The house is a literary landmark in Canada. This is Green Gables, made famous in the novels of Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1874-1942, who was a child of the island of Prince Edward.
Green Gables was owned by the MacNeil family, Lucy Maud’s cousins. The author set her novels about the orphan, Ann Shirley, in this home at Green Gables and the surrounding countryside of Cavendish. Thousands visit this area, including this home, every year.
Outside the house, the carriage lies waiting for the horse to take Anne Shirley, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert to church. However, now Anne’s hat has red pig tails attached.
In the garden, trees are in bloom
on this summer day and the old tree in the flower bed is a natural sculpture.
This house itself is decorated in the Victorian style with its wallpaper, flooring, lace curtains and doilies. It offers a step back in time.
Anne’s room is the most intriguing to me, with her clothes laid out and her book bag on the chair. She is expected home from Diana’s house any minute.
The guides tell stories from the books about the characters and various items around the house. For example, accidentally, Anne gave her friend Diana wine instead of raspberry cordial because the wine was in the wrong place on the shelves.
If ever a place was designed to complement a work of fiction, this is it.
Fans of the Anne novels and the various tv series love this place. Every day, hundreds pass through the doors of Green Gables, into Anne’s world, as Lucy Maud described it. The character and the setting have a life of their own now, as a red headed guide, dressed in Anne attire, greets all visitors.
The novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is available free