Books

Anne of Avonlea (1909)

Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery’s second book and the second to feature Anne Shirley, appeared in September 1909.

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Contents
About Anne of Avonlea
Epigraph
Dedication
Chapters
Editions of Anne of Avonlea
Adaptations of Anne of Avonlea
Reviews of Anne of Avonlea

About Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Avonlea (1909) is the second of eleven books to feature Montgomery’s protagonist Anne Shirley Blythe, preceded by Anne of Green Gables (1908) and followed by Chronicles of Avonlea (1912), Anne of the Island (1915), Anne’s House of Dreams (1917), Rainbow Valley (1919), Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920), Rilla of Ingleside (1921), Anne of Windy Poplars (1936), Anne of Ingleside (1939), and The Blythes Are Quoted (2009).

Although legend suggests that Montgomery wrote Anne of Avonlea as a response to the runaway success of Anne of Green Gables, she actually was asked by her publisher to produce a sequel immediately after her first book was accepted. In fact, the publication of Anne of Avonlea was delayed by a few months because Green Gables continued to sell too well.

Epigraph

“Flowers spring to blossom where she walks
     The careful ways of duty,
Our hard, stiff lines of life with her
     Are flowing curves of beauty.” —Whittier

Dedication

To
my former teacher,
Hattie Gordon Smith,
in grateful remembrance of her
sympathy and encouragement

Chapters

I. An Irate Neighbour

II. Selling in Haste and Repenting at Leisure

III. Mr. Harrison at Home

IV. Different Opinions

V. A Full-fledged Schoolma’am

VI. All Sorts and Conditions of Men . . . and Women

VII. The Pointing of Duty

VIII. Marilla Adopts Twins

IX. A Question of Colour

X. Davy in Search of a Sensation

XI. Facts and Fancies

XII. A Jonah Day

XIII. A Golden Picnic

XIV. A Danger Averted

XV. The Beginning of Vacation

XVI. The Substance of Things Hoped For

XVII. A Chapter of Accidents

XVIII. An Adventure on the Tory Road

XIX. Just a Happy Day

XX. The Way It Often Happens

XXI. Sweet Miss Lavendar

XXII. Odds and Ends

XXIII. Miss Lavendar’s Romance

XXIV. A Prophet in His Own Country

XXV. An Avonlea Scandal

XXVI. Around the Bend

XXVII. An Afternoon at the Stone House

XXVIII. The Prince Comes Back to the Enchanted Palace

XXIX. Poetry and Prose

XXX. A Wedding at the Stone House

Editions of Anne of Avonlea

L.C. Page and Company (Boston) published the first edition of Anne of Avonlea in September 1909. This first edition contains cover art and a full-colour frontispiece illustration by George Gibbs. Page continued to reprint this edition for decades afterward and licensed reprint editions to Grosset and Dunlap (New York).

Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons (London) published the first UK edition of Anne of Avonlea in 1909. George G. Harrap and Company (London) released a new edition in 1925 with a slightly revised text and continued to reprint this edition until the 1980s.

Angus and Robertson (Sydney) published the first of many Australian editions of Anne of Avonlea in 1925, initially through its Cornstalk Publishing Company imprint. It published subsequent editions throughout the twentieth century.

The Ryerson Press published the first Canadian edition of Anne of Avonlea in April 1942, the month of Montgomery’s death. The Ryerson Press reprinted this edition for almost half a century, later in mass-market paperback format, even after the press became McGraw-Hill Ryerson in 1970.

Adaptations of Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Avonlea formed the basis for two television miniseries: BBC’s Anne of Avonlea (1975), which also borrowed from Anne of the Island, and Sullivan Films’ Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (1987), which aired on the Disney Channel as Anne of Avonlea: The Continuing Story of Anne of Green Gables.

Reviews of Anne of Avonlea

Reviews of Anne of Avonlea that have been located so far appeared in periodicals from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Volume 3 of The L.M. Montgomery Reader includes the full text of nineteen reviews of Anne of Avonlea.

“Such delightful stories are much to be desired, both for their clean, wholesome influence and the fact that they are in utter contrast to the many silly, sentimental love stories of the day and the tiresome mystery and problem stories of exceedingly doubtful literary value. The reading public is surfeited with such stories. Let us hope to hear more of Anne in the not too far distant future—to say nothing of Gilbert.”
—Robert A. Turner, The Des Moines News

“The story has no sensational plot, and there is no chronicling of violent emotion. There are, however, quaint fancies and word pictures of country scenes and life; there are humour and dry philosophy, and an abundance of really human interest.”
The Register (Adelaide, Australia)

“Sequels are often disappointing, but not this one. . . . In its old-world flavour and pure sentiment the book breathes a spirit as different from many modern novels as sunlight is from ditchwater.”
The Scotsman (Edinburgh)

“While the present novel may lack in a measure the spontaneity and simplicity of the earlier work, it should, none the less, prove refreshing reading for most of us, young or old.”
Vogue (New York)

“These books are a pleasing chapter in Canadian fiction and should bring the author much kudos and Prince Edward Island many tourists, all intent upon discovering the real and original Green Gables.”
Jean Graham, The Canadian Courier (Toronto)