I had never thought that I would ever come across a book which I would want to never end. And yet here I am. Yearning for more and more out of this delightful re-read of my favorite school classic. Although I had read it long back in school and this was just another time - this time an audiobook version - I had never appreciated it back then as I do it now. There were so many nuances that I never quite realized, so many lessons that I had never learnt in school which ought to have been learnt. I strongly believe tha Children's Classics have all the more meaning when adults read them for themselves. There is absolutely nothing to review - for the book is a sheer joy and there is no point that I can take off from Lucy Maud Montgomery's imaginative and skillful writing. So I thought instead of reviewing it, I will write about the lessons that Anne and the Cuthberts and the Green Gables taught me. And then I shall quote a few passages from the book that delighted my soul.

I shall start with the lessons first.

1) Anne taught me that "romantic" does not always mean what we think it means. It doesn't have to be always referred to for husband or wife or lovers. It can be the intimacy you share with your best friend, your guardian, your mother or your father - that old tree that you loved at the sight can be romantic without a partner - pretending to be a part of the stories you have read can be romantic too - just holding the lilies and roses that you so nurtured right with your own hands can be romantic too. Romantic doesn't have to be physical. Romance can be notional and that kind of romance is the most beautiful and fulfiling of all.

2) Anne taught me that it is fine to weird and to accept it. It is also fine to be vexed about people not accepting it. What is not fine is to change because people think you are weird. Anne, for me, is a symbol of standing up to what she thought was her.

3) Anne's past taught me that nothing you did in your life will ever go wasted. That everything that seems worthless right now is going to come to your aid when you most need it and you might never realize it. Anne's experiences of her past helped her gain the trust and confidence of people who thought she will never be a good girl.

4) Anne's imagination taught me to find out the most splendid of things from the most pathetic of situations. As Anne has always said, she didn't have those puffed sleeves, yes, but it is always so easy to imagine that they were there. How wonderful it is to find out something to cheer for amidst morbid situations! How important it is for survival! How important, that is why, stories are!

5) Anne taught me to be perfectly okay with vices inside a human being and be okay to be a mortal human being. Perfection is boring because you have no scope of improvement then. Vices are necessary to balance out things. And some vices are necessary for holding on to life.

6) Anne's passion taught me how most of us pride ourselves vainly in being pragmatic - of how rare a privilege it is to find a passion and revel in it - of how important expressions of that passion are - of how important it is to show people and even things that we love them.

I am afraid I have several more to quote but maybe I am not just thinking right. Maybe when I get to re-read it again I shall come back and edit this space for something more. But at the moment this is what I think. And I also think that everytime I will re-read about a thin, homely, red-haired girl of Green Gables, I will find some other aspect of my life as a human being changing for better.

Some marvels and gems (Not all) -

"Suppose she wasn’t really going to stay here! She would imagine she was. There was scope for imagination here."


"I’m not in the depths of despair this morning. I never can be in the morning. Isn’t it a splendid thing that there are mornings? "


"It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. "


"Well, that is another hope gone. My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That’s a sentence I read in a book once, and I say it over to comfort myself whenever I’m disappointed in anything.” “I don’t see where the comforting comes in myself,” said Marilla. “Why, because it sounds so nice and romantic, just as if I were a heroine in a book, you know. I am so fond of romantic things, and a graveyard full of buried hopes is about as romantic a thing as one can imagine, isn’t it? I’m rather glad I have one. Are we going across the Lake of Shining Waters today?”"


"Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep woods, and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer. Well, I’m ready. What am I to say?”"


"It gives you a lovely, comfortable feeling to apologize and be forgiven, doesn’t it? Aren’t the stars bright tonight? If you could live in a star, which one would you pick? I’d like that lovely clear big one away over there above that dark hill.”"


"Of course, they’re all broken but it’s the easiest thing in the world to imagine that they are whole."


"Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them,” exclaimed Anne. “You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.”"


"WHAT A SPLENDID day!” said Anne, drawing a long breath. “Isn’t it good just to be alive on a day like this? I pity the people who aren’t born yet for missing it. They may have good days, of course, but they can never have this one. And it’s splendider still to have such a lovely way to go to school by, isn’t it?”"


"Oh, Matthew, isn’t it a wonderful morning? The world looks like something God had just imagined for His own pleasure, doesn’t it? Those trees look as if I could blow them away with a breath—pouf! I’m so glad I live in a world where there are white frosts, aren’t you? And I’m so glad Mrs. Hammond had three pairs of twins after all. If she hadn’t I mightn’t have known what to do for Minnie May. I’m real sorry I was ever cross with Mrs. Hammond for having twins. But, oh, Matthew, I’m so sleepy. I can’t go to school. I just know I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I’d be so stupid. But I hate to stay home for Gil—some of the others will get head of the class, and it’s so hard to get up again—although of course the harder it is the"


"If you love me as I love you Nothing but death can part us two.’"


"True, Anne could not help a little pang when she contrasted her plain black tam and shapeless, tight-sleeved, home-made gray cloth coat with Diana’s jaunty fur cap and smart little jacket. But she remembered in time that she had an imagination and could use it."


"Oh, but that’s the best of it,” protested Anne. “Something just flashes into your mind, so exciting, and you must out with it. If you stop to think it over you spoil it all. Haven’t you never felt that yourself, Mrs. Lynde?”"


"For Anne to take things calmly would have been to change her nature. All “spirit and fire and dew,” as she was, the"


"pleasures and pains of life came to her with trebled intensity."


"Isn’t it fortunate I’ve got such an imagination?” said Anne. “It will help me through splendidly, I expect. What do people who haven’t any imagination do when they break their bones, do you suppose, Marilla?”"