Collection: L.M. Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1874 to 1942, lost her mother as an infant and was raised by her grandparents on Prince Edward Island, in a house where she was tolerated more than wanted. Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908, is written out of that.

Anne arrives at a farm that had asked for a boy. She is too talkative, too imaginative, forever apologizing for being herself, and she makes mistake after mistake in public. She is also the making of every person in the house, and the book is honest enough to show that taking years rather than a chapter.

What recommends her is not that she is lovable. It is that she is useful, and that her character is what makes her so. Girls meet a heroine worth copying.