Have you read the Anne of Green Gables books? Maybe you’ve seen movies or television shows? Well did you know that Anne of Green Gables has an entire book series after it? I found the whole series on Amazon a few months ago and I fell in love. Then when I researched L. M. Montgomery (a Canadian Author) I was even more obsessed with Anne Shirley and her adventures through Prince Edward Island (in Nova Scotia, Canada) and beyond.
Anne of Green Gables is a collection of eight books, six of which revolve around Anne Shirley set in the late 1900’s, the other two books follow the adventures of Anne Shirley’s children. L.M. Montgomery also wrote two other collections of stories set in the same fictional world of Prince Edward Island that mention Anne Shirley. The series follows the life of an orphan named Anne Shirley and how she goes through everyday life with her optimistic and introspective outlook. Through it all we see her develop lifelong friends, get her first kiss, find true love, make tough decisions, and ultimately show a strength of character readers can’t help but identify with. Which is one reason her character is so beloved by all who know her.
Here is the complete chronological order for reading the Anne of Green Gables book series:
*Note I did list the links to all these books on Amazon individually, however, quite a few of the books are out of print or have different (not matching) covers and if you are like me, this will bother you to no end. So I highly recommend just buying the complete set listed here in Paperback & Hardcover editions or through the publisher directly. If you want to be really fancy I found a really neat collectors edition as well from Wordsworth. Some of the links below may be affiliate links, see my privacy policy and disclosures for more information.
The first book in the series is, of course, Anne of Green Gables. It follows the adventures of eleven-year-old Anne Shirley. Here is the book synopsis: Since her parents’ deaths, she’s bounced around to foster homes and orphanages. When she is sent by mistake to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she wants to stay forever. But Anne is not the sturdy boy Matthew and Marilla were expecting.
She’s a mischievous, talkative redheaded girl with a fierce temper, who tumbles into one scrape after another. Anne is not like anybody else, the Cuthberts agree; she is special, a girl with an enormous imagination. All she’s ever wanted is to belong somewhere. And the longer she stays at Green Gables, the harder it is for anyone to imagine life without her.
You can add it to your Goodreads shelf or Amazon Wish list.
“There’s such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I’m such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn’t be half so interesting.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
The second book in the Adventures of Anne of Green Gables is called Anne of Avonlea. Anne Shirley is now in her late teens (16-18 years old) during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. When twelve-year-old Anne Shirley came to Avonlea, she quickly won everyone’s hearts. Now, she’s five years older, almost a woman, and about to embark on a new adventure: becoming the teacher in her old Avonlea school. It’s an exciting year as Anne struggles to win over all her students, welcomes two new members to her family, and feels the first stirrings of love.
You can add it to your Goodreads shelf or Amazon Wishlist.
“Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
The third book in the series is Anne of the Island. Anne Shirley has come a long way since her days as a mischievous orphan living in the house at Green Gables. New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With her old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and her frivolous new friend Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises . . . including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson. But tears turn to laughter when Anne and her friends move into an old cottage and an ornery black cat steals her heart. Little does Anne know that handsome Gilbert Blythe wants to win her heart, too. Suddenly Anne must decide whether she’s ready for love.
You can add it to your Goodreads shelf or Amazon Wish list.
“Anne laughed.
“I don’t want sunbursts or marble halls, I just want you.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island
The fourth book in the Anne of Green Gables series is Anne of Windy Poplars (Or Anne of Windy Willows if you are from the UK or Australia).
Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They’re known as the royal family of Summerside—and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widow’s Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty—and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside’s strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles is only the first of her delicious triumphs.
Add it to your Goodreads shelf or your Amazon wishlist.
“You were never poor as long as you had something to love.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars
“Gilbert, I’m afraid I’m scandalously in love with you.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars
Book five in the series is Anne’s House of Dreams.
Anne’s own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor.
A new life means fresh problems to solve and fresh surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and meet their neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart—and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.
Add it to your Goodreads shelf or Amazon Wish list.
“I’d like to add some beauty to life,” said Anne dreamily. “I don’t exactly want to make people KNOW more… though I know that IS the noblest ambition… but I’d love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me… to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn’t been born.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams
The sixth book and the last one to focus mainly on Anne Shirley is Anne of Ingleside. Seven years on from ‘Anne’s House of Dreams’ the Blythe’s have set up home in a house they affectionately name Ingleside.
Anne is the mother of five, with never a dull moment in her lively home. And now, with a new baby on the way and insufferable Aunt Mary Maria visiting—and wearing out her welcome—Anne’s life is full to bursting.
Still, Mrs. Doctor can’t think of any place she’d rather be than her own beloved Ingleside. Until the day she begins to worry that her adored Gilbert doesn’t love her anymore. How could that be? She may be a little older, but she’s still the same irrepressible, irreplaceable redhead—the wonderful Anne of Green Gables, all grown up. She’s ready to make her cherished husband fall in love with her all over again!
Add it to your Goodreads shelf or Amazon wish list
“It’s not what the world holds for you, it’s what you bring to it.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Ingleside
Book seven, Rainbow Valley. Follows the children of the beloved characters of Anne of Green Gables as they explore the countryside around their home. Anne Shirley is grown up, has married her beloved Gilbert, and is the mother of six mischievous children. These boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream of what will happen when a strange family moves into an old mansion nearby. The Meredith clan is two boys and two girls—and a runaway named Mary Vance. Soon the Merediths join Anne’s children in their private hideout, intent on carrying out their plans to save Mary from the orphanage, to help the lonely minister find happiness, and to keep a pet rooster from the soup pot. There’s always an adventure brewing in the sun-dappled world of Rainbow Valley.
You can add it to your Goodreads or Amazon List
“It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter.”
― L. M. Montgomery, Rainbow Valley
Book eight, Rilla of Ingleside follows Anne Shirley’s daughter, Rilla, as she navigates the challenges and joys of coming of age during the tumultuous times of World War I. With its charming characters and poignant themes, this novel captures the enduring spirit of the Anne series.
Anne’s children are almost grown up, except for pretty, high-spirited Rilla. No one can resist her bright hazel eyes and dazzling smile. Rilla, almost fifteen, can’t think any further ahead than going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from handsome Kenneth Ford. But undreamed-of challenges await the irrepressible Rilla when the world of Ingleside is endangered by a far-off war. Her brothers go off to fight, and Rilla brings home an orphaned newborn in a soup tureen. She is swept into a drama that tests her courage and changes her forever.
“There was something in her movements that made you think she never walked but always danced.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside
Book nine, not published until 2009, is a combination of short stories, articles, and essays that L.M. Montgomery wrote about the Blythe family. Titled “The Blythes Are Quoted” it is quite different from the other books as it deals with themes of adultery, illegitimacy, misogyny, revenge, murder, despair, bitterness, hatred, and death—usually not the first terms associated with L.M. Montgomery. But in The Blythe’s Are Quoted, completed shortly before Montgomery’s death, Montgomery brought these topics to the forefront in what she intended to be the ninth volume in her bestselling series featuring her beloved heroine, Anne. Divided into two sections, one set before and one after the Great War of 1914—1918, The Blythe’s Are Quoted contains fifteen episodes that include an adult Anne and her family. Binding these short stories, Montgomery inserted sketches featuring Anne and Gilbert Blythe discussing poems by Anne and their middle son, Walter, who dies as a soldier in the war. By blending poetry, prose, and dialogue, Montgomery was experimenting with storytelling methods in ways she had never attempted.
The Blythes Are Quoted is the last work of fiction by the internationally celebrated author of Anne of Green Gables. Intended by L.M. Montgomery to be the ninth volume in her bestselling series featuring her beloved heroine Anne – and delivered to her publisher on the very day she died – it has never before been published in its entirety. This rediscovered volume marks the final word of a writer whose work continues to fascinate readers all over the world.
Intended by Montgomery to be the ninth volume in her bestselling series featuring Anne Shirley Blythe, The Blythes Are Quoted takes Anne and her family a full two decades beyond anything else she published about them, and some of its subject matter is darker than we might expect.
Divided into two sections, one set before and one after the Great War of 1914–1918, it contains fifteen short stories set in and around the Blythes’ Prince Edward Island community of Glen St. Mary. Binding these stories are sketches featuring Anne and Gilbert Blythe discussing poems by Anne and their middle son, Walter, who dies as a soldier in the war. By blending together poetry, prose, and dialogue in this way, Montgomery was at the end of her career experimenting with storytelling methods in an entirely new manner.
This publication of Montgomery’s rediscovered original work – previously published only in severely abridged form as The Road to Yesterday – invites readers to return to her earlier books with a renewed appreciation and perspective.
You can easily find it on Goodreads or Amazon.
“Oh, what would the world be without youth? And yet it passes so quickly. We are old before we know it. We never believe it … and then someday we wake up and discover we are old.”
― L.M. Montgomery, The Blythes Are Quoted
The extra two books where Anne Shirley is mentioned are Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea.
On Prince Edward Island, where Anne Shirley grew up in the sea-sprayed town of Avonlea, there was no shortage of wonderful stories. There was the case of Ludovic Speed, who wouldn’t propose to the woman he had courted for fifteen years until Anne devised a plan to “speed” him up . . . if it didn’t backfire and break his heart. But no one could blame mischievous Anne for the hilarious battle of the sexes that erupted when a man-hating woman and her cat got quarantined in the same house with a woman-hating bachelor and his dog. From sprawling Penhallow Grange, where a family waits nearly forever for two quarreling lovers to break their stubborn silence, to the tumbledown farm of Old Man Shaw, who awaits the return of his beloved daughter, L. M. Montgomery has written twelve tales of secret hopes and hidden dreams, filled with enchantment and humor.
You can find the series on Goodreads or The Chronicles of Avonlea on Amazon
“Gossip, as usual, was one-third right and two-thirds wrong.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Chronicles of Avonlea
Further Chronicles of Avonlea – Nestled between the ocean and the hills of Prince Edward Island is a road. This road leads to the house—Green Gables—where a girl named Anne grew up, and to the wonderful place called Avonlea.
In this second volume of heartwarming tales by L. M. Montgomery, a Persian cat plays an astonishing part in a marriage proposal; a ghostly appearance in a garden leads a woman to the fulfillment of her youthful dreams; a young girl risks losing her mother to find the father she never knew; and a foolish lie threatens to make an unattached woman a laughingstock when an imaginary lover actually comes to town. Filled with warmth, humor, and mystery, these unforgettable stories re-create the enchanting world of Avonlea.
You can find the series on Goodreads and or this book on Amazon.
“There’s a kind of failure that’s the best success”
― L.M. Montgomery, Further Chronicles of Avonlea
And of course, all the books in the Anne of Green Gables series are available in audiobook format for you to enjoy as well. I enjoyed the Oasis Audios version of Anne of Avonlea.
Other ways to enjoy Anne of Green Gables
Now if you are like me and just a bit obsessed with the wonderful world that L. M. Montgomery created and you don’t want it to end, there are options! If you want more book recommendations, I suggest you check out Rachel Dodge’s The Anne of Green Gables Devotional: A Chapter-by-Chapter Companion for Kindred Spirits. It highlights the beautiful meaning of friendship and has some wonderful illustrations too! I also recommend checking out Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings by Mary Henley Rubio & After Anne: A Novel of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Life by Logan Steiner if you’d like a look at the life of L.M. Montgomery and how she came to write Anne of Green Gables.
There have also been several cookbooks published about Anne of Green Gables you can check out too! My personal favorite has been The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook: Charming Recipes from Anne and Her Friends in Avonlea by Kate Macdonald. But the Cooking with “Anne” Gift Kit direct from the publisher is also neat. It comes with a cookbook, a Victorian CD to get you in the mood, plus salt and pepper shakers as well.
If books just aren’t your thing, they have made the entire series into movies and adapted it into a television series as well. Both of which I highly recommend checking out.
It starts with Anne of Green Gables, followed by Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, and Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story, the last movie completely changes the cast and was made decades later and is called Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning. There is also a spin-off tv series called Road To Avonlea that I am obsessed with. It has seven seasons and is binge-worthy. I also know that PBS has done a spin-off version of the television series as well but I have yet to watch it, however, the Amazon reviews are very positive.
All in all, it’s easy to see why Anne of Green Gables continues to capture the imaginations of entire generations. L.M. Montgomery put hopes and dreams, trials and triumphs, and life Into this series in spectacular and memorable ways. I hope that her writing will continue to inspire people from all walks of life to look on the bright side and remember, “You can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”- L.M. Montgomery. And while Anne of Green Gables was written for a younger audience every age group will enjoy going on adventures with Anne Shirley.
