Anne and Gilbert finally tie the knot and leave their beloved Avonlea for Four Winds Harbour. There they find Anne's house of dreams: a little house near the sea with a brook running through the yard. As the couple settle in, they meet a new collection of kindred spirits to share their lives with. The lighthouse keeper Captain Jim has a gift for spinning yarns and fills their evenings with stories of his adventures on the sea. Miss Cornelia Bryant is a confirmed man hater who tells it like it is. And the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, whose face has brought her nothing but heartache, reluctantly falls for Anne's charms.

No matter how long it's been since I last left Anne, it's always like greeting an old friend once I open another book in this series. We always take up where we left off like it was just yesterday.

Montgomery's story telling is as entertaining as ever. She creates an eccentric cast of characters who colour every page. The series still has it's down home humour but it has a somber note as well. Anne is an adult now, her problems are much bigger than the small tragedies of her childhood. One episode is especially heartbreaking and affects her deeply. Although it was sad, it was honest and helps to develop her into a character beyond that little freckled girl. Leslie's story also brings more life lessons for Anne. Not everything is black or white and 'the right thing' is sometimes a matter of opinion.

Montgomery adds her flare for the sentimental in Anne's House of Dreams. Maybe it doesn't translate so well to this modern era. When Anne and Gilbert marry, birds suddenly appear (cue The Carpenters). It made me chuckle. Montgomery's prose tends to be a bit purple. Still, it didn't take away from my reading enjoyment. She writes to entertain and succeeds in House of Dreams. This is one of my favorites (so far) in the series.

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In the fourth of the Anne of Green Gables series, our heroine Anne Shirley has graduated university and gained a position as principal of Summerside High School. Anne's on her own. She has to make new friends in a new town. Not much of a problem for Anne, you might think, but she finds herself in hostile territory. The town is run by a family named Pringle, and Summerside is lousy with Pringles. The Pringles are a clannish group who have a passive aggressive way of running people they don't like out of town. Poor Anne unknowingly took the post of principal from...a Pringle. Somehow (I won't say how) Anne gets the Pringles on her side just when she's about to give it all up. Anne goes on to make friends with nearly every odd character she runs across until her three years are up, and she heads back to Avonlea.

Told mostly through letters to Gilbert, the book's full of Anne's peppy optimism. Anne vows to find the good in everyone, making the reader think that even the most surly curmudgeon has a warm, fuzzy side. The townspeople are often caricatures of small town folk. The nosies, the talkers, the "old blood". Sometimes it gets a bit much, but I recognized people I know in the characters. Montgomery's pen is sharp, but there's love in her writing.

I love reading the Anne series. I'm not sure Anne of Windy Poplars can be considered a children's book. Anne's a young woman in her twenties tackling the working world. Montgomery is probably one of the most recognizable Canadian authors. Her books are such fun to read with beautifully written prose. When I think of CanLit now, I can't help thinking, where did it turn a 180? There's great writing, sure, but finding a happy ending in a modern Canadian novel is like finding a needle in a haystack. What a bunch of downers we've become. If John took requests for the Wednesday Compare, I'd suggest he pit Montgomery against Atwood: Optimist vs Pessimist.

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The third in Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, Anne of the Island was first published in 1915--six years after the publication of the second novel. Apparently Montgomery received an intense clamor for more books, dedicating this one to "all the girls all over the world who have 'wanted more' about Anne."

This novel picks up with Anne starting her freshman year at Redmond College in Kingsport. Apart from a few scenes back at home at Green Gables and one lovely interlude in Valley Road which chronicles the romance of an older couple, Redmond College is the center of Anne's activity.

If the prior two books lacked romance, this one makes up for it. Anne and two college friends share a quaint house in Kingsport, and there is a constant stream of "beaus" coming through the door. One of the friends, Phillippa Gordon, is an excellent addition to the book. She is vain, but knows it, and that somehow makes her utter superficiality less annoying. Even she has her share of romance, happening upon it--as seems the theme of this novel--where she least expects to find it.

For those who simply can't get enough information about Anne of Green Gables and her author, check out the LM Montgomery Research Group. While the website appears to still be a work in progress, there is a blog and a very extensive filmography section that talks about all of the LM Montgomery big screen adaptations.

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Anne of Green Gables is the first of a series of books about redheaded orphan Anne Shirley from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Published in 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery found her inspiration for the book in a story she wrote at a young age describing a couple that was mistakenly sent an orphan girl instead of a boy but decided to keep her. She also drew upon her own experiences growing up on the Island. Recently considered a children's book, Anne of Green Gables was originally intended as a novel for all ages.

While later books chronicle a much more mature Anne, in this first book she is amusing and tempestuous as a young girl who can't keep her temper and is always getting into scrapes. This is the Anne Shirley we all remember and love. Who can forget her angry tirade against Mrs Lynde, dying her hair green, or her almost fatal fall off Mrs Barry's roof?

In Anne of Avonlea, published in 1909 and the second in the series, Anne has graduated from school and takes a position teaching at the Avonlea school. This book is more like a string of short stories than a novel. It chronicles several characters on the Island and Anne's special relationships with them. There is Paul Irving, the boy Yankee who seems to be a male version of young Anne Shirley (without the green hair). There are the twins: prim Dora and troublesome Davy. And Mr Harrison, the bachelor who lives next door with his foul-mouthed parrot. Most lovingly portrayed is Miss Lavendar, a lonely middle-aged woman who forms a special bond with Anne. While more mature in this book, Anne is still prone to unexpected, but sometimes fortuitous, antics. Again we see Anne always makes the best out of her troublesome experiences.

I read these two novels around the time I was also reading the short stories from A Humble Romance. It could be because of some unconscious choice in my reading material, but I usually find similarities among the novels that I read together. The similarities among these novels are not only location (New England versus Eastern Canada) but also plot and language. Montgomery's prose, like Wilkins', frequently details the beautiful landscapes, flowers, and trees. And her plot is very simple, yet engrossing. Perhaps surprising for a book about a  young girl, readers of both genders and all ages have posted reviews about how wonderful Anne's story is, "without violence, sexual situations, or earthy language." We marvel that we still have the capability of being taken in by such a simple story. Somehow these novels help us tap into a primal instinct for nature and simplicity that reminds us of what life's really about, and they do it most absorbingly.

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Legends of Vancouver was originally published around 1910 as a series of newspaper articles based on stories related by Pauline Johnson's friend, Chief Joe Capilano of the Squamish people. It is the first collection of native legends retold by a native artist and has become a classic of Canadian literature.

Johnson was born on the Six Nations Indian Reserve to a Mohawk father and an English mother. Being of both native and "white" cultures, Johnson has an interesting insight to the native legends she retells. She serves as an appropriate guide to the sometimes obscure meanings that the stories are trying to convey. As all of the legends originated long before European colonization, it would be difficult to understand the way of life and accompanying values of the native peoples in the stories without assistance. For example, in "The Lure of Stanley Park" Johnson tells us that the natives of the Vancouver area held trees in high esteem. "[God] turns kindly people, the humane, sympathetic, charitable, loving people into trees, so that after death they may go on forever benefiting all mankind." With this in mind, this little tale becomes a meaningful allegory of good and evil and the power of a benevolent heart.

Johnson's point of view also brings insight to "Deep Waters", her retelling of a Squamish deluge legend. Particularly with this retelling, it is clear how she gives these legends the life and meaning that the ancient creators intended. She begins briefly with an Iroquois deluge legend. The Squamish legend then, by contrast, achieves a profound significance in its portrayal of life and death and the value of both. While the whole collection of legends is worth a read, "Deep Waters" stands out from the rest as the most beautiful and moving and worthy of passing on.

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