Review: The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables

No Spot on Earth More Lovely: The Landscapes that Inspired Anne of Green Gables (The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables) by Catherine Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

As many of my friends and followers know, I retain an almost irrational love for Anne of Green Gables, decades after first reading the books one summer, returning to school, and finding that my bestie SleepingKoala45 ((Wishful Thinking) had been on the exact same kick. (This was in the days before email and cell phones and stuff, people) SK45 and I spent hours... no days... no weeks... talking about these books and analyzing characters in them. Okay, honestly, we still sometimes talk about these books. Lucy Maud Montgomery was the reason why, at the tender age of 13, I wrote my first letter to a publisher, seeking a copy of LMM's The Road to Yesterday, which had been published in a vanishingly small print run, after an editor at McGraw-Hill Ryerson wrecked the volume by chopping it to pieces, eliminating half the source material. (FYI #1, they sent it to me with a bill for $4, which I paid and still have folded in the book. I can't believe back in those days how people trusted you to pay after you received the merchandise. Or that a hardback book was only $4! FYI#2, that book was re-released in 2009 in full form as The Blythes Are Quoted.) When I say irrational love, that has to do with some of the same flaws in LMM's books that one sees of other books of the period (racism, sexism, tropes about relationships, etc.). Yeah, it's kind of odd given what an ardent feminist and civil rights supporter I am but I loved this series and felt like I watched Anne go from my age to adulthood and it was thrilling. (Plus, come on, they're more than a hundred years old and even much older Shakespeare has these same flaws. And no, don't say I'm comparing them like equals. Sigh) But I digress.

The Landscapes of Green Gables is far and away one of the best AoGG-related books I've had the pleasure of reading. It puts Maud Montgomery and Anne Shirley in sync, and lets us see how Montgomery looked at nature, and how that vision was built into Anne as a character reflective of Montgomery herself. It also gives historical context to the development of PEI, where we can still find some of what Montgomery loved. In some cases, the island has become more forested than it was when LMM lived there! Pointedly, it shows us why we still read Anne stories. It all comes down to her perception of beauty and love of nature. The characters are sweet but what makes Anne stand out is her imagination and her ability to recognize the beauty in the environment around Green Gables and Avonlea (Cavendish). In this respect, Montgomery's Anne books are similar to the Limberlost works of Gene Stratton Porter: the timeless love of nature. (Those books are also troubled by classist conventional thinking of the day and yet I still love them, too.)

From the gardens of Silver Bush to the vistas around Cavendish, and other areas of PEI, Reid gives us insights into LMM's world, her loves, and why Anne closely reflected her wish fulfillment. This is a lovely book for Anne fans and I now have at it on the Christmas list for someone I know.

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