Anne Shirley
- For the American movie actress (1918-1993) who portrayed Anne Shirley and adopted the name, see Anne Shirley (actress)
Anne Shirley is a fictional character introduced in the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Montgomery wrote in her journal that the idea for Anne's story came from relatives who, planning to adopt an orphaned boy, received a girl instead.
In the novel, Anne Shirley is a talkative 11-year-old orphan who is sent to live with Marilla Cuthbert and her shy bachelor brother Matthew at their farm, Green Gables, in the village of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island during the 1870s. Anne was orphaned as an infant when her parents, Walter and Bertha Shirley (née Willis), died of typhoid fever. Anne went to live with Mrs. Thomas, and later with the Hammond family. When Mr. Hammond died, Anne was sent to the orphanage at Hopetown, from which the Cuthberts adopt her. Anne, red-haired and freckled, has an overactive imagination and an impressive vocabulary as well as a temper, all of which influence her adventures. She does well in school, making a "bosom friend" in Diana Barry.
Matthew dies in Anne of Green Gables. In subsequent books in the series, Anne becomes a schoolteacher in Avonlea. After graduating from Redmond College with a B.A., she resumes her teaching career in the island's second-largest town, Summerside. She works as a principal for three years while her fiancé, Gilbert Blythe, finishes medical school. Rilla of Ingleside, which takes place against the backdrop of World War I, focuses on their youngest daughter.
Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote that she modeled Anne Shirley's appearance on that of notorious 1900s beauty Evelyn Nesbit, based upon a photograph of her she had cut out of a magazine.
The character features in the following books:
- Anne of Green Gables (1908)
- Anne of Avonlea (1909)
- Anne of the Island (1915)
- Anne's House of Dreams (1917)
- Rainbow Valley (1919)
- Rilla of Ingleside (1921)
- Anne of Windy Poplars (1936; UK title Anne of Windy Willows)
- Anne of Ingleside (1939)
References
- Busby, Brian (2003). Character Parts: Who's Really Who in CanLit, pages 235-237. Knopf.