Warning: If you have a visual impairment, use the manuscript transcript version including the Lucy Maud Montgomery’s foot notes and contextual annotation references.

Chapter 2

37

She twitched one one [sic] of her long, glossy braids over her (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)thin(end superscript) shoulder and held it up before Matthew’s eyes. Matthew was not used to deciding on the tints of ladies’ tresses but in this case there couldn’t be much doubt.

“It’s red, ain’t it?” he said.

The girl let the braid drop back with a sigh that seemed to come from her very toes and to exhale forth all the sorrows of the ages.

“Yes, it’s red,” she said resignedly. “Now you see why I can’t be perfectly happy. Nobody could call who had red hair. I don’t mind the other things so much — the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a rose-leaf beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)starry(end superscript) violet eyes. But I cannot


PHOTO ANNOTATION

Four colorful book covers of Anne of Green Gables.

"It's red, ain't it?": English editions of Anne of Green Gables from 1994 and 1979, a Hebrew translation from 2001, and the 1909 Swedish first edition all show the various shades of red used to depict Anne's "long, glossy braids."

PHOTO ANNOTATION

dark ink newsprint column

"I can't be perfectly happy": The Charlottetown Guardian used this passage in their March 17, 1908 article about the forthcoming publication of Anne of Green Gables, though they mistakenly place Montgomery in Park Corner rather than Cavendish.

"The following little extract, from the forthcoming book by Miss Lucy Maud Montgomery of Park Corner, in this Province may be of interest to Guardian readers: 'Yes, it's red,' said Anne resignedly. 'Now you see why I can't be perfectly happy. Nobody could who had red hair. I don't mind the other things so much—the freckles and the green eyes and my skininess. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes. But I cannot imagine that red hair away. It will be my lifelong sorrow. I read of a girl once in a novel who had a lifelong sorrow but it wasn't red hair. Her hair was pure gold rippling back from an alabaster brow. What is a [sic] alabaster brow? I never could find out. Can you tell me?' In this book, Anne of Green Gables, which L.C. Page & Company of Boston will publish in April is promised one of the most delightful and original girl characters in recent fiction. In the imaginative little orphan who finds a home with th [sic] old farmer and his spinster sister. Miss Montgomery has created a character which will take its place alongside of Mrs. Wiggin's charming Rebecca."
Island Newspapers