Monday, September 14, 2009

I love Anne


I watched Anne of Green Gables on the telly the other night. Saturday night, actually. I'm living it up in the big city. I don't care how uncool it makes me - I LOVE Anne of Green Gables and have since someone gave me one of the books when I was a kid.

I didn't know it was coming on and I happened to see it in the TV guide just as it started.

It was the 1980s telemovie version with the adorable Megan Fellows as Anne. I laughed and thankfully my flatmate was working a late shift, because there were several moments where I sat on the couch and had a little sook, like at the bit where Anne is leaving Avonlea to go to college and Matthew says to Marilla that it was a lucky mistake the orphanage sent Anne and not the boy they had wanted.

Marilla replies: It wasn't luck; It was Providence. He knew we needed her.
Matthew: Even with her queer little ways.
Marilla: I loved her for them.

For those of you who don't know the story, Matthew and Marilla are an elderly brother and sister who run a farm on Canada's Prince Edward Island. They send for an orphan boy to help run the farm but they get the wildly imaginative, impetuous, precocious, talkative Anne instead. Matthew loves her from the start but Marilla, the no-nonsense matriarch, has to be persuaded not to send her back. Of course, Marilla eventually grows to love Anne like her own child.

Even writing this I could have a little cry. Geez, I'm such a sook. I've just decided I'm going to get it on DVD and buy the books and read them again. (I only ever had the one and I don't know what happened to it.)

Oh, and you know what else? Today I answered the phone at work to a woman called Marilla!

6 comments:

Abbeysmum said...

Could anyone have played it better...I think Not !

Jayne said...

I love the books, and saw an old 1930s version of the movies a few months ago, loved 'em just as much :)

Katrina Fries said...

I love all the books. I still have all the books and my girls love them too. I loved the series on television and have even thought of buying the DVD's. They are wonderful stories.

Jen said...

I watched it too! For about the hundredth time! Although I got a bit disappointed when I thought they'd cut a bit out. Maybe I just wasn't watching properly - I was pretty sleepy that night...

Anonymous said...

With the new show Glee, you've got yourself a theme tune for this site.

Sonia said...

I've loved these books & the movies with Megan Follows ever since I was a teenager (and I'm 38 now!) I loved curling up in bed on a rainy afternoon with a big cup of tea and watching these movies. They're the best. BTW, I highly recommend two other books by L.M. Montgomery - Jane of Lantern Hill and The Blue Castle - separate from the Anne series but just as charming.