50 Fun Facts About Anne of Green Gables

In what year was Anne of Green Gables first published?

L.C. Page & Co. of Boston brought it out on 13 June, and it sold more than 19,000 copies in its first five months.

Anne is sent by mistake to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had asked the orphanage for what?

The message was garbled as it passed through Mrs. Spencer's brother and niece, and a girl of 10 or 11 turned up instead.

Green Gables stands in the fictional town of Avonlea, in which Canadian province?

Avonlea is based on Cavendish, where Montgomery grew up; the province once put Anne's face on its licence plates.

Anne insists that her name always be spelled how?

Orphan-girl 'formula stories' with heroines called Ann were common in 1908, and Montgomery used the extra letter to set hers apart.

Which physical feature does Anne despise most about herself?

She hates the freckles too, but rather likes her nose; her attempt to dye the hair black turns it green.

Who is Anne's 'bosom friend' and next-door neighbour?

Anne admires her black hair and flawless complexion; she is the only girl of Anne's age who lives near Green Gables.

Anne accidentally gets Diana drunk by serving what, believing it to be raspberry cordial?

Mrs. Barry bans the friendship until Anne saves Diana's little sister Minnie May from croup.

What nickname does Gilbert call Anne in class, prompting her to break a slate over his head?

He was pulling her braid to get her attention; she refuses to speak to him for years despite his apologies.

Anne accidentally dyes her hair which colour while trying to make it black?

It is one of several domestic 'scrapes' that punctuate her first years at Green Gables.

Anne wins the Avery Scholarship for the top student in which subject at Queen's Academy?

She earns her teaching licence in one year instead of two, and the scholarship would have taken her to Redmond College, based on Dalhousie.

How does Matthew Cuthbert die near the end of the book?

The failure wipes out the Cuthberts' savings, and Anne gives up her scholarship to stay with Marilla, whose eyesight is failing.

At the end of the novel, Gilbert gives up which post so that Anne can stay near Marilla?

He takes the White Sands School instead, and the gesture finally ends the years-long feud.

Which busybody neighbour, mother of ten, gets off on the wrong foot with Anne but becomes close to her?

Her husband Thomas is mentioned repeatedly but never actually appears in the book.

Which teacher replaces the unpopular Mr. Phillips and becomes a mentor and 'kindred spirit' to Anne?

Mr. Phillips kept misspelling Anne's name without the 'e' and openly courted his pupil Prissy Andrews.

Anne's late parents Bertha and Walter Shirley worked as what?

Both died of fever within four days of each other when Anne was three months old.

Which wealthy relative of Diana's calls Anne 'the Anne-girl' and sends her beaded slippers for Christmas?

Initially severe, the Charlottetown aunt is won over by Anne's imagination and invites the girls to tea.

Montgomery used a magazine photograph of which famous model as the face of Anne Shirley?

She clipped it from New York's Metropolitan Magazine and kept it on her bedroom wall as a reminder of 'youthful idealism and spirituality'.

Montgomery said she wrote the novel at twilight looking over the fields of which real community?

The Green Gables farmhouse there, along with Balsam Hollow and Campbell Pond, became the heart of Prince Edward Island National Park.

Roughly how many copies has Anne of Green Gables sold worldwide?

It has been translated into at least 36 languages, including a crowdfunded Scottish Gaelic edition, Anna Ruadh, in 2020.

Which newspaper panned the book in 1908, then admitted in 1996 it may have 'slipped up'?

The reviewer complained that Anne talked as if she had 'borrowed Bernard Shaw's dictionary'; Mark Twain, by contrast, called her the most delightful child since Alice.

Which country has taught Anne of Green Gables in schools since 1952 and calls her 'Red-haired Anne'?

Couples fly to PEI to marry on the Green Gables grounds, and a replica of the farmhouse stands in a theme park in Ashibetsu, Hokkaido.

The 1979 anime Akage no An was directed by which future co-founder of Studio Ghibli?

He later cut its first six episodes into a 100-minute film that sat unreleased until a 2010 screening at the Ghibli Museum.

Who plays Anne in the 1985 CBC miniseries widely considered the definitive screen version?

Both parts were among the highest-rated programmes ever shown on Canadian television, and it won a 1986 Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program.

Which actress plays Marilla Cuthbert in the 1985 miniseries?

Richard Farnsworth played Matthew, and Jonathan Crombie played Gilbert; the trio returned for the 1987 sequel.

Which spin-off of the 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries ran on CBC from 1990 to 1996 without Anne appearing?

It drew on characters and episodes from several of Montgomery's other books.

Anne with an E (2017–2019) was a CBC co-production with which streaming service?

Moira Walley-Beckett's adaptation dug into the trauma beneath the novel; it was cancelled the morning after its third-season finale.

Who plays Anne in Anne with an E?

Geraldine James played Marilla, R. H. Thomson Matthew and Lucas Jade Zumann Gilbert.

The lost 1919 silent film starring Mary Miles Minter enraged Montgomery by moving the story to where?

'A skunk and an American flag were introduced,' she fumed in her diary, 'both equally unknown in PE Island.'

The star of the 1934 film, born Dawn O'Day, did what after playing the part?

She kept the name for the rest of her career, including 1940's Anne of Windy Poplars.

Anne of Green Gables: The Musical premiered in 1965 at the festival in which city?

It is Canada's longest-running main-stage musical, has played to more than 2 million people and appeared at the 1970 World's Fair in Osaka.

How many novels in total did L. M. Montgomery publish?

Plus more than a thousand short stories and poems; the Anne series alone runs to eight books.

Which honour did King George V confer on Montgomery in 1935?

The investiture took place at Rideau Hall in Ottawa; the Order of Canada did not exist until 1967.

Which is the eighth and final Anne novel, set during the First World War and centred on Anne's youngest daughter?

It is the only Canadian novel about the war written from a woman's perspective by a contemporary; Anne's son Walter is killed at Courcelette.

Which 2008 authorised prequel by Budge Wilson was published for the novel's centenary?

It in turn became the anime Kon'nichiwa Anne in 2009.

Anne comes to Green Gables from an orphanage in fictional Bolingbroke, in which province?

Bolingbroke is based on the real New London, PEI, and Anne is later meant to study at Redmond College on the Nova Scotia mainland.

Prior to Green Gables, Anne looked after three sets of twins in the household of which woman?

She was sent to the Hopetown orphan asylum when Mrs. Hammond broke up her home after her husband's sudden death.

Where is Montgomery's original handwritten manuscript of the novel preserved?

Since 2022 the whole manuscript can be examined online in digital images; the typescript and corrected proofs are lost.

Where did the novel rank in the BBC's 2003 Big Read survey of Britain's best-loved novels?

In 2012 School Library Journal readers ranked it ninth among all children's novels.

Which real forest and body of water inspired the Haunted Woods and the Lake of Shining Waters?

The Anne of Green Gables Museum sits nearby at Park Corner, in a house that also inspired Montgomery.

Which 1926 Montgomery novel, inspired by a holiday in Bala, Ontario, was her only one set outside the Maritimes?

The town appears as Deerwood; Bala's Museum, opened in 1992, is in the house where the family ate their meals that summer.

Which vain, sharp-tongued classmate is jealous of Anne's popularity?

Ruby is pretty but empty-headed, Jane plain and sensible; the whole Pye family is generally disliked.

Anne saves Diana's baby sister Minnie May from which illness?

Her experience minding the Hammond twins pays off, and Mrs. Barry lifts the ban on the girls' friendship.

Who mistakenly brings Anne from the orphan asylum, having been told to fetch a girl instead of a boy?

She had gone to adopt a little girl, Lily Jones, for herself, and the Cuthberts' request got garbled through her brother's daughter Nancy.

Canada Post's first Anne of Green Gables stamp, issued in 1975, had what face value?

Two more stamps and a souvenir sheet honouring Anne and the house followed for the centenary in 2008.

Which Boston firm first published Anne of Green Gables on 13 June 1908?

It sold more than 19,000 copies in its first five months, and the original typescript and corrected proofs have since been lost.

A replica of the Green Gables house was built at the Canadian World theme park in which Japanese town?

The park was built as a cheaper alternative to flying to PEI, where some Japanese couples have held weddings on the Green Gables grounds.

Into roughly how many languages has Anne of Green Gables been translated?

The newest include a crowdfunded Scottish Gaelic edition, Anna Ruadh, released in 2020.

Who jointly owns the licensing authority that controls Anne of Green Gables trademarks?

The novel itself is public domain in many countries, but the AGGLA won a Japanese court fight in 2006 over the trademark.

In which Prince Edward Island community was L. M. Montgomery born in 1874?

Her mother died of tuberculosis when Maud was 21 months old, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents in Cavendish.

Montgomery wrote her next 11 books at a manse in which Ontario village after marrying in 1911?

Her husband Ewan Macdonald was the Presbyterian minister there; she complained the manse had neither a bathroom nor a toilet.