- Hardcover: 312 pages
- Publisher: Key Porter Books; 1st edition (April 1 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1552639851
- ISBN-13: 978-1552639856
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 16.2 x 3.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 640 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#265,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #97 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian > History & Criticism
- #98 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Canadian
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
By any standards, Lucy Maud Montgomery?s Anne of Green Gables is a stunning success. Published in 1908 (and not once out of print), Anne has sold more than 50 million copies, been translated into more than 17 languages (including Braille), and become the focus of international conferences devoted to its interpretation. Anne has remained, as Matthew sings in the musical, ?forever young,? no small feat for the spunky, in-your-face redhead who, in 2008, celebrates her 100th birthday!
But why Anne? How does Montgomery`s classic work pull so many international readers into the vortex of Anne`s freckled face and carrotty braids? How does this little book create such enduring interest around the world? The answer is far more intriguing than any story even Anne could have imagined. In her journal, Maud`s quick pen would froth up the tiniest details of her life into dramatic events, but that same pen never revealed a single word about Anne. As a result, the novel?s secrets have remained sealed for over a century.
Looking for Anne is the untold story of a literary classic and a writer who found inspiration in many places including the popular images of the era, such as beauty icons, fashion plates, and advertisements; a writer who quietly quarried her material from American mass market periodicals; who consciously imitated formula fiction to create marketable stories for juvenile periodicals, religious newspapers, and glamorous women?s magazines?and who ultimately, in the storm that brewed up the novel, also transcended these influences to create a twentieth-century literary classic that would conquer the world.
Blending biography with cultural history, penetrating and uncensored, this is the definitive book on Anne of Green Gables. Looking for Anne captures both the spirit of Marilla?s critical probing for ?bald facts? and Anne?s belief in the infinite power of the imagination. It is a must-read for anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of Anne with an ?e.?
Praise for Looking for Anne:
Looking for Anne takes a bold new look at Anne of Green Gables. If you have loved Anne of Green Gables and wonder how she came about, I recommend that you read Irene Gammel?s book. ? Kate Macdonald Butler (Lucy Maud Montgomery?s granddaughter)
Visit the Looking for Anne webpage by clicking here
About the Author
IRENE GAMMEL is the author and editor of eight books including Baroness Elsa-A Cultural Biography (voted one of the top 25 books of 2002 by New York's Village Voice) and several scholarly books of essays, including Making Avonlea (PEI Heritage Award) and The Intimate Life of L. M. Montgomery. She is the co-curator of the exhibit Anne of Green Gables: A Canadian Icon at 100 in venues in Ottawa,Toronto,Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Prince Edward Island. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Interior of a Writer's Life,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic (Hardcover)
Gammel's recent study on how and why Lucy Maud Montgomery crafted "The Anne of Green Gables" series is both revealing and entertaining. Having now read Gammel's work, I am now challenged to read the entire series in order to discover how the character Anne continues down the road of trying to be self-assertive while living with the scars of emotional insecurity. I am not in the least bit surprised to learn that these stories are not so much autobiographical as they are Montgomery's desire to share the pain and anxiety of growing up as an orphan in an often unfriendly and secretive adult world. Gammel does a capable job in describing how Montgomery's mind as an adept story teller worked to shape the many social obstacles she felt compelled to overcome like rejection, inadequacy, obscurity, and sorrow. What really marks this woman's literary career was her ability to take the liberty of including a lot of her own private life at Cavendish in a creation of new and resurrected Anne of Green Gables. It was only by remaking herself in the form of Anne could she share with the world around her the deep-seated emotional unhappiness of needing to be wanted. While Anne is obviously a fictional person, her complex emotions invariably stem from Montgomery's childhood experiences as a lonely and neglected child who could never fathom the loss of her mother and why she was forced to live with her grandparents at Cavendish. To survive, she had to challenge authority, create an imaginary world in which to escape from all that is alienating and hostile, and learn to gradually trust those who want to befriend her. Gammel has given me enough information to be able to judge the depth of Lucy's character as portayed in the life of Anne's. But this in no way makes it Montgomery's exclusive story. Based on Gammel's research of Montgomery's diaries, Lucy took enormous pains to involve the whole community of Cavendish - its secrets, its petty squabbles, its beautiful rustic surroundings, and its quirks - in the fashioning of a 'better story' that ends the way any romantic of the early twentieth century would have wanted it: happily ever after. While Anne is the key to understanding the story, Gammel challenges the reader to go out and find out how she truly lines up with the life of her creator, Lucy M. Montgomery. The book is well-worth the read for those who are prepared to come to grips with the often less-than-flattering account of a Canadian literary icon.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome!,
By Madeline Jones (Toronto) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic (Hardcover)
The mystery behind Anne of Green Gables is awesome. It's like a detective story. I loved the story of Evelyn's picture and how it inspired the face for Anne, and also the story of Maud and Frede and the bosom friends. I also loved the movies and know the actress Meghan Follows and always thought of her as Anne.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Why?,
By a reader (Toronto, Ontario) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic (Hardcover)
It's not that Ms. Gammel has written a bad book, but as I'm reading I just keep wondering why she wrote it and why I'm bothering to read it? It's well researched and cites just about everybody in the bibliography but when it comes down to it, when it's not quoting LM Montgomey's journals or articles, the book's pure speculation and it's just not that interesting. The exhibit Ms. Gammel is touring across Canada sums up what she's trying to say in the book in a much more effective, concise (and time efficient) way.
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