Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic

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Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic

3.28 of 5 stars 3.28 · rating details · 314 ratings · 91 reviews

In June 1908, a red-haired orphan appeared on to the streets of Boston and a modern legend was born. That little girl was Anne Shirley, better known as Anne of Green Gables, and her first appearance was in a book that has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 35 languages (including Braille). The author who created her was Lucy Maud...more In June 1908, a red-haired orphan appeared on to the streets of Boston and a modern legend was born. That little girl was Anne Shirley, better known as Anne of Green Gables, and her first appearance was in a book that has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 35 languages (including Braille). The author who created her was Lucy Maud Montgomery, a writer who revealed very little of herself and her method of crafting a story. On the centenary of its publication, Irene Gammel tells the braided story of both Anne and Maud and, in so doing, shows how a literary classic was born. Montgomery’s own life began in the rural Cavendish family farmhouse on Prince Edward Island, the place that became the inspiration for Green Gables. Mailmen brought the world to the farmhouse’s kitchen door in the form of American mass market periodicals sparking the young Maud’s imagination. From the vantage point of her small world, Montgomery pored over these magazines, gleaning bits of information about how to dress, how to behave and how a proper young lady should grow. She began to write, learning how to craft marketable stories from the magazines’ popular fiction; at the same time the fashion photos inspired her visual imagination. One photo that especially intrigued her was that of a young woman named Evelyn Nesbit, the model for painters and photographers and lover of Stanford White. That photo was the spark for what became Anne Shirley. Blending biography with cultural history, Looking for Anne of Green Gables is a gold mine for fans of the novels and answers a trunk load of questions: Where did Anne get the “e” at the end of her name? How did Montgomery decide to give her red hair? How did Montgomery’s courtship and marriage to Reverend Ewan Macdonald affect the story? Irene Gammel's dual biography of Anne Shirley and the woman who created her will delight the millions who have loved the red haired orphan ever since she took her first step inside the gate of Green Gables farm in Avonlea.(less)

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published July 8th 2008 by St. Martin's Press (first published 2007)

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Sep 24, 2008 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, 2008

I was really fascinated with this book about L.M. Montgomery and the creation of Anne Shirley, one of literatures most beloved heroines. After reading this book I was not at all surprised to read the recent news article written about L.M. Montgomery's suicide. A quote from the article, written by Montgomery's granddaughter, "Despite her great success, it is known that she suffered from depression, that she was isolated, sad and filled with worry and dread for much of her life. But our family has...more I was really fascinated with this book about L.M. Montgomery and the creation of Anne Shirley, one of literatures most beloved heroines. After reading this book I was not at all surprised to read the recent news article written about L.M. Montgomery's suicide. A quote from the article, written by Montgomery's granddaughter, "Despite her great success, it is known that she suffered from depression, that she was isolated, sad and filled with worry and dread for much of her life. But our family has never spoken publicly about the extent of her illness.What has never been revealed is that L.M. Montgomery took her own life at the age of 67 through a drug overdose."

Irene Gammel delved into contemporary source material from Montgomery's life so that she could discover the origins of Anne. Magazines that Montgomery read and published in, unpublished letters and journal entires of Montgomery's, as well as pictures and photographs, books and articles from the years surrounding Anne's creation were all used to uncover the mystery. Gammel herself stated in the prologue that "telling the life of Anne is like peeling an onion. This book takes readers inside Maud's guarded life not only by reading between the lines of her unpublished journal entires for the period, but also by looking beyond the conventional sources that Maud wanted us to see." While Montgomery was an addictive diarist and note taker and loved reading old diary entries, letting them influence her present, she destroyed much of her letters, notebooks and journals. What we are left with today is only what she wanted to survive.
One thing that surprised me and that I think might surprise many of Montgomery's fans is that she was very pragmatic about her writing career. She wanted to make money, be self-sufficient and famous. She wasn't fueled by imagination like the character she created was. Montgomery read extensively from popular publications so she would know what kind of stories could get published and then she would mimic the formulas. The story of Anne is far from being an original idea. It was a formula story that sold well and was very popular at the time, even down to the red hair and the name Anne. Montgomery was very pragmatic in her creation of Anne. It seems much of the story was not drawn from her imagination but taken from real life situations and magazine articles.

What was most revealing to me however, was how self-involved Montgomery was, how much of a "woe is me" attitude she had and how she felt a need to denigrate and bring down other people. That attitude arose from how utterly insecure she was. One example of this is that she kept a mental blacklist of everyone who failed to congratulate her on the success of Anne of Green Gables. "A sign of narcissistic self-involvement, it was also a mark of deep-seated insecurity and a lifelong desire for praise and acceptance. Nate Lockhart, with whom she had first shared her desire to write a book, never congratulated her on her novel, she complained. One wonders whether she congratulated him on the birth of two sons, both in the same year as Anne." (236)

The best part of this book is going along with Gammel as she uncovers so much of what influenced L.M. Montgomery in creating Anne of Green Gables. "Anne was the product of a long evolution. In fact, just as Maud would distill her winter potpourri from the blossoms of an entire summer, so she distilled Anne's character from a variety of "Anns" while also blending that distillation with her own nostalgic memories. That distillation is at the core of the novel's success....Anne was the result of ten years of disquiet and turbulence, years of restlessness and loneliness." (218-219)

Those who just have a passing enjoyment of Anne of Green Gables or L.M. Montgomery's other books might not enjoy this book. As I've said, extensive research into very minute details went into this book and it does get a little bogged down at times. That said, truly devoted Anne fans really should read this fascinating literary biography.(less)

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Abigail Jeanette: I enjoyed your review, and was particularly struck by the notion of Montgomery studying the fiction trends of her time. One thing I have dis...more
Sep 25, 2008 06:38pm

Jeanette I agree, they used popular formula stories to get ideas but it was the writing and their own personal touches that made their books the instant succes...more
Sep 26, 2008 05:48am

Asia Snow Thank you for this great review. I feel I have gained a knowledge of the basics of this book. Very interesting. Montgomery was smart. Being such a rom...more
Sep 26, 2008 10:25am

Jul 21, 2008 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of L.M. Montgomery

Shelves: nonfiction-biography-memoir, nonfiction-literary-analysis, nonfiction-history, theme-l-m-montgomery, favorites

A fascinating study of an author and her much beloved creation. Professor Gammel delves into previously unpublished materials, including private journals and correspondence, to shed new light on L.M. Montgomery's creative process, and the wide variety of influences that culminated in the creation of the character Anne Shirley.

This book is a sympathetic, insightful, and entertaining exploration. Part biography, part literary analysis, I found it a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. Highly r...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Barb rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some fascinating details on L.M. Montgomery's life, but way too much conjecture on the supposed origins of Anne and other characters. I don't think Gammel gives LMM enough credit as an imaginative writer; not every nuance of her characters need necessarily have been drawn from life!

The way this book is organized is rather disjointed; I found it hard to follow at times, as it was like a collection of vignettes, not necessarily chronologically arranged. Too many side tangents, and the author wande...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Lindley Walter-smith rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a bit of a curate's egg. There are some fascinating insights here, and I especially enjoyed the exploration of Montgomer's passionate relationships with otehr girls and women combined with her sexual coldness towards young men she was supposed to be in love with - that genuinely brings the friendships in the books into new light. It was also fascinating - and really mind-mending - to see what Anne "really" looked like, the pictures of the model who inspired her, who is absolutely nothin...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Aspasia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir, non-fiction

I read the Anne of Green Gables series as a preteen and teenager and I always wondered about Lucy Maud Montgomery; imagine my surpise and delight when I stumbled upon her biography in my local library.

In this biography, Irene Gammel recounts how life events and literary magazine subscriptions shaped the plot and structure of Anne of Green Gables...Maud's mother died when she was a toddler and her father left her in the care of her grandparents, the Macneills, who weren't very loving. In the boo...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I felt like the author spent most of her time speculating, based on circumstantial evidence, on what probably influenced Maud Montgomery while she was writing ANNE. For instance, she would say things like "this story was in this magazine which Maud most likely read, so it MUST have had an influence on her!" She also explored various friends and family members and their influence on the writing of ANNE.

And although the author more or less goes chronologically through the period in which ANNE was...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Elderberrywine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

I must confess to coming to Anne rather late in life, about a couple of years ago. I think I may have read the first when I was a child, but it didn't apparently stick. This in spite of the fact I was/am a huge fan of the genre. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm! Pollyanna! Hey, even Pippy Longstocking! Spunky orphan girls for the win.

But Anne was somewhat more complex, and I found the breakdown of how and from what she was created very interesting. Montgomery was a fairly complicated character herself...more

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Jun 16, 2010 sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

The author does a little too much crowing about telling the "never-before-told story!!!" of this or that aspect of the book, and then the story sometimes ends up being, well...not all that interesting or based on slightly tenuous evidence. Like, congratulations on your diligent research in early 20th century periodicals, author, but it isn't particularly relevant that the picture LMM alleged was the inspiration for Anne's face was actually of a New York model notorious for her role in a murder t...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Holyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

In this book Gammel takes the life of LM Montgomery and traces how her personal history contributed to the creation and writing of Anne of Green Gables. The book is organized into sections about specific aspects of the novel (such as Red Hair/Puffed Sleeves and Bosom Friends). I found the correlations Gammel drew between Montgomery's life and Anne's story to be really interesting and I am amazed at how much of Montgomery is in Anne. The writing in this book tends toward the academic and at times...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Corey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, read-in-2010

I really recommend this book to any avid fan of Anne or LM Montgomery.

This book follows the timeline of Anne of Green Gables being written and ties it in with what was going on with Maud at the time and what influenced certain parts of the novels. The author pulls these tidbits from Maud's journal entries (published AND unpublished, oh how I want to read the unpublished stuff now!) and letters to friends and family. Much of the items most fans will know about but I imagine that all fans have so...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Judine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

While I found much of the information fascinating, the author tended to jump around too much (and make mention of that - "more on this will be covered in the next chapter"). I felt like the author also assumed we had information we may not have (references to Maud's unhappy marriage, which I hadn't necessarily been informed of before). And some of the information was repetitive (I think we were told at least four or five times that Maud consistently misspelled her husband's name Ewan (not Ewen)...more

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Feb 20, 2009 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Anna of Green Gables

This was an interesting overview of the most current research into the writing of Anne of Green Gables. Gammel does a decent job of integrating all the various pieces of evidence into trying to create a timeline of how Montgomery may have created her masterpiece. I say may have because Montgomery destroyed a lot of original information and so we can just make hypotheses. The book was definitely more a scholarly work but I did enjoy how Gammel incorporated so many passages from the books. A few p...more

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Sep 25, 2010 Teghan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: academic, canadiana, non-fiction-have-read, lmm

A well written and well researched book. A lot of work went into this project, which is made obvious by the depth Gammel goes into. While I found it interesting to see all the various medias that would have influenced Montgomery, I found it a little too dependent on proving said influences (most specifically and annoyingly, the portrait of Evelyn Nesbit). I think that part of an author's talent is in their ability to create a character from nothing. I think, by citing all these things that would...more

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May 16, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are two major themes in this book: how Montgomery's work is autobiographical (she herself was a grudgingly adopted orphan) and plumbs the depths of her feelings about relationships with both men and women; and she was an amazingly prolific writer. The Anne series was supported by years of writing on hundreds of shorter pieces that she created for magazines, and she earned a decent living because she was so very productive. It was on the one hand, fascinating to see how Anne's world grew ou...more

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Jun 10, 2009 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book had a really slow start--largely because there was so much conjecture going on. It took me a good month to read the first third because I just kept getting so bored, and I finished the last two thirds in a day. Once Gammel actually started to do work on Anne of Green Gables and its sequels, she really proved herself adept at managing literary criticism with a lens of author intentionality. At times (assuming that several stories written about Anns/Annes during L.M. Montgomery's life tim...more The book had a really slow start--largely because there was so much conjecture going on. It took me a good month to read the first third because I just kept getting so bored, and I finished the last two thirds in a day. Once Gammel actually started to do work on Anne of Green Gables and its sequels, she really proved herself adept at managing literary criticism with a lens of author intentionality. At times (assuming that several stories written about Anns/Annes during L.M. Montgomery's life time directly contributed to Green Gables struck me as a bit excessive) the assumptions did seem a bit much, but I did appreciate that Gammel was working from a lot of artifacts. I think from that view you could really see this as an anthropological work, though it focuses on an individual rather than society.

I did appreciate that Gammel showed us a balanced portrait of Montgomery. It wasn't romanticized and she pointed out several times taht most of what we know about Montgomery was created for us by Montgomery herself, and to me that was the biggest strength of the book. She points out that "dramatic immediacy was more important to our author than the literal truth" (228), and indeed, we see throughout the work that Montgomery was more concerned with what Tim O'Brien would call story truth than happening truth. Both Gammel and Montgomery herself seemed to have an astute understanding of how identity can be performed rather than innate. Gammel's use of artifacts (photos, journal articles, literature from the era, popular culture) from the time also help us understand the extent to with both Montgomery and Anne were products of their time and environment. A battle emerges between the forces of society trying to make an individual conform and the individual shaping how society views them, and it's a fascinating picture.

Another useful piece was Gammel's examination of the attempts by publishers and readers to force the romance narrative onto Anne. I was often reminded of Louisa May Alcott and her struggle with Jo in Little Women. Alcott was also determined to keep Jo from marriage, particularly a marriage with Laurie. While Montgomery seemed less resistant to the idea of Gilbert as an individual, she too was resisting the romance narrative in putting off a concrete union between the two at the end of the first two books.

Nitpick that drove me nuts: several misuses of the word myriad. It's a pet peeve.(less)

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Mar 28, 2009 Kyla rated it 2 of 5 stars

I thought this would be more biography than odd "let's match the scene in the Anne books to an actual event in LM's life". Seriously, she goes through every little incident in her life and says "X was the Gilbert in her life..." - "she liked red hair because of Y", like down to the kind of dress Anne wears to the concert in White Sands and how it is the same material as the dress L.M wore to a wedding once. While I admire the authors zeal and hunt for odd facts - not useful to the casual, or eve...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Dichotomy Girl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, 2013

This was actually quite an interesting book, as I knew very little about the author of the classic Anne of Green Gables. This is not a complete biography, but only a snapshot of the people, places and events in the author's life that contributed to the creation of Anne.

One thing I definitely would not have guessed it what a sad, unfortunate life the author lived, but I guess she channeled all the happy endings she wished for into her writings.

This book probably would not appeal to anyone who is...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Lora rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the idea of a dual biography--telling the story of Maud's life through the quest to discover how her experiences coalesced into one of literature's most beloved heroines. Although I own two other biographies of L.M. Montgomery, this one gave me insights I hadn't picked up from them, even to the point of discovering how other Montgomery heroines came to be. Despite this author's cursory (and quite mistaken!) references to The Blue Castle, she inadvertantly gave me information tha...more

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Sep 12, 2009 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: child-lit-studies

I found this book a little silly. First of all, I disagree with the author that the origins of Anne of Green Gables are such a mystery. Secondly, Irene Gammel's prose style got on my nerves -- I think she was striving to write like LMM herself, in a passionate, sensitive, nature-loving way, and the result is just overwrought. It was interesting that she identified the photo the LMM clipped from a magazine, and said was her inspiration for Anne, as Evelyn Nesbit, but I just don't find this as mom...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Dianne rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Looking For Anne is the story of how the beloved children's book Anne Of Green Gables was written. The author has searched through Montgomery's personal and family correspondence, court documents, journals and popular publications of the era to piece together Lucy Maud Montgomery's life experiences leading up to and during the writing of her most famous novel and presents it here as the solution to the "mystery" of Anne.

I didn't enjoy this book at all until I was at least three quarters of the w...more Looking For Anne is the story of how the beloved children's book Anne Of Green Gables was written. The author has searched through Montgomery's personal and family correspondence, court documents, journals and popular publications of the era to piece together Lucy Maud Montgomery's life experiences leading up to and during the writing of her most famous novel and presents it here as the solution to the "mystery" of Anne.

I didn't enjoy this book at all until I was at least three quarters of the way through it. I was very disappointed because I love the Anne books and I wanted so much to enjoy reading how it all came about. Unfortunately, instead of enjoyment I got the uncomfortable feeling Gammel was working very hard to make me dislike Anne.

The overall tone of Looking For Anne is negative and critical. And I found the author making some very big assumptions at times. Writing about Montgomery's mother, who died when Maud was a baby, she says "...neither of the two photos available suggest that she would have possessed the wit or the intelligence that Maud valued in spiritual kin such as her great-aunt Mary, who was a brilliant conversationalist and literary mind." That seems a rather harsh judgment to make from just a couple of photographs. It doesn't come across as reasonable. Then there are scenes where she tells us what Maud was thinking at the time and again, that's not very realistic to me. I was never sure what was fact and what was assumed from circumstantial evidence.

Gammel writes at length in this book about female friendships in Montgomery's era and about those in the book, and has a great deal to suggest about the sexual qualities of those relationships. "Through clever wit and irony, Maud had a gift of bringing her readers tantalizingly close to unspoken feelings of sensuality and sexuality, while ingeniously portraying these feelings as universal and innocent." She says a lot more about Maud's sexuality but I'm not going to go into it here, because it's not Maud's sexuality I have a problem with. I do have a problem when she begins to imply Maud wrote sexual feelings into the children's friendships in the Anne books. These are 11 year old girls. I've never, ever picked up even a hint of that when reading the Anne books and frankly I find it more than a little bit creepy. She suggests strongly that Montgomery was bisexual and perhaps she was, but I will never in a million years believe that we are meant to think the relationship between those little girls is in any way sexual.

Gammel clearly has a taste for the melodramatic. It shows up when she calls Anne of Green Gables "a much more secular and subversive novel" than other novels of the day. And again when she refers several times to Maud Montgomery being a "virtual prisoner" during the years she lived with her aging grandmother; she probably did feel trapped at times, but say it too many times and eyes will roll. Then, when Maud is returning home from a business trip to Boston (the one get-away approved by her grandmother), Gammel, to emphasize the empty life she is going back to after a happy, fun-filled time away, writes "When she arrived at the train station on Prince Edward Island, George Campbell picked her up on the cold and rattling buggy. Sleet blew into her face the whole way home." Overkill? For me, yes.

Another thing that struck me the wrong way was Gammel repeatedly referring to Anne as a pagan. In fact she implies that all lovers of nature are pagan. I looked up the definition of pagan just to be sure I wasn't overreacting and it seems she does mean to say that Maud, Anne and anyone else who loves flowers, brooks and fields are unbelievers, and "unbeliever" is the dictionary's definition, not just mine. Now, I believe in God. But I'm also very fond of growing things, bodies of water and night skies. These things are really not mutually exclusive. I think Gammel is taking way too big a leap here, and when considered together with the leap taken from friendship to sexual feelings, and her tendency toward melodrama, this author loses pretty much all credibility with me.

As I said earlier I didn't like it at all till close to the end, and the reason for my interest at that point was that she might say other outrageous things I wouldn't want to miss. Or maybe she'd somehow make all the other stuff make sense. And, this was our book club selection for March and I didn't want to miss anything. So I read through to the end, and now, truthfully, I sort of wish I'd never read it at all(less)

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Jul 28, 2009 Heidi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, 2009-book-challenge, nonfiction

It took me SEVEN weeks to read this book. That's saying something right there. While there was interesting information, it was just not one that had me compelled to return to it. In fact, I think there was a bit too much in it. And I don't like assumption or inference that because one certain thing happened in an author's life that that is the reason a certain thing appeared in one of their books. ("Becoming Jane" anyone? Ugh.) Now if some of her unpublished journal entries say that's what she m...more

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Apr 17, 2009 Alexandria rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, lucy-maud-montgomery, non-fiction

This was an interesting read and brought many aspects of her life to light, although I didn't agree with all of them. Most of the sources stated in the text are from unpublished journals, which made it harder for me knowing so little about her already, and knowing only what had been published about her already, which seemed to be contradicted by the unpublished journals.
P55: "[Maud:] demanded her book[s:] be good literature, stimulating her with its language, its images, its ideas – and most imp...more

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Oct 30, 2008 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, october-2008, lgbt-books

Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L.M. Montgomery by Irene Gammel.
St. Martin’s Press, 2008 0312382375

Gammel focuses on the writing of Montgomery's most famous book, uncovering sources, tracing parallels between Maud and Anne, and considering the ways in which Anne served as an alter-ego who was loved, unlike Maud, and was able to be freer than Maud ever could. She also discusses Montgomery's personal life -- her unsatisfactory family relations, her passions for other girls and then...more

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Oct 20, 2008 Laurie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

Of course must keep up on LMM scholarship. This book is basically Anne of Green Gables Annotated to the nth degree, plus a super zoomed-in bio of the AoGG years. It's definitely well-researched - Gammel accomplishes much in locating the various strands of life and story and wish fulfillment that influence the process of creating the novel. At the same time, Gammel's constant assertion of "new" and "ground-breaking" findings serves to irritatingly undermine what is actually new here. Her writing...more

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Sep 28, 2008 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

A good read for someone who holds the Anne books dear to her heart. I got to learn more than I'd ever thought to ask about L.M. Montgomery and her life on P.E. Island, which was great.

On the down side, the "literary mystery" promised in the prologue and teased regularly throughout the text adds up to a big nothing. Of course Montgomery was influenced by the popular culture of her time, and by her own relationships and life experiences. That is the way writers work. No big revelation here.

Also,...more

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Aug 01, 2009 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was really disappointed in this book. Anne of Green Gables was one of my favorite books as a child, but I came away from this book having little respect for L. M. Montgomery, who is portrayed as insecure and needy. At the same time, I'm not convinced that was her true personality. I feel that Irene Gammel overanalyzed her primary sources to write this biography and that she made claims about Montgomery's influences with little more evidence than, "this magazine was delivered to her house and s...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Alice rated it 3 of 5 stars

A piece of literary detective work! This book is only for those who have read Anne of Green Gables and have a curiosity about how "Maud" Montgomery wrote the classic novel. The book traces the possible inspirations for the book in both current popular fiction and historical fact.

By examining Maud's diaries and scrapbooks, and comparing her manuscript with magazines that Maud was known to have read, all kinds of juicy details emerge!

For example: remember the episode in which Anne longs for a bea...more

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Nov 03, 2008 Shelley rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anne fans

Shelves: history, literature

I wanted to like this so much! There were some fantastic pictures (her first fiancee Ed Simpson was amazingly gorgeous, it must be said), and I feel like I learned a lot about Maud. She was a conflicted, bitter, unhappy woman who still managed to see the beauty in the land around her. When it came time to write, anyway. She was so incredibly fucked up in many ways, although I understood a lot of her issues. While I liked the insights into Maud, though, I just couldn't stand the author's writing...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Tamara rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Anne of Green Gables

Recommended to Tamara by: no one

Although I enjoyed this book, it was not a page turner and some of the information I could have cared less about. I just wanted sometimes for her to get to the point. Alot of information was repeated again in different chapters. But I was interested enough in L.M. Montgomery's life and the Anne of Green Gables books that I wanted to read it. A good story, however, is preferable to alot of literary analysis - of which this had quite a bit. But that is what kind of book it is, which I had never re...more

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Dec 30, 2008 Leigh-ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Anne of Green Gables" is one of my all-time favourite books, so I looked forward to reading this biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery. Unfortunately, Montgomery doesn't come across as particularly likable - she was somewhat egotistical and self-centered, although probably also insecure. Yet another book about a bright woman who did the best she could with her intellect given the social restrictions of her time.

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