(no subject)
Nov. 7th, 2010 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crantzBehold: Anne of Green Gables.
This is a classic! It has tons of sequels, and seems to be beloved by quite a few people. I remember liking it as a kid, not that I admitted it. See, it was 'girly' and like most young boys, I was terrified of confessing I liked girl things.
Well, except my My Little Pony collection.
So this is a re-read without shame.
First off, here's the first chapters:
This is a good idea how it starts.
To people who haven't read, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert have decided to adopt a kid. A boy. They want some help around the farm.
Mrs. Rachel Lynde is their neighbour, who explains in detail how adopted kids are gonna set fire to your house, put poison in the well, and god knows what else. Marilla is all 'lol it's okay, we're getting a Canadian kid. No London street Arabs for me!*'
So Matthew, who is terrified of women and hates little girls because he thinks they're laughing at him (a profile that if presented today on a tv show would be a prelude to finding a bunch of bodies in his basement), finds out that it's a girl waiting for him at the station. Best line so far is from the train manager on the discovery of Anne:
Good way of pointing out it's like they're shopping for kids.
I'm nearly done talking, which Anne isn't.
See, Anne talks. Anne talks a lot.
That is an unusually small paragraph of Anne-talk.
Anyway, Matthew likes her a lot and she's just completed delighted with Prince Edward Island and SO glad she's adopted and going to live there.
And Matthew's like 'Sure glad it's Marilla that's gonna tell her we're not adopting her because she's not a boy.'
And so begins my reading of Anne of Green Gables.
*that one's a quote. OH THE PAST
This is a classic! It has tons of sequels, and seems to be beloved by quite a few people. I remember liking it as a kid, not that I admitted it. See, it was 'girly' and like most young boys, I was terrified of confessing I liked girl things.
Well, except my My Little Pony collection.
So this is a re-read without shame.
First off, here's the first chapters:
CHAPTER I. -- Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised
CHAPTER II. -- Matthew Cuthbert is surprised
CHAPTER III. -- Marilla Cuthbert is Surprised
This is a good idea how it starts.
To people who haven't read, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert have decided to adopt a kid. A boy. They want some help around the farm.
Mrs. Rachel Lynde is their neighbour, who explains in detail how adopted kids are gonna set fire to your house, put poison in the well, and god knows what else. Marilla is all 'lol it's okay, we're getting a Canadian kid. No London street Arabs for me!*'
So Matthew, who is terrified of women and hates little girls because he thinks they're laughing at him (a profile that if presented today on a tv show would be a prelude to finding a bunch of bodies in his basement), finds out that it's a girl waiting for him at the station. Best line so far is from the train manager on the discovery of Anne:
"Maybe they were out of boys of the brand you wanted."
Good way of pointing out it's like they're shopping for kids.
I'm nearly done talking, which Anne isn't.
See, Anne talks. Anne talks a lot.
"well, what colour would you call this?"
She twitched one of her long glossy braids over her thin shoulder and held it up before Matthew's eyes. Matthew was not used to deciding on the tints of ladies' tresses, but in this case there couldn't be much doubt.
"It's red, ain't it?" he said.
The girl let the braid drop back with a sigh that seemed to come from her very toes and to exhale forth all the sorrows of the ages.
"Yes, it's red," she said resignedly. "Now you see why I can't be perfectly happy. Nobody could who has red hair. I don't mind the other things so much—the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes. But I CANNOT imagine that red hair away. I do my best. I think to myself, 'Now my hair is a glorious black, black as the raven's wing.' But all the time I KNOW it is just plain red and it breaks my heart. It will be my lifelong sorrow. I read of a girl once in a novel who had a lifelong sorrow but it wasn't red hair. Her hair was pure gold rippling back from her alabaster brow. What is an alabaster brow? I never could find out. Can you tell me?"
"Well now, I'm afraid I can't," said Matthew, who was getting a little dizzy. He felt as he had once felt in his rash youth when another boy had enticed him on the merry-go-round at a picnic.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
That is an unusually small paragraph of Anne-talk.
Anyway, Matthew likes her a lot and she's just completed delighted with Prince Edward Island and SO glad she's adopted and going to live there.
And Matthew's like 'Sure glad it's Marilla that's gonna tell her we're not adopting her because she's not a boy.'
And so begins my reading of Anne of Green Gables.
*that one's a quote. OH THE PAST
no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 04:51 am (UTC)When I left off, Marilla was warming up to her. I was a little 'really, you won't let her sleep in your guest bed because she's an orphan?' though.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 05:04 am (UTC)L.M. Montgomery has some skeevy racial issues, alas also very true to her times, but they don't pop up in the Anne books so far as I recall.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 05:05 am (UTC)I kind of expect them when I read old books. Skeevy racial issues, I mean. That makes it nicer if there aren't any.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 05:16 am (UTC)