Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908. From Wikipedia:

Set in the late 19th century, the novel recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl who is mistakenly sent to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a middle-aged brother and sister who had intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. The novel recounts how Anne makes her way with the Cuthberts, in school, and within the town.

The book was an immediate success, and author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) became famous. From Wikipedia:

The first novel was followed by a series of sequels with Anne as the central character. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. Most of the novels were set in Prince Edward Island, and locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site.

We saw references to "Anne of Green Gables" all over central PEI.

Lucy Maud Montgomery drew on her life growing up in PEI for material for her books. She was born in New London, PEI but moved to the neighboring town of Cavendish when 21 months old to be raised by her maternal grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill, following the death of her mother. The Macneills ran the Cavendish post office. Avonlea is based on New London and Cavendish.

The house and farm in the photo above belonged to David and Margaret Macneill, cousins of Montgomery's grandparents. The farm, also in Cavendish, was a short distance from where Montgomery lived with her grandparents. She often walked between the two properties, as did we when we visited on May 25. Although she wrote at home, the house and farm above – now part of PEI National Park – were the inspiration for the Cuthbert's house and farm in the novels. The famous "green gables" did not exist in real life in Montgomery's lifetime, but were only a product of her fertile imagination. They were added by Parks Canada due to popular demand. The two Macneill properties in Cavendish are a national historic site.

Two musicals have been written about the "Anne" stories.

Anne of Green Gables: The Musical has been produced annually at the Confederation Centre for the Arts in Charlottetown since 1965. As noted in my earlier post about Charlottetown, the Confederation Centre was built in 1964. Nancy and her family saw Anne of Green Gables at the Confederation Centre in the late 1960s. Click the poster to enlarge:

Anne and Gilbert: The Musical has been in production since 2005. In the original musical (above), Anne is a student in the one-room schoolhouse in Avonlea. In Anne and Gilbert, an older Anne is the schoolmaster at the Avonlea school, and she falls in love with Gilbert Blythe.

We heard (but did not see) actors rehearsing for Anne of Green Gables in the Homburg Theatre in the Confederation Centre of the Arts. It was not yet in production for the 2018 season. However, Anne and Gilbert was in production at The Guild Theatre across the street, and we saw a performance today. It was very good.

The map below shows the locations of Cavendish and Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island. For scale, they are about 25 miles apart.