Anne of Green Gables - Chapter 1 - Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised

This is the first chapter to Anne of Green Gables. It’s a story appropriate for all ages, even for people who can’t yet read. I’ve attached the text so that if you’d like, you can read along with me. This is the story of an imaginative young girl from very tough circumstances who nevertheless has a very romantic outlook on life. What that means here is that she imagines her life as one amazing story with lots of highs and lows, what’s sometimes called a melodrama. But we’ll get to her in the next file. For now keep in mind that with this chapter, and the next couple of chapters, Lucy Maud Montgomery uses four characters’ reactions to the same situation to introduce them to us. For example this first chapter is titled “Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised,“ to demonstrate her reaction. Some notes about the text: this is a story that was published in 1908 and takes place around the late 1870s/early 1880s. As such, some attitudes may be considered quite different from what we’re used to today. Marilla has so