Within Books

Books contain so much within them – whole worlds themselves in all those words. When we open a book, we never know what we are going to discover and learn, where we are going to find ourselves, how we are going to feel, and who we will encounter on our journeys through the pages. We are only limited by our imaginations as we open the gates to wondrous journeys of discovery and to whole new worlds to explore by opening the pages of a book. And many a time, there are hidden(or very obvious ones) gems or (un)expected treasures or something else completely that delights me as a reader. It is these that I will be talking about on this Blogging from A to Z Challenge – that makes me smile a mile wide or whoop with delight or fraught with emotions of any kind at all – that something ‘Within Books’.

For the letter A, the book I picked is ‘Anne of Green Gables’. I do not recall when I first read this book, but I do know I enjoyed it and totally loved Anne (and identified myself with her when she said these words “Oh, I’m so glad. I know you and I are going to get along together fine. It’s such a relief to talk when one wants to and not be told that children should be seen and not heard. I’ve had that said to me a million times if I have once. And people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?”) While I try not to use too many big words, I do love to talk!

So, for Within ‘Anne of Green Gables’, this is what I want to share with you, my readers, a few random picks from across the pages of the book (not all of the ones I found though):

From CHAPTER II. Matthew Cuthbert is surprised:

These lines appear as Matthew makes his way to the station to pick up the orphan boy they were expecting from the asylum:

“The little birds sang as if it were
The one day of summer in all the year.”

– These are from ‘The Vision of Sir Launfaul’ by James Russell Lowell. You can read the whole text here.

One of Anne’s favorite expressions that finds its way into her proclamations often-times in the book is ‘scope for imagination’. The first time it makes it’s appearance is when the station master lets Matthew know that the passenger dropped off for him to pick was the girl waiting outside and says “‘There was more scope for imagination,’ she said”

These words are attributed to Laurence Sterne’s character Parson Yorick in A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy.

From CHAPTER V. Anne’s History

“I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I’ve never been able to believe it. I don’t believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage. …”

Of course, this one is easy! Anne challenges the Bard here to his words“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet”

Also from the same chapter:

I can read pretty well and I know ever so many pieces of poetry off by heart—‘The Battle of Hohenlinden’ and ‘Edinburgh after Flodden,’ and ‘Bingen of the Rhine,’ and most of the ‘Lady of the Lake’ and most of ‘The Seasons’ by James Thompson. Don’t you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back? There is a piece in the Fifth Reader—‘The Downfall of Poland’—that is just full of thrills. Of course, I wasn’t in the Fifth Reader—I was only in the Fourth—but the big girls used to lend me theirs to read.

Anne’s love of poetry shines through with these words above and I found myself wanting to read and find out more about these other poems she mentions, especially ‘Bingen of the Rhine’ while Gilbert Blythe recites later in the book (chapter 19) while attempting to most likely woo Anne as is noted in the lines from the book here:

“Oh, Anne, how could you pretend not to listen to him? When he came to the line, ‘There’s another, not a sister,‘ he looked right down at you.”

From CHAPTER VIII. Anne’s Bringing-up Is Begun

“Marilla was as fond of morals as the Duchess in Wonderland”

This would have made Lewis Carroll happy:) a reference to his book in Anne…

I just wish you could have been there to hear me recite ‘Mary, Queen of Scots.’ I just put my whole soul into it. Ruby Gillis told me coming home that the way I said the line, ‘Now for my father’s arm,’ she said, ‘my woman’s heart farewell,’ just made her blood run cold.”

I did want to read this as well soon after finding this reference.

From CHAPTER X. Anne’s Apology

..the former[Marilla] under-stood in dismay that Anne was actually enjoying her valley of humiliation—was reveling in the thoroughness of her abasement.

The valley of humiliation here referring to The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. While I have not read Bunyan’s original, I did read Enid Blyton’s ‘The Land of Far Beyond‘ years ago, without realizing or noticing its spiritual/religious significance. For me, it was just a wonderful book – which meant it had to be read.

From CHAPTER XI. Anne’s Impressions of Sunday-School

I told her I didn’t, but I could recite, ‘The Dog at His Master’s Grave’ if she liked. That’s in the Third Royal Reader. It isn’t a really truly religious piece of poetry, but it’s so sad and melancholy that it might as well be.

“The Dog at His Master’s Grave” is a poem that was written by Lydia Howard Huntly Sigourney and available to read in a Google eBook along with other poems.

From CHAPTER XII. A Solemn Vow and Promise

“Diana is going to teach me to sing a song called ‘Nelly in the Hazel Dell.’”

“The Caesar’s pageant shorn of Brutus’ bust 

Did but of Rome’s best son remind her more,”

From CHAPTER XXXI. Where the Brook and River Meet
These lines appear:

“Hills peeped o’er hill and Alps on Alps arose.”

From Alexander Pope’s  Essay on Criticism

From CHAPTER XXXIII. The Hotel Concert

“Not a bit. I’ve recited so often in public I don’t mind at all now. I’ve decided to give ‘The Maiden’s Vow.’ It’s so pathetic. Laura Spencer is going to give a comic recitation, but I’d rather make people cry than laugh.”

The poem mentioned above could refer to a poem of the same name by Carolina Oliphant (while The Annotated Anne of Green Gables also refers to another poem as a more likely reference as the source – a poem by Stafford MacGregor mentioned in the Annotated book)

And the very last lines of the book:

“‘God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world,’” whispered Anne softly.

From Pippa Passes by Robert Browning and familiar to many as they have likely read the poem.

Q to the Reader: Have you read ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and any other books in the series? If you have, what was the discovery that stayed with you most?Signing off on Day 1 and the letter A as I work on the #AtoZChallenge and #UltimateBlogChallenge for April 2018.
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