{"id":3418,"date":"2017-10-07T13:56:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T20:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=3418"},"modified":"2018-07-25T14:39:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T21:39:29","slug":"an-extraordinary-book-of-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2017\/writing\/an-extraordinary-book-of-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"An Extraordinary Book of Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anne<\/a>My husband, Rob, and I recently visited Green Gables<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on Prince Edward Island. It\u2019s our second time visiting Cavendish, the place that inspired the novelist Lucy Maude Montgomery<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>in the writing of her children\u2019s classic, Anne of Green Gables.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The home, Green Gables, is furnished with period furniture of the time and on the seat of the buggy parked outside, there’s a straw hat with red braids attached for any tourist to try on and pretend they’re Anne of Green Gables. I tried it on, sat for a photo, but the hat looked so silly on me, that I quickly deleted the picture. But it was fun trying it on.<\/p>\n

Back of the house, there are trails through the woods that are featured in this novel, like the Haunted Woods and Lover’s Lane. They were especially delightful at this time of year with the leaves changing colours.<\/p>\n

The Story<\/h3>\n
\"Anne<\/a>

Anne Shirley’s Bedroom<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Anne of Green Gables is the story of Anne Shirley, an orphan girl, who arrives at the home of Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a bachelor and his spinster sister, after they had requested an orphan boy to help them on their farm on Prince Edward Island.<\/p>\n

The First Novel I’d Read<\/h3>\n

It was the first novel I had ever read. I was eight and I recall sobbing about two-thirds of the way through. I won\u2019t tell you why as there\u2019s a chance you haven\u2019t read it and are planning to get the book. I wouldn\u2019t want to spoil the emotional journey for you.<\/p>\n

The Character – Anne Shirley<\/h3>\n

Besides being an unexpected girl, Anne Shirley is a redhead with freckles and an audacious character with a love for extravagant words and a penchant for telling the truth even if it gets her in trouble. She speaks her mind at a time when girls were taught to be largely quiet and mind their manners.<\/p>\n

Lucy Maude Montgomery used Evelyn Nesbitt, a popular model in the early 1900s, as inspiration for her character. She took her photo out of Metropolitan magazine and hung it on her wall.<\/p>\n

Universal Appeal<\/h3>\n

Anne of Green G\"Anne<\/a>ables, published in 1908, is no ordinary book. The fact that it has found universal appeal and a whole cottage industry was built around its characters and places suggests something extraordinary.\u00a0 It’s become a timeless global hit, loved by both young and old.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Anne of Green Gables has endured because it\u2019s a universal story of belonging, of standing up for who you are and for what you believe in. It\u2019s essentially the story of an outsider as personified by a girl who was supposed to be a boy arriving in the fictional place of Avonlea. This close-minded community is like so many others that have prejudices and rules that make it hard for anyone new to belong.<\/p>\n

I loved this novel so much that I recently bought it again at Coho Books in Campbell River<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>on Vancouver Island, an island on the opposite coast of Canada from Prince Edward Island.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you\u2019ve read this wondrous novel, and have anything else to add\u2014like what it meant to you\u2014please leave a comment. Nothing like sharing the enjoyment of good books.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband, Rob, and I recently visited Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. It\u2019s our second time visiting Cavendish, the place that inspired the novelist Lucy Maude Montgomery in the… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[744,4],"tags":[969,970,78,972,971,9,5],"class_list":["post-3418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-writing","tag-anne-of-green-gables","tag-anne-shirley","tag-diana-stevan","tag-green-gables","tag-lucy-maude-montgomery","tag-novel","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_1090.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-T8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6379,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2024\/writing\/my-early-reading-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":3418,"position":0},"title":"My Early Reading Life","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"20 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A walk down memory lane, to my early reading life. My reading appetite was fuelled by more than books.","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"reading life","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/reader.jpg?fit=444%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1797,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/writing\/giving-birth-to-a-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":3418,"position":1},"title":"Giving Birth to a Book","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"2 \u0416\u043e\u0432\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I met with my friend, Karen Dodd, the author of the delicious suspense novel, Deadly Switch. She\u2019s been marvellous, coaxing me along, encouraging me, telling me that my book is more than ready. \u201cIt\u2019s well overdue,\u201d she said. She\u2019s right. My novel, A CRY FROM THE DEEP, has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Deadly Switch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Deadly-Switch.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1593,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/writing\/jumping-into-the-fray-of-self-publishing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3418,"position":2},"title":"Jumping into the Fray of Self-Publishing","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's spring! What better time to jump into the fray of self-publishing. It's a time to blossom, so I'm going for it. Yes, I\u2019ve decided to self-publish my book, A Cry From The Deep, a romantic mystery. I resisted at first, because it\u2019s a hell of a lot of work\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Magnolia Blossom by Diana Stevan","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IMG_0295-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":705,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/writing-about-yearning-in-fiction-and-memoirs\/","url_meta":{"origin":3418,"position":3},"title":"Writing About Yearning In Fiction And Memoirs","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"28 \u0412\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone wants a book that keeps them glued to the page. The ones that have me reading past bedtime are stories about family or some kind of skewed relationship or a character that\u2019s hungering for something\u2014whether it\u2019s love or revenge. 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Crummy ones. Since Robert and I have been so blessed in life, it\u2019s hard to complain. And yet, since New Year\u2019s Eve, there have been a few dark moments.\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"life's unexpected surprises","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/image1-2-scaled-e1578421599611.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/image1-2-scaled-e1578421599611.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/image1-2-scaled-e1578421599611.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/image1-2-scaled-e1578421599611.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}