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The Annotated Anne of Green Gables

The Annotated Anne of Green Gables is a critical edition of Anne of Green Gables edited by Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones, with an introduction by Margaret Anne Doody and supplementary materials by the editors. It was published as a jacketed hardcover by Oxford University Press in February 1997.

From the Dust Jacket

Since its publication in 1908, Anne of Green Gables has been a continuous international bestseller, enjoying successful television adaptations on PBS and The Disney Channel and captivating children and adults alike with the irresistible charms of its remarkable heroine, Anne Shirley. This wildly imaginative, red-headed changeling tries to fit into the narrow confines of Victorian expectations, but her exuberant spirit keeps leaping delightfully beyond the bounds. Indeed, when Maud Montgomery decided to reject the sermonizing formulas of the children’s books of her day, she brought to life a character much closer to Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, and Tom Sawyer—also orphans, like Anne—than to the self-sacrificing, conformist heroines then in demand. In doing so, Montgomery subtly questioned the values of her society—especially the restraints it placed on women—while giving readers all the pleasures of her considerable story-telling gifts.

Now, in this first fully annotated edition of Anne of Green Gables, readers will appreciate more clearly than ever before the scope and depth of this extraordinary novel. Editors Wendy Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary Doody Jones provide a richly illustrated, completely revised text, along with hundreds of notes describing the real-life characters and settings Anne encounters, the autobiographical connections between Anne and Maud Montgomery, and the book’s astonishing range of literary, Biblical, and mythological references. Additional essays offer fascinating background information on such topics as the geography and setting of Prince Edward Island (where Anne takes place); the education, orphanages, music, and literature of Anne’s time; and the horticulture, homemade artifacts, and food preparation that are so prevalent in the story. Margaret Anne Doody supplies a comprehensive introduction which situates the novel in its literary and social contexts, explores those aspects of Montgomery’s life most relevant to the story, examines revisions in the manuscripts, and provides an overall sense of both the impulses that drove Montgomery to write Anne of Green Gables and the larger concerns it dramatizes so compellingly. This edition also contains a chronology of Montgomery’s life, an extensive bibliography, songs and poems that appear in the text, and a selection of original reviews of the book. This wealth of material enables readers to grasp the marvelous multi-layeredness of the novel and to understand more fully its place in both its own time and in ours.

Elegantly and beautifully designed, with generous illustrations from previous editions, photographs of the places the novel inhabits, and explanatory drawings that reproduce the texture of Anne’s world, The Annotated Anne of Green Gables is a major event in the publishing history of one of the world’s most charming stories.

Contents

Preface (vii)

Chronology of the Life of Lucy Maud Montgomery (3–8)

Introduction / Margaret Anne Doody (9–34)

The Annotated Anne of Green Gables (35–396)

Variants between Editions (397–98)

Textual Notes (399–414)

Appendices

The Geography of Anne of Green GablesWendy E. Barry (415–18)

The Settlers of P.E.I.: The Celtic Influence in AnneWendy E. Barry (418–21)

The Exceptional Orphan Anne: Child Care, Orphan Asylums, Farming Out, Indenturing, and Adoption / Mary E. Doody Jones (422–29)

Education on P.E.I. / Mary E. Doody Jones (430–34)

Gardens and Plants / Margaret Anne Doody (434–38)

Homemade Artifacts and Home Life / Margaret Anne Doody (438–43)

Food Preparation, Cookery, and Home Decoration / Margaret Anne Doody (443–52)

Breaking the Silence: Music and Elocution / Mary E. Doody Jones (452–57)

Literary Allusion and Quotation in Anne of Green GablesMargaret Anne Doody and Wendy E. Barry (457–62)

Songs

[Nelly of] The Hazel Dell (464)

Far Above the [Gentle] Daisies (465)

My Home on the Hill (466)

Literary Works and Recitation Pieces

The Battle of Hohenlinden (467)

Edinburgh After Flodden (467–69)

Bingen on the Rhine (470–71)

On the Downfall of Poland (471–72)

The Dog at His Master’s Grave (472)

Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight (473–74)

How Sockery Set a Hen (474–75)

Mary, Queen of Scots (475–77)

The Society for the Suppression of Gossip (477–80)

The Fairy Queen (480)

Mars La Tour, or, The Maiden’s Vow (481–82)

Book Reviews (483–89)

Bibliography (490–92)

Acknowledgments (493–94)

Illustration Credits (495–96)

Reviews

Reviews by Ruth P. Feingold, Joanne Findon, Ann Flowers, Barbara Carman Garner, Jennifer H. Litster, Patricia Morley, and Mary Henley Rubio.

Metadata

Editors: Wendy E. Barry, Margaret Anne Doody, and Mary E. Doody Jones
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 1997
Format: Jacketed hardcover
Pagination: vii + 496 pp.
ISBN:0-19-510428-5


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