Anne of the Island

About the book

Anne leaves Avonlea for Redmond College, carrying hopes for study and independence into a wider circle of friendships. New companions and shared domestic arrangements give her opportunities to imagine several different futures. Visits home reveal that the place she loves continues to change in her absence, while questions of romance become increasingly difficult to keep within the patterns she once invented. Montgomery gives academic ambition, friendship, and emotional uncertainty room to develop together. Anne's imagination remains a source of pleasure, but it can also make a convincing picture interfere with recognition. The novel follows the gradual work of distinguishing what she has expected to want from what experience teaches her to value, without treating independence as the abandonment of an enduring connection to home.

• Independence
• Friendship and love
• Self-knowledge

Why read it

For a college novel that balances the excitement of new possibilities with the slower task of understanding one's own attachments.

English text