Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
I grew up with Anne of Green Gables. As a pre-teen I yearned for my own bosom friend like Diana, I wanted to taste raspberry cordial (although not get sick), I wanted to walk through a forest and quote poetry. I even wanted red hair, although Anne with an E would say that hers was the bane of her existence. More than once I would find myself in the depths of despair and I can remember thinking at those times that yes, my life was a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.
So to say that I was cautious as I approached this book would be an understatement. Honestly, it was the cover that tipped the scale for me, I couldn’t resist it. It’s a beautiful, fantastic cover and so tastefully done I decided to give the story a shot.
My first impression was.. how dreary. I mean, Anne’s life before Green Gables was not fun and games so I wasn’t surprised by how bleak the story is – on the surface. But then I started to pay attention. Budge Wilson did a fantastic job of bringing out the bright spots, a teacher here, the touch of a hand to Anne’s shoulder in encouragement there. There were reasonable explanations for the development of many of Anne’s quirks – how she learned to use Ipecac, where she came up with many of the long words she arrived at Green Gables with, her friend in the glass, etc. Although the circumstances Anne grew up in were dreary and bleak, the character that L.M. Montgomery created was so full of light, so bright and wonderful and beautiful, that even the bleak surroundings in this book couldn’t dull it. And Wilson did a fantastic job of portraying Anne as a young child as Montgomery’s Anne… with an E.
I highly recommend this book. It surprised me and I think it’s the first novel spin-off of a favorite classic that I can truly appreciate and love on its own merit.
Hi, just hopping by to check out your blog
I’m usually not a fan of classics spin-offs, but this one really does sound promising. Thanks for sharing your review.
I’ll have to put this on my list. I wasn’t initially interested in it because spin-offs can be so terrible (i.e. Kevin Sullivan’s movie interpretation of Anne before Green Gables. Changed the story so much [i.e. dad was alive] it was awful).
That's such great news! I was really worried about how this would live up to the actual series as well and it's good to hear you liked it. Great review!