The Annotated Anne of Green Gables

by Montgomery, L. M.; Barry, Wendy Elizabeth; Doody, Margaret Anne; Jones, Mary Doody

• ISBN13: 9780195104288
• ISBN10: 0195104285
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-08-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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. Thiswildly 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 tolife 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 especiallyits 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 backgroundinformation 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 Doodysupplies 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 Anneof 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 graspthe 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 theworld's most charming stories.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	vii
CHRONOLOGY	3	(6)
INTRODUCTION	9	(26)
Margaret Anne Doody
THE ANNOTATED ANNE OF GREEN GABLES	35	(362)
VARIANTS BETWEEN EDITIONS	397	(2)
TEXTUAL NOTES	399	(16)
APPENDICES	415	(48)
The Geography of Anne of Green Gables	415	(3)
Wendy E. Barry
The Settlers of P.E.I.: The Celtic Influence in Anne	418	(4)
Wendy E. Barry
The Exceptional Orphan Anne: Child Care, Orphan Asylums, Farming Out, Indenturing, and Adoption	422	(8)
Mary E. Doody Jones
Education on P.E.I.	430	(4)
Mary E. Doody Jones
Gardens and Plants	434	(4)
Margaret Anne Doody
Homemade Artifacts and Home Life	438	(5)
Margaret Anne Doody
Food Preparation, Cookery, and Home Decoration	443	(9)
Margaret Anne Doody
Breaking the Silence: Music and Elocution	452	(5)
Mary E. Doody Jones
Literary Allusion and Quotation in Anne of Green Gables	457	(6)
Margaret Anne Doody
Wendy E. Barry
SONGS	463	(4)
[Nelly of] The Hazel Dell	464	(1)
Far Above the [Gentle] Daisies	465	(1)
My Home on the Hill	466	(1)
LITERARY WORKS AND RECITATION PIECES	467	(16)
The Battle of Hohenlinden	467	(1)
Edinburgh After Flodden	467	(3)
Bingen on the Rhine	470	(1)
On the Downfall of Poland	471	(1)
The Dog at His Master's Grave	472	(1)
Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight	473	(1)
How Sockery Set a Hen	474	(1)
Mary, Queen of Scots	475	(2)
The Society for the Suppression of Gossip	477	(3)
The Fairy Queen	480	(1)
Mars La Tour, or, The Maiden's Vow	481	(2)
BOOK REVIEWS	483	(7)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	490	(3)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	493	(2)
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS	495