Anne of Green Gables

I finished reading Anne of Green Gables last week.

There is something about books we loved in childhood that stays with us and influences how we think -- in adulthood -- about the characters of those books. I did not read Anne as a child and have come to her solely as a middle-aged woman.

It's not the same thing.

That said, I can see why Anne is so beloved. The scrapes and foibles of the character are endearing. What child has not made mistakes when baking a cake from scratch? What child has not gotten lost in dreams and play, to the detriment of the household chores. I grew up in a time when we were not reminded (nagged) by our mothers to do our chores -- we were expected to remember them and complete them. And there were consequences if we forgot. I can see how Anne was loved for her similarity to everyday children.

I also enjoyed reflecting, as I read, on my childhood spent playing in the woods and fields near our house, so similar to the childhood of Anne Shirley. And I felt sorry that my daughter never had those same opportunities, due to both safety and geographical reasons. My reading of Anne of Green Gables brought home to me again that we live in a different day and age, and that's sad in so many ways.

I did not find Anne's bent toward drama as endearing as her forgetfulness. In fact, I got tired of the sentences that started out "Oh,....." Maybe I am too practical. My mother swore I was a dramatic little girl -- and maybe I was -- but not like Anne Shirley.

I cannot say that I have the emotional connection to the character of Anne Shirley as do those readers who knew her when they were children. But the story was certainly well written. And I am interested enough in Anne to feel that I want to make my way through the whole series, just to see what Montgomery does with the characters.

And so, on to Anne of Avonlea.

- Catherine

Another new word

I came across a new word while reading Anne of Green Gables: "coruscations," as in "Her eyes dwelt affectionately on Green Gables, peering through its network of trees and reflecting the sunlight back from its windows in several little coruscations of glory."

My spell check doesn't know what to do with such a word.

Certainly you can get a sense of what it is by reading the sentence. But having a sense of things is just never enough, so I looked it up. According to the sources I checked online, the word dates from at least the early 19th century. And it means a sudden flash of light.

In Anne of Green Gables, "coruscations" is used in the narrative, rather than the dialog. But Anne Shirley, with all her dramatic tendencies, would have loved that word.

We in Pocatello can see a coruscation every sunny day -- it's from the Farm Bureau building that sits on the east bench above town. The building has a full glass front that faces the setting sun. Watch out when you're driving on the Interstate -- the "coruscation" is blinding.

- Catherine

Wit and Wisdom of Anne Shirley

"Saying one's prayers isn't the same thing as praying." That's from protagonist Anne Shirley in the chapter entitled "Anne's Apology," from the book Anne of Green Gables.

And I don't have anything more to add to that except that it's so very, very true.

- Catherine

Overbrinuning

I'm reading Anne of Green Gables for the first time in my life, and just a few pages into the first chapter I came across the word "overbrinuning." I have a pretty big vocabulary, but I'd never heard of overbrinuning. I assumed the proper word would be the verb "overbrinune." So I did what any red-blooded American does these days -- I Googled it.

Nothing. Google politely asked me if I'd misspelled it and did I really want the word "overbrining?"

I did not, thank you very much.

I wanted overbrinuning, as in "One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrinuning the proverbial peck of dirt."

I wrote to my good friend, Ruth, who has a degree in Library Science and who is a purveyor of fine used books. I knew she'd have an old dictionary that would contain what must obviously be the very arcane word "overbrinuning" (Anne of Green Gables was written over 100 years ago, after all). As I waited for her response, I eagerly anticipated learning a new nugget of trivial information from the past.

The reply I got was: must be a typo. A typo? In my $5.99 stock paperback copy that of course had been carefully proofread before printing? Ruth suggested that her own copy utilized the word.... "overbrimming."

I thought it over. Then I searched amazon.com for a version of A of GG where they allow you to read the first few pages as a preview. Sure enough -- "overbrimming" is the correct word.

It's still a strange and stilted turn of phrase, though: "One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrimming the proverbial peck of dirt." The old proverb to which Montgomery refers is meant to be a consolation for when one accidentally eats something dirty -- specifically, that the average person unknowingly ingests a peck (two dry gallons) of dirt in their lifetime. Montgomery was saying that Marilla Cuthbert was such a zealous housekeeper of Green Gables that, even if you ate directly off the ground, you wouldn't be adding to your lifetime's quota of a peck of dirt.

My house and the surrounding postage-stamp sized grounds are definitely not up to that standard of clean. In fact, if you ate off the ground in my yard, you would definitely be overbrinuning overbrimming the proverbial peck of dirt.

I wonder if I could hire Marilla Cuthbert?

- Catherine

Friday Fave Five

This weekly meme is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell.

1. Today is New Year's Day and it is also the first Friday of the month. The women of our church will hold our monthly First Friday Lunch anyway, despite the holiday. (Actually, we expect a better turnout since many are not working today.) So, I'm looking forward to a fun lunch today.

2. My walk with the dog this morning was very, veeeerrrryyyy quiet. That was partly due to the softly falling snow, but I think a smidgen of it may be attributed to a gigantic, city-wide hangover. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed the quiet.

3. Looking forward to dinner and a movie with my husband tonight to celebrate our anniversary.

4. Looking forward to participating in the Lucy Maud Montgomery reading challenge that Carrie is hosting over at Reading to Know. Surprisingly, I have never read any of Montgomery's books -- not even the famous Anne of Green Gables. Not sure how I managed to miss them when I was growing up, but miss them I did. I intend to make up for that, at least a little bit, by participating in the challenge. If you're interested, you can check it out by clicking on the link. (PS -- I'm starting with Anne of Green Gables.)

5. A good recipe for homemade barbecue sauce. Sounds silly, I know, but most commercial sauces contain ingredients that my husband can't eat -- and the ones that don't contain forbidden ingredients also don't taste all that good. I found an excellent recipe that I'll be able to tweak to our tastes, so that means we are back to eating BBQ pulled pork on a regular basis (one of our favorite dishes).

Happy New Year to one and all, and have a great weekend!

- Catherine