Authors usually lack the derring-do to invite comparisons to literature's giants. But in Before Green Gables (2008, Penguin Canada, 447 pages), a prequel to a classic novel, Budge Wilson shows lofty ambitions and many of the necessary skills.
Her timely book appears on the 100th anniversary of publication for Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. That's the famous story of Anne Shirley, a red-headed orphan adjusting to a new home in rural Canada. With more than 50 million copies sold, Montgomery's tale towers among the world's best read and most loved.
Although divided by a century, the two Canadian women, Montgomery from Prince Edward Island and Wilson from neighboring Nova Scotia, make a potent team. With blessings from Montgomery's descendants, Wilson crafts a credible and entertaining story that takes the protagonist from birth to her arrival 11 years later at a PEI railway station where Anne of Green Gables begins.
What kind of a newborn was Anne? “Well, she wasn't all that wrinkled and red. But she was screeching so loud, with her mouth so wide open, that I couldn't tell much about her looks. I can only tell you that she's a skinny little thing and kind of long for a new baby.”
Readers witness Anne’s parents, Bertha and Walter, both Nova Scotia schoolteachers, dying of a contagious illness three months after her birth.
“A local cabinet maker, Mr Hudson, whose three children had been taught by both teachers, had been in the final stage of making a casket for Bertha – a simple but beautifully fashioned pine box – as a gift to Walter. Suddenly his son had burst into the workroom and told him that Walter had died. Without a word, he had risen, gathered the necessary wood together, and begun to make the first cut in the wood that would become Walter's coffin.”
Young Anne labors as an unpaid servant in foster homes before entering a crowded orphanage. The prequel shares an orphans-in-difficulty theme with the famous fiction by Charles Dickens.
Small gifts and the arrival of a pet bring the deprived Anne intense pleasure. “She went over and picked up the heavy cat, loving his weight, his softness, his loud purr, his tiger stripes, the fact that he was almost the same color as her own hair. Why had she ever thought she wanted a grey one? With him in her arms, she felt the comfort for a thousand sorrows.”
Diligently, Wilson studied the original story and its era. The prequel fits nicely, and its readers experience a powerful sense of time-travel. Both authors fill Anne's world with interesting characters, some mean-spirited, but others good-hearted, potential friends, maybe even “kindred spirits”.
The tiny heroine first learns of PEI from a schoolteacher. “It's very, very beautiful…. It has tidy fields that are almost too green to be believed. There are little white farmhouses, and soil that is so rich and thick that it grows the best potatoes in the world. And it's red!”
Eager readers easily recognize the familiar protagonist. “Yes. Anne had a way of hoping for a lot of things.” Her high spirits, vivid imagination, sharp tongue and thirst for learning fuel the story. “I don't know how to be a princess with a little golden crown and dresses with brocade skirts and handmade lace bodices. But it's easy to pretend it anyway.”
Worse than mischievous, Anne may succumb to criminal behavior. Does she really become a thief? “She watched as her hand moved into the drawer and removed the picture. Then she watched the same hand place the picture between the pages of her Royal Reader.”
Vivid colors enrich Anne of Green Gables -- the heroine's red hair, her new home's green gables, the red soil and green fields. The prequel has impressive illustrations by Shelagh Armstrong, but alas, only in black and white.
Maybe there's no need for surprise that Before Green Gables mostly works. As the author of more than 30 books, many for children, Wilson holds solid credentials. She's a member of the Order of Canada. One of her books, Friendships, nearly won a Governor General's Literary Award. Her others include Fractures, A Fiddle For Angus, The Cat That Barked and Manfred, the Unmanageable Monster.
Realistically, Wilson falls short of matching Montgomery. But by faithfully grasping and expanding a masterpiece, she deepens the legend of Anne Shirley and delights readers.
Approval rating: 86 per cent.
For more information: www.penguin.ca or www.100yearsofanne.com
(September 5, 2008)
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