httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnlJKaz5fyc
Anne recites Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott” in the television adaptation of Anne of Green Gables
Lucy Maud Montgomery died on this date in 1942 (born 1874).
From the “Conclusion to the First Edition of Literary History of Canada“:
The nostalgia for a world of peace and composure, with a spontaneous response to the nature around it, with a leisure and composure not to be found today, is particularly strong in Canada. It is overpowering in our popular literature, from Anne of Green Gables to Leacock’s Mariposa, and from Maria Chapdelaine to Jake and the Kid. It is present in all the fiction that deals with small towns as collections of characters in search of an author. (CW 12, 362)
How did you know that Anne of Green Gables remains my favourite novel?
Even thinking about the scenes between Anne and Matthew (in the novel), especially the scene when Matthew gives Anne a dress with puffed sleeves, brings tears to my eyes.
I’ve been searching my memory to find, in any other novel I’ve read, an example of a more unselfish act of kindness than Matthew’s. Imagine Matthew Cuthbert, a painfully shy man and especially intimidated by women and young girls, attempting to buy fabric, from a female salesperson for a dress with puffed sleeves for his darling Anne.