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Anne of Green Gables: Everyone's Favorite Carrot Top

© Susan Jensen

My friend and I have been on a quest for a couple of years now. We have spent precious shopping hours scouring lingerie stores for the perfect white nightgown. We aren't talking anything skimpy, lacy, or sexy, we're talking an old-fashioned, Anne of Green Gables-inspired nightgown. You may ask why we are on such a journey. The answer is simple: my friend is obsessed with Anne of Green Gables. She has all of the Anne books, the Sullivan movie, the film's soundtrack, and a vast memory from whence she can draw up Anne quotes to fit every occasion. When we roomed together, we spent many hours in our living room laughing at Anne's antics, encouraging Gilbert Blythe, and sobbing when sweet Matthew Cuthbert dies. Now, you may think that we are just sappy girls (that's my husband's opinion), but there is something about L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables that charms and moves readers.

Until a couple of years ago, I strongly believed that Anne of Green Gables was a story that only women loved. When I was a sophomore in college, I took a creative writing class. To foster trust within the classroom, our teacher assigned us to bring to class a piece of literature which we were ashamed to admit that we liked. One by one, we divulged our shameful tastes. When it was our male teacher's turn, he blushed, and pulled out a dog-eared copy of Anne of Green Gables. A male student in the back excitedly held up a tattered copy of the same book, and we all laughed at these grown men loving Anne of Green Gables. This proved to me that Anne of Green Gables is a book for everyone.

The loveable Anne Shirley is hands-down what makes the book great. Her wild imagination and hopeless temper remind us of what it was like to be a child. As she grows, her romance with Gilbert Blythe blossoms. What began as a perfect love/hate relationship begins to totter and lean toward the former. Gilbert represents the perfect man: handsome, gentle, adoring. No wonder he makes women everywhere swoon. The climax, which finally brings Anne and Gilbert together, is the perfect fairy tale ending.

The movie, created by Sullivan, brings Montgomery's story alive. In fact, it is quite probable that more people are familiar with the movie than the book. Sullivan's film remains very true to Montgomery's novel, and is thus a very satisfactory adaptation.

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