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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
100 Years of Anne
In 1908, around either April or June (sources are inconsistent), Lucy Maud Montgomery’s first novel, Anne of Green Gables was published for the first time. Since its original publication, it has sold millions of copies in 36 languages, had eight movie adaptations (both in the cinema and made for TV), three spin-off television shows and two stage shows. People, young and old alike, all over the world have appreciated the “scrapes” that Anne gets into both in visual and textual formats.
My first encounter with Anne “with an E” Shirley was when I was about ten years old. My mom owned the two TV movies with Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie on VHS. At the time, I was a bit young to take in all of the depth of the stories, but I fell in love with Anne (and Gilbert, of course) nonetheless.
When I was twelve, I got the whole set of eight books as a gift for Christmas in 1997 from a family friend who continued the encouragement of reading by giving me books for my birthday and for Christmas for every year that I lived with my parents. I didn’t start on the books immediately, but by the end of January of 1998, I had devoured at least two of the books. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with Anne all over again, this time as she was originally written.
I’ve been thinking about the centennial since around November of last year and unfortunately I’ve been unable to come up with any kind of unique and extrodinary way to commemorate such a historic event. Instead of doing something ground-breaking, I’ll be reading one book a week, starting this Sunday, for the next eight weeks. Essentially, I’m going to take a series that I already know inside, outside and upside down and make it last for eight weeks. Something must be done to celebrate 100 years of Anne, and this is the only way I know how.
If you’re interested in having discussions or simply squeeing with me as I read through the books, find me over at livejournal. I’ll have to friend you, but then we can frolick in the literary White Way of Delight together for eight glorious weeks.
Anyway: Anne of Green Gables has been around for 100 years and I hope people still enjoy it for 1000 more.
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