uncle Joseph it was a mercy or I’d have broken everything in the house. When I got better it was time to go home. I don’t like visiting very much. I like going to school better, especially since I came to Avonlea.

“‘Yours respectfully,
“‘Barbara Shaw.'”