Anne of Avonlea [with Biographical Introduction]

by L.M. Montgomery

The readers who thought that Montgomery was not modern enough in the 1930s may be surprised to learn that books about orphans and misfits who overcome challenges using imagination and courage are still popular today. Harry Potter, with his unusual appearance (a lightning-shaped scar in place of bright red hair), dead parents, and magical skill – a stand in for Anne's imaginative power – is a spiritual descendent of Anne,

"I'd like to add some beauty to life," said Anne dreamily. "I don't exactly want to make people know more... though I know that is the noblest ambition... but I'd love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me... to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn't been born."

"Everything that's worth having is some trouble," said Anne,

and I think," concluded Anne, hitting on a very vital truth, "that we always love best the people who need us.

We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.

"After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string."

Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps... perhaps... love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.