Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism | Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery - New York Times Book Review (review date 18 July 1908)

New York Times Book Review (review date 18 July 1908)

“A Heroine from an Asylum.” New York Times Book Review (18 July 1908): 404.

[In the following review, the critic asserts that the character of Anne is unbelievable and spoils the novel.]

A farmer in Prince Edward's Island ordered a boy from a Nova Scotia asylum, but the order got twisted and the result was that a girl was sent the farmer instead of a boy. That girl is the heroine of L. M. Montgomery's story, Anne of Green Gables, (L. C. Page & Co.,) and it is no exaggeration to say that she is one of the most extraordinary girls that she is one of the most extraordinary girls that ever came out of an ink pot.

The author undoubtedly meant her to be queer, but she is altogether too queer. She was only 11 years old when she reached the house in Prince Edward's Island that was to be her home, but, in spite of her tender years, and in spite of the fact that,...

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