Coming of age · Humor
Anne of Green Gables
A talkative red-haired orphan arrives at a farm that wanted a boy, and changes everyone around her.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
The wrong orphan
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, an elderly brother and sister on a farm called Green Gables, in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage to help with the work. Matthew drives to the station and finds instead an eleven-year-old girl with red braids, freckles and an enormous imagination, who talks the whole way home. Anne Shirley is desperate to stay. Marilla, practical and stern, isn’t sure she wants her. It was L. M. Montgomery’s first novel, published in 1908, and many sequels followed.
Why it works for learners
Anne loves words, especially long and dramatic ones, and her speeches are a rich source of vocabulary: she longs for “kindred spirits”, sinks into “the depths of despair” and gives romantic names to ordinary places. Around her, Marilla’s dry remarks and Matthew’s shy silences make a perfect comic contrast. The book is built from short episodes of village and school life, each with a clear shape: a disastrous tea party, a slate broken over a boy’s head, a dare on a roof. The vocabulary is school, home, food, friendship, the farm and the seasons.
Anne has been especially loved in Japan since Hanako Muraoka’s translation of 1952, so learners of Japanese have an extra reason to try her. At A2 and B1, Lexo’s Japanese editions use kana in place of kanji above JLPT N3.
Which level to start at
B1 is a good start; the episodes are clear and the dialogue is lively. B2 lets you enjoy Anne’s vocabulary and Montgomery’s humor. A2 works for the main story, though Anne’s eloquence is part of who she is.
Read next
- Little Women, four sisters growing up
- A Little Princess, another girl who lives by her imagination
- The Railway Children, a family making a new life in the country