Anne of the Island and Tales of Avonlea is an omnibus edition of Anne of the Island, Chronicles of Avonlea, and Further Chronicles of Avonlea that was published as a jacketed hardcover by Avenel Books (later reprinted by Gramercy Books) in 1991. It followed two earlier omnibus volumes by the same publisher: Anne of Green Gables: Three Volumes in One (1986) and Days of Dreams and Laughter: The Story Girl and Other Tales (1990).
{ Chronicles of Avonlea } { Chronicles of Avonlea: Editions } { Anne of the Island } { Anne of the Island: Editions } { Further Chronicles of Avonlea } { Further Chronicles of Avonlea: Editions } { Random House } { Editions: 1990–1999 }
Cover of Anne of the Island and Tales of Avonlea, an omnibus volume published by Avenel Books (later reprinted by Gramercy Books) in 1991. The cover image is a still photograph of a scene from Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, a miniseries released in 1987, featuring Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe and Megan Follows as Anne Shirley.
Author
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Title
Anne of the Island and Tales of Avonlea
Contributors
Language
English
Country
United States of America
Publisher Location
New York
Publisher
Avenel Books/Gramercy Books, imprints of Random House
Publication Date
Format
Print, jacketed hardcover, 6” x 9”, xviii + 541 pp.
Illustrator
George Gibbs
Front Cover Copy
Anne of Green Gables—the Sequel[,] the Kevin Sullivan television production is based on stories by L.M. Montgomery
Dust Jacket Flap Copy
This collection includes Lucy Maud Montgomery’s lovely novel Anne of the Island and two delightful anthologies of stories about the fictional town of Avonlea and the wonderful people who live there. The locale is Prince Edward Island, a setting the author knew well and loved, and one that will be familiar to anyone who has read her ever-popular Anne of Green Gables.
“We have come to a parting of the ways,” says Anne Shirley to her best friend, Diana, as she prepares for college, and, with mingled reluctance and anticipation, sets out on the road to womanhood. In Anne of the Island, Anne begins a journey from adolescence to maturity. Leaving her home in Avonlea, the proud girl we met in Anne of Green Gables gradually blossoms into a fine young woman.
Anne of the Island tells of Anne’s four years at Redmond College, a time of new friendships and a time when she must make her own choices about love and separate her infatuation with one suitor from the quiet, abiding love she finds with another. During these years, too, she learns of changes in the lives of her friends and neighbors in Avonlea and is filled with feelings of excitement as well as a certain sadness, especially when she hears of the tragic destiny of Ruby Gillis, whom she has known since childhood. But sadness is often tempered by joy and happiness, and Anne’s college years are filled with romance and discovery, courtship and proposals. And, finally, there is the bittersweet day when she receives her college diploma, a day that marks, as Anne says, the end of “an epoch.”
In an exhilarating portrait of the people of that community, Chronicles of Avonlea details life in a small town. In the amusing and poignant “The Hurrying of Ludovic,” a fifteen-year courtship is put to the test by crafty planning and a retiring interloper. There is an hilarious pairing in “The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham’s” when an unlikely couple are shut in together and through sheer stubbornness finally knock some sense into one another.
Further Chronicles of Avonlea extends the lively picture of this Canadian island town. Included are such witty tales as “The Materializing of Cecil,” in which a local spinster impresses acquaintances with an anecdote about a beau from an imagined past, only to have a handsome man of the same name appear in town.
Anne of the Island and Tales of Avonlea is an outstanding collection that not only illuminates Anne’s maturing years, but also explores the rich and colorful tapestry of Avonlea, a small town full of delightful people imbued with insight, style, wit, foolishness, and dreams. It is a book brimming with romance, pleasure, and old-fashioned inspiration.
Lucy Maud Montgomery published her first story when she was twenty-one years old. She achieved fame early in the twentieth century with the publication of Anne of Green Gables, and went on to write eight novels about Anne and her family, often drawing upon her own experiences.
Contents
(i) [Half-Title Page]
(ii) [Blank Page]
(iii) [Title Page]
(iv) [Copyright Page]
(v–vi) Contents
(vii–xii) Introduction / Ellen S. Shapiro
(xiii–xiv) About the Author
(xv) Notes on the Art and the Text / Claire Booss
(xvi) [Blank Page]
(xvii) [Half-Title Page]
(xviii) [Blank Page]
(1) Anne of the Island [Title Page]
(2) [Dedication]
(3–207) [Anne of the Island, chapters 1–40]
(208) [Blank Page]
(209) Chronicles of Avonlea [Title Page]
(210) [Dedication]
(211–386) [Chronicles of Avonlea, chapters 1–12]
(387) Further Chronicles of Avonlea [Title Page]
(388) [Blank Page]
(389–573) [Further Chronicles of Avonlea, chapters 1–15]
ISBN
0-517-0513703705-X
Notes
Dedications to Anne of the Island and Chronicles of Avonlea included; epigraphs to those two books omitted. (Further Chronicles has neither a dedication nor an epigraph). The table of contents lists the individual stories in Chronicles and Further Chronicles but does not list the chapters in Anne of the Island.
Sources
A copy of the fifth printing (undated) published by Gramercy Books is in the site owner’s personal collection; the scanned cover above is of that copy. Thanks to Rosemary Park for providing me with additional information about these editions.