SOURCE: Wiggins, Genevieve. “‘Born of True Love’: Anne of Green Gables.” In L. M. Montgomery, pp. 19-42. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.

In the following excerpt, Wiggins discusses major themes in Anne of Green Gables and Montgomery's personal affection for the book.

After eight years of growing success in writing for periodicals, Montgomery, in her own words, “went to work and wrote a book” (Weber, 51). In the spring of 1904, she began her account of a red-haired orphan girl adopted by an elderly couple, intending to use the story as a short serial for a Sunday-school periodical. Her central character soon became so real to her that she decided to follow a long-standing ambition and make the adventures of Anne the basis for a full-length novel. Written during the evenings at her grandmother's home in Cavendish, the work was completed in October 1905,¹ the handwritten manuscript typed on her secondhand machine...