The Annotated Anne of Green Gables - Hardcover

L. M. Montgomery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195104285 ISBN 13: 9780195104288

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Since its publication in 1908, Anne of Green Gables has been a continuous international best-seller, 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 chatterbox 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--the stifling restraints of its religion and most especially its treatment of 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 Margaret Anne Doody, Mary Doody Jones, and Wendy Barry 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 settlement 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.

About this title

About the Author

Margaret Anne Doody is Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. Mary Doody Jones is an independent scholar and an authority on Anne and L.M. Montgomery. Wendy Barry is a Graduate Student in English at Vanderbilt University.

Reviews

YA?This book opens with a chronology and a lengthy introduction to Lucy Maud Montgomery's life and works. Annotations accompany the text of the novel explaining references to people, places, literary works, quotations, events, flora, fauna, etc. within the narrative. The volume is filled with illustrations from different editions of Anne and photos of Montgomery, her handwritten manuscript, her childhood home, her school, her parents and family, Prince Edward Island, plants, pictures of the times, and more. One section explains the variants among different editions of the work. The appendix includes the geography of the island and Cavendish, the author's childhood home upon which she based Avonlea. Also included are scholarly essays on the history of the Celtic settlers on Prince Edward Island, orphanages and children, education, gardens and plants, home life, food preparation and cookery (including contemporary recipes), music and elocution, and literary allusion and quotations in Anne of Green Gables. This well-researched and readable resource will find a wide audience among Montgomery's many fans.?John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Anne certainly merits the comprehensive, scholarly study demonstrated in the annotated margins, footnotes, critical essays, asides, and appendices that accompany the original text of Anne of Green Gables. Between these covers lies an entire academic course, covering the kinds of biographical, geographical, literary, and mythological allusions that a good professor would explicate--e.g., that one of Anne's compositions may have been inspired by ideas or phrases in the works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning or George Eliot--but also including colloquial terms, foods, fabrics, plants, expressions, songs, and poetry of Anne's time, and information about Montgomery as well. There's plenty here for scholars and fans; this edition should not be relegated to the reference shelves. (b&w photos and reproductions) (Fiction. 11+) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195104285
• ISBN 13: 9780195104288
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 504
• Editor: Wendy Elizabeth Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, Mary E. Doody Jones