Anne of Green Gables Book Series

I didn't know about Anne of Green Gables or the book series until I watched the Netflix series, Anne With An E. Oh, how I came to adore Anne. Then, I wanted to read the books and continue Anne's life in my head. It's been a delight. 

I've picked out some excerpts and lines, some of which are my favourites, some that resonated with me, and some that reminded me of things. 

1. Anne of Green Gables

Orphan Anne Shirley is mistakenly sent to live with siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert in Avonlea. With her vivid imagination, talkative nature, and warm heart, Anne slowly wins over the community while learning lessons about friendship, mistakes, and belonging.

~For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement.

~"Dear old world, you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you."

2. Anne of Avonlea

Now a teenager and teacher at Avonlea school, Anne balances teaching responsibilities, village adventures, and helping raise mischievous twins.

~Far and wide was a white carpet, knee deep, of hailstones; drifts of them were heaped up under the eaves and on the steps. When, three or four days later, those hailstones melted, the havoc they had wrought was plainly seen, for every green growing thing in the field or garden was cut off. Not only was every blossom stripped from the apple trees but great boughs and branches were wrenched away. (Reading this reminded me of a day in May 2024 when something like this happened. There's a picture of us holding the hailstones in our hands, haha.)

3. Anne of the Island

Anne leaves Avonlea to attend college. She experiences independence, deep friendships, heartbreak, and self-discovery. During this time, she begins to understand her feelings about love and her long friendship with a certain someone.

~home and I are such good friends

~What a comfort one familiar face is in a howling wilderness of strangers!

~Honey, you couldn't imagine me being a poor man's wife, could you?

~new experiences are broadening

~Exaggeration is merely a flight of poetic fancy.

~The world needs people like me, Anne, just to amuse it. It would be a terrible place if everybody were intellectual and serious and in deep, deadly earnest. MY mission is, as Josiah Allen says, 'to charm and allure.'

~"But I don't call her 'mother' just by itself," he explained to Anne. "You see, that name belongs just to my own little mother, and I can't give it to any one else.

~What is the use of living after all, Anne?

~I begin to feel that life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.

~Humor is the spiciest condiment in the feast of existence. Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them, joke over your troubles but gather strength from them, make a jest of your difficulties but overcome them.

~the sum and substance is that you can learn—if you've got natural gumption enough—in four years at college what it would take about twenty years of living to teach you. Well, that justifies higher education in my opinion. It's a matter I was always dubious about before.

~She deserves the good things of life.

~Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.

4. Anne of Windy Poplars

While waiting to marry, Anne works as a school principal in Summerside. She faces social challenges, rivalries, and new friendships. She shares her experiences through letters that show her growing emotional maturity and optimism. I love letters. This is my favourite in the series.

~A girl would be better than a boy any time.

~Old age! Can we ever be old, Gilbert? It seems impossible.

~I love to sit there and listen to the silence of the grove.

~The silence of the woods...of the shore...of the meadows...of the night...of the summer afternoon.

~It's wonderful to think we're young and have our whole lives before us...together...isn't it?

~I was alone but not lonely.

~Anne, sitting at her tower window one late November evening, with her pen at her lip and dreams in her eyes, looked out on a twilight world and suddenly thought she would like a walk to the old graveyard.

~People do say such funny things, don't they?

~You've no idea what interesting things I've found in old diaries...little bits of real life that make the old pioneers live again.

~don't let's ever grow too old and wise...no, not too old and silly for fairyland.

~Nobody is ever too old to dream. And dreams never grow old.

~I think it is just misunderstanding that makes most of the trouble in the world.

~the better-dressed and better-looking you are the more money... or promise of it... you'll get, if it's the men you have to tackle.

~None of us can live without some kind of companionship.

~Open your doors to life...and life will come in.

~you seem to live in a little enchanted circle of beauty and romance. 'I wonder what delightful discovery I'll make today'... that seems to be your attitude to life, Anne.

~Oh, does life ever frighten you, Anne, with its blankness...its swarms of cold, uninteresting people?

~Her complexion was radiant after her long walk in the keen air and color made all the difference in the world to her.

~Life already seemed warmer.

~Isn't it fascinating to look at the blank pages and wonder what will be written on them?

~her attitude seemed to be, 'These people bore me. I expect I bore them and I hope I do.'

~if we were all beauties who would do the work?

~Life owes me something more than it has paid me and I'm going out to collect it

~The very sky was glad.

~I've been building dream houses all my life and now one of them is going to come true.

~For a week after I get back to Green Gables I'm going to be lazy... do absolutely nothing but run free in a green world of summer loveliness.

~The fortunate possessor of a cheerful spirit and a natural taste for the gaieties of youth, you have never surrendered yourself to the vain pleasures of the giddy and fickle crowd.

5. Anne's House of Dreams

Anne and (‾◡◝) begin married life in their dream seaside home. Anne forms meaningful friendships and faces both deep joy and heartbreaking loss, marking a more emotional and reflective stage of her life.

~Married life has its ups and downs, of course. You mustn't expect that everything will always go smoothly. But I can assure you, Anne, that it's a happy life, when you're married to the right man.

~I love pretty things.

~a house was not a real home until it had been consecrated by a birth, a wedding and a death.

~When I left you at your gate that night and walked home I was the happiest boy in the world.

~high-souled, simple-minded old man, with eternal youth in his eyes and heart.

~the moon looking down at me through the apple boughs, just like an old friend. I was comforted right off.

~golden mists and purple hazes

~I have had a real placid, comfortable life, dearie, and its just because I never cared a cent what the men thought.

~It's the worst kind of cruelty - the thoughtless kind.

~what He gave you your brains for if it wasn't to think

~beauty and spirit and pride and cleverness

~The mystery of the sea, the fascination of far lands, the lure of adventure, the laughter of the world

~It takes all kinds of people to make a world.

6. Anne of Ingleside

Now a mother of six, Anne focuses on family life. Six, really! Now, the story follows her children’s adventures and struggles. No hate to this storyline, but I'm starting to lose interest.

7. Rainbow Valley

The story shifts focus mainly to Anne’s children and the neighbouring Meredith children. Through childhood adventures and mischief, the book explores innocence, family bonds, and community life.

There are more but I guess I'm done. It's been nice though. I enjoyed most of the books.🫶🏻