One of literature’s most famous foster children/adoptees is Anne Shirley, of Green Gables, Avonlea, Prince Edward Island…
Many special editions of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s original series are being released this year in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first novel’s publication. This year brings something new: a “prequel” of vastly higher quality than the average prequel or sequel.
The first original book begins with the adolescent Anne Shirley arriving at the farm of Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. This brother and sister, lifelong bachelor and spinster, have requested a boy from an orphanage to help on the farm. Yet, observing Anne’s cheerfulness even amid her frank descriptions of a childhood of foster homes where she cared for multiple sets of twin babies and a stint at a dreaded orphanage, the Cuthberts keep her.
This new book, Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson, shows us the people and places of Anne’s first twelve years, which we have only caught brief glimpses of through Anne’s occasional commentary to the Cuthberts.
We get a window into the gentle spirits of Anne’s parents, and the love she was given her first few months before her parents died in an influenza outbreak. We also learn how she lives with two foster families, one with an alcoholic father and one with a mentally ill mother, in both of which she is used chiefly as laundress and nursemaid.
(Anne’s story has some similarities with those of the Orphan Train Children, who were sent from the crowded cities into the American West to be adopted by farmers, some of whom wanted children and most of whom wanted help.)
Anne nonetheless develops relationships with teachers, neighbors and the children, and nourishing her spirit with her own hope and imagination.
Anne leaves both of these foster homes when the foster father dies. She has to listen to relatives and townspeople discuss who will take which children, and realize that no one wants her. The second time, she has to go to the orphan asylum, which she has dreaded all her life.
Of course the book feels, in some intangible but barely perceptible way, different from L.M. Montgomery’s original novels. But Wilson has stayed remarkably true to the little “facts” of Anne’s background as revealed in the original, and more remarkably, has managed to capture Anne’s spirit. Anne is a child who feels things deeply. She experiences great ups and downs at losing people she has come to love and trust. The story talks about her reluctance to let anyone get close to her at the orphanage, and about her despair that anyone will adopt her. Yet Anne also has an irrepressible exuberance, which Wilson nicely captures.
Although modern-day foster children may not relate to the tales of orphanages in the Canada of 100 years ago, they will recognize many of Anne’s emotions and be inspired by her resilience. Perhaps this will also be a chance for the generations of parents and grandparents who grew up reading the original eight books to discover something new together.
Please see these related blogs:
Anne of Green Gables — L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables: An Introduction to a Fantastic Literary Role Model
Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars – L.M. Montgomery