Anne of Green Gables x Ullala Pajamas Special Collaboration

I came across this fun collaboration between Nippon Animation's Anne of Green Gables with Ullala Pajamas. Ullala Pajamas makes old-fashioned, girlish chemises, night dresses, and pajama sets, and they designed a special set of clothes inspired by Anne of Green Gables.

I love all the product shots. Don't you?

They also remind me of the outfits from Dickinson, the Apple TV+ streaming series on Emily Dickinson starring Hailee Steinfeld. I love the fashion from the Dickinson time period too.

You can shop for outfits from the Anne of Green Gables x Ullala Pajamas collaboration below:

Created March 29, 2021.
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Gilbert Blythe and Anne Shirley Silhouette Prints by Sealhouette

How lovely is this set of silhouette prints of Gilbert Blythe and Anne Shirley? They're by Sealhouette and available on Etsy. Along with the version shown above with Anne and Gilbert's names, there are versions available with quotes by the two characters. Check out the artist's store for more beautiful silhouette prints from literature, TV, and film.

Created March 26, 2021.
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She was sitting there...

"She was sitting there waiting for something or somebody and, since sitting and waiting was the only thing to do just then, she sat and waited with all her might and main."

-L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables

Read more quotes by L.M. Montgomery.

Image credit:
Anne of Green Gables image © Sullivan Entertainment

Purchase and read Anne of Green Gables:



Created March 25, 2021. Last updated April 19, 2024.
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L.M. Montgomery's Poetry

L.M. Montgomery is better known for her novels than her poetry though she published approximately 500 poems during her lifetime. In 1916, Montgomery published a volume of poetry entitled The Watchman and Other Poems. The majority of L.M. Montgomery's poems are devoted to nature, particularly the landscape of Prince Edward Island, and rural life on the sea shore. Montgomery's love of poetry is reflected in many of her novels where characters quote poetry or recite poems and ballads. Just one example is Anne Shirley reciting and reenacting Alfred Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" in Anne of Green Gables.

Purchase and read The Watchman and Other Poems and The Poetry Of Lucy Maud Montgomery:



Created February 16, 2002. Re-posted online March 25, 2021. Last updated March 25, 2021.
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Publication Sequence of the Anne of Green Gables Series

It might surprise you that L.M. Montgomery did not write the eight novels of the Anne of Green Gables series in the order we generally read them today.

Introducing Anne Shirley

L.M. Montgomery introduced Anne Shirley to the world when she published Anne of Green Gables in 1908. Its sequel Anne of Avonlea followed shortly thereafter in 1909. After completing these first two novels about Anne Shirley, Montgomery focused on publishing other novels and short story collections before revisiting Anne.

Anne Shirley Grows Up

Between 1915 and 1921, L.M. Montgomery wrote another four books about Anne Shirley and Anne's children. Anne of the Island (1915) tells the story of Anne's college years, Anne’s House of Dreams (1917) begins with Anne's wedding and describes the early years of Anne's marriage to Gilbert Blythe, Rainbow Valley (1919) tells the stories of Anne Blythe's young children, and Rilla of Ingleside (1921) focuses on Anne Blythe's youngest daughter Rilla Blythe.

Revisiting Anne Shirley

Following a long gap of 15 years, L.M. Montgomery revisited a younger version of Anne Shirley and wrote about her years as a high school principal in Anne of Windy Poplars (1936). Today, this novel is considered Book 4 of the Anne of Green Gables series if we read the novels in the chronological order of Anne’s life. The storyline of Anne of Windy Poplars falls between Anne of the Island (1915) and Anne’s House of Dreams (1917).

Returning to Anne

Thirty-one years after publishing Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery wrote Anne of Ingleside in 1939. According to the timeline of Anne’s life, Anne of Ingleside is considered Book 6. Its storyline falls between Anne’s House of Dreams (1917) and Rainbow Valley (1919), both of which were written 20 years earlier.

What order were the Anne of Green Gables books published in?

In summary, here is the publication sequence of the Anne of Green Gables novels. The order we generally read the books in today is listed to the right.

Publication Sequence	Chronology of Anne's Life
1) Anne of Green Gables (1908)	Book 1
2) Anne of Avonlea (1909)	Book 2
3) Anne of the Island (1915)	Book 3
4) Anne's House of Dreams (1917)	Book 5
5) Rainbow Valley (1919)	Book 7
6) Rilla of Ingleside (1921)	Book 8
7) Anne of Windy Poplars (1936)	Book 4
8) Anne of Ingleside (1939)	Book 6

Have you ever read the books in order by their publication dates, or have you always read the novels in the chronological order of Anne Shirley’s life? What are your thoughts on reading the novels of the Anne of Green Gables series in different orders?

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Created September 1, 1999. Re-posted online March 15, 2021. Last updated April 28, 2022.
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Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a province located in the Gulf of St Lawrence in Eastern Canada. The island's scenery is beautiful with a striking contrast between the red roads and cliffs, deep blue water, and rich green landscape. In 1874, L.M. Montgomery was born in Clifton, PEI, and she used the island as the geographical location for many of her stories. Today, PEI is recognized around the world as the setting of L.M. Montgomery's novel Anne of Green Gables (1908).

Learn more about Prince Edward Island:



Created March 13, 2021.
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Who is Anne Shirley?

Anne Shirley is a character first introduced to the world in the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. When we first meet Anne, she is an eleven-year-old girl with a vivid imagination, talkative disposition, and bewitching personality.

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are surprised by Anne's arrival in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. The Cuthbert siblings had planned to adopt a young boy to help Matthew with the farm at Green Gables, but mistakenly they are sent a girl. Fortunately, Anne wins both Matthew and Marilla over, and the Cuthberts adopt Anne giving her a home at Green Gables.

Purchase and read Anne of Green Gables:



Created July 15, 1999. Re-posted online March 8, 2021. Last updated March 8, 2021.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Anne of Green Gables Anime Doll by Takara Tomy

On July 31, 2016, Takara Tomy Toys is releasing a limited and exclusive Anne of Green Gables doll based on the 1979 anime series by Nippon Animation. The beautiful anime, also known as Akage no An, was directed by Isao Takahata as part of the World Masterpiece Theater series. The Anne of Green Gables doll was designed to celebrate 40 years of Nippon Animation. Read more about the Takara Tomy Toy release here.

The sweet Anne Shirley doll is part of the "Rikaraizu" series, which faithfully represents anime characters. The Anne of Green Gables doll is approximately 23 cm tall and has two outfits (shown below):


Anne's first outfit is the brown wincey dress she arrived at Green Gables wearing. The second outfit is the beautiful dress with puffed sleeves that Matthew Cuthbert gives Anne for Christmas. The doll can be posed on its own stand, and it comes with a hat, bag, shoes, and other accessories.

Created July 31, 2016. Re-posted online March 7, 2023. Last updated January 20, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Google Doodle Celebrates Lucy Maud Montgomery on her 141st Birthday

Today's Google Doodle celebrates L.M. Montgomery's 141st birthday with three animated doodles by Olivia When featuring scenes from Montgomery's beloved story Anne of Green Gables.

In one Google Doodle, Anne Shirley and Diana Barry are laying in a field of field of flowers. Anne is writing, while Diana is reading. The pair are wearing flower crowns in their hair.

In a second Google Doodle, Anne Shirley turns green when she tastes the layered cake she prepared for Mrs. Allen's visit to the Cuthbert home. Anne accidentally flavored her cake with anodyne liniment, thinking it was vanilla. Marilla had poured her liniment into an old vanilla bottle and hadn't relabeled the bottle.



A third Google Doodle pictures show scenes on the Lake of Shining Waters, with Anne walking to school, Anne and Diana running together, and Gilbert Blythe saving Anne after she played Elaine, in the chapter titled, "An Unfortunate Lily Maid."



Google posted the following info about the L.M. Montgomery Google Doodles:

Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote her first novel in 1905. It was rejected by every single publishing house that received it. A few years later, Montgomery tried shopping it again and succeeded. Her story about the adventures of a red-headed girl in Prince Edward Island became a smash hit. That novel ultimately became one of Canada’s most all-time popular books, being translated into around 20 languages and selling more than 50 million copies to date. Anne of Green Gables and its many sequels made Montgomery a wildly successful author and turned PEI into a destination for the book’s thousands of fans.

One of Canada’s most celebrated writers, Montgomery also wrote hundreds of poems and short stories as well as a number of novels apart from the Anne series. She was the first Canadian woman to be made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts and was also appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Today, on what would have been her 141st birthday, we salute Lucy Maud Montgomery with a Doodle that pays tribute to her most iconic book.

Doodler Olivia When, herself an Anne of Green Gables fan, wanted to honor Montgomery by illustrating several scenes from the beloved novel, including a particularly memorable one in which Anne mistakenly bakes a cake with liniment (a medicated oil) instead of vanilla. Here’s to Anne with an “e” Shirley and her revered creator, Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Created November 30, 2015. Re-posted online September 4, 2023. Last updated September 4, 2023.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Christina Hendricks on Anne of Green Gables

I love finding mentions of Anne Shirley and L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables in interviews. Here’s my most recent find.

Christina Hendricks is an actress and model who stars as Joan Holloway on the television series Mad Men. The show is a period drama about a fictional advertising agency set in the 1960s. Christina Hendricks’s talent and striking beauty have made Joan Holloway a favorite on the show. In May of this year, in a poll of female readers, Hendricks was named Esquire’s sexist woman of the year.

This July, prior to the debut of the fourth season of Mad Men, Leslie Gornstein interviewed Christina Hendricks for the Los Angeles Times Magazine. It was a great interview, in which Gornstein asked Hendricks about Joan and Mad Men, her playing the accordion, her seeing Tom Waits perform and once dining with him and his wife, her three-episode role on Firefly, and her appearances in several music videos. She also spoke about finding red carpet gowns, dressing in retro costumes, and the Joan Holloway Barbie doll.

Best of all (for me, at least), Leslie Gornstein asked Christina Hendricks about how she began dying her hair red:

You’ve said you started dying your blond hair red at age 10. How exactly did you sell that choice to your folks?
They did it to me! I was obsessed with the Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables. I decided I was Anne of Green Gables. There was something that spoke to me about her, and I wanted to have her beautiful red hair. So my mother said, “Let’s just go to the drugstore and get one of those cover-the-gray rinses!” My hair was very blond at the time, but it went carrot red. And I was over the moon. I went to school the next day and felt like myself. And then I went back [to that color] over and over again. What a cool mom, right?

I think we can all agree that Christina Hendricks’s Mom was super cool for supporting her daughter’s obsession with Anne of Green Gables. And I adore Christina Hendricks’s red hair.

Reference:
Gornstein, Leslie. (2010, July) Past Perfect Christina Hendricks. Los Angeles Times Magazine. Originally retrieved from: https://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/07/christina-hendricks.html (presently, dead link). Archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20101227122133/https://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/07/christina-hendricks.html

Image credits:
Left: Photograph of Christina Hendricks by Joshua Jordan with styling by Hayley Atkin from "Past Perfect Christina Hendricks", Los Angeles Times Magazine, published July 2010.
Right: Screen capture of Megan Follows as Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel © Sullivan Entertainment.

Created July 6, 2010.  Re-posted online October 8, 2022. Last updated September 4, 2023.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Looking for Anne (2009)

Looking for Anne (2009) is a film that tells an original story that was inspired by L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. The contemporary tale follows the journey of Anri, a seventeen-year-old Japanese woman, who visits Prince Edward Island for three weeks. Anri arrives in Canada on a personal quest to search for her recently deceased grandmother's first love. The man was a Canadian soldier that her grandmother met at the end of World War II, and he gave her a copy of Anne of Green Gables. Beyond this, all Anri knows is that the man lived near a lighthouse.

The press kit for the film describes it as follows:

"Looking for Anne" presents an entirely original story inspired by the book "Anne of Green Gables" of the Canadian writer, Lucy Maud Montgomery. It tells how this single book, and the friendships that build around it, can change the life of people beyond time and space...

Looking for Anne starred Honoka Ishibashi as Anri and was directed by Takako Miyahira. The film's cast also included Daniel Pilon, Rosanna Zanbon, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Johnny Sa, Mahiru Konno, Ai Takabe and Tarek Ghader. The film is 105 minutes in length, and it was produced by Zuno Films and was distributed by Filmoption International Inc.

Director Takako Miyahira first read Anne of Green Gables as an adult. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Miyahira states, "The first time I read the book, I thought, Why did I miss this precious book? I should have read it earlier!" She felt compelled to make a film about the power of the Anne of Green Gables. Miyahira goes on to say, "Now in the world, people are confused with so many values about happiness or aiming for success. Anne of Green Gables teaches how to find happiness,"

In 2009, Looking for Anne received awards for Best Film and Best Director at the Singapore Asian First Film Festival. It had a wide theatrical run in Japan.


References:
CBC News. (2009, December 7). Anne film wins at Asian festival. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/anne-film-wins-at-asian-festival-1.817665

Dixon, Guy. (2010, December 1). Anne of Green Gables' eternal life in Japan. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/anne-of-green-gables-eternal-life-in-japan/article1316455/

Looking for Anne Press Kit (2009). Retrieved from: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bb117fe8dfc8ced93a929ee/t/5c9106a8eb39312d6e39b65d/1553008311339/Looking+for+Anne+-+Press+Kit+ENG.pdf

Image credit:
Official film poster for Looking for Anne © Filmoption International Inc.

Official Websites:
Looking for Anne (Filmoption International Inc.)
Looking for Anne Trailer

Created April 19, 2009. Last updated April 26, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Anne of Galactic Gables by Tom McHenry

Have you ever wondered what Anne Shirley would be like if she traveled to outer space? Well, comic and zine creator Tom McHenry has imagined it out for you.

In McHenry's one-off webcomic, Anne and Matthew Cuthbert are traveling through space. Anne is ashamed to be wearing a "horrid old wincey" spacesuit. Then she lightens up, smiling and asking Matthew about the blue planet they arrived at. When Matthew explains that it's called Earth, Anne replies, "They shouldn't call it 'Earth.' There's no meaning in a name like that. They should call it 'The Azure Orb of Delight.'"

McHenry's sci-fi comic based on Anne of Green Gables was featured in an article called, "When Classic Literature Gets Updated" by Graeme McMillan at io9.com. McMillan writes, "Move over, Pride and Prejudice And Zombies, a new updating of classic literature has come along to win your heart... Or at least make you laugh. Yes, it's Anne of Green Gables... in space."

On his livejournal, McHenry explains his inspiration: "Sara and I have been reading the original Anne novels (not my ill-fated science fiction sequels including Anne of Lavaworld and Rilla of Planetside) aloud before bed."

At io9, McMillan goes on to say, "The strip was just one of McHenry's "Future and Space Things" themed week of comics, alongside Space Yuppies. More proof that more people should be forced to come up with science fiction when they least expect it." I heartily agree. I enjoyed reading this fantastic and fun comic.

Created February 16, 2009. Re-posted online April 17, 2024. Last updated April 17, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com