Lately, though, the series has been on my mind for more reasons than that. Of course, as my last entry mentioned, Sarah and I are planning a vacation to Canada, home of Anne Shirley and L.M. Montgomery, and if there are any Green Gables souvenirs available on our trip, you can bet your ass I'll be begging Sarah to let us take it home to our Brooklyn home. So that's reason number one.
Reason number two is that I've been reading the first and last books in the series at the same time in the last few weeks. The first book, I've been reading out loud, one or two chapters a night, to Sarah, who had never read the series before but wanted to know more about it as she performed Diana's song from one of the musicals based on the book for a cabaret recently. Sadly, no one filmed her singing it so here, have a video of one of the other songs she performed that day because I love Sarah so much and she's so talented:
The last book, The Blythes Are Quoted, is the only one in the series I hadn't read before. It was the last book Montgomery ever wrote - she turned in the manuscript to her publisher very shortly before her suicide - but wasn't published in full until 2009. I've wanted to read it since then, but it's incredibly difficult to find a hard copy on the book for anything under $200. Luckily, a coworker of mine gave me her old Nook after her husband got her a Kindle, and it turns out an electronic copy of the book goes for a whopping thirteen dollars, something even I can afford. So I bought it, downloaded it, and devoured it, savouring every word of Montgomery's swan song and the last book in which Anne Shirley Blythe appears, following my dear literary kindred spirit all the way up into World War II.
And yet I can see why it wasn't published in the forties when it was written. It doesn't feel like the other Anne books. It's undoubtedly Montgomery's prose, with her flowery descriptions and subtle humour, but it's much darker than the sunny and comfortable optimism that's a trademark of the first few books. It has a ton of darker themes that really reflect just how bad Montgomery's mental state had gotten by the second world war - themes of adultery, illegitimacy, despair, misogyny, revenge, bitterness, hatred, aging, death, and even murder. It's fascinating.
While I still love the first three Anne books best, as reading them feels the most like a homecoming for my soul, the completionist in me is glad I finally got to read the final book.
In diving so much back into Anne's world, both in sharing the first book with Sarah (which has been fascinating as it's like seeing it for the first time through someone else's eyes) and finally getting to read the last book, it's giving me such a longing to literally visit Anne's world. I don't just mean reading the books or watching the various movies and TV shows that have been made based on the books. I want to walk past the Violet Vale and the Lake of Shining Waters and take tea with Anne Shirley and Diana Barry and my beloved Sarah in Avonlea itself! I am impatient and don't want to wait for our Canada trip - I want to find Anne and her world right here in New York!
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| Tea service at Chat Noir, Rockville Centre |
Sarah, instinctively, seems to understand this desire of mine even if I've never voiced it out loud to her. Last Sunday, she took me out to Long Island and treated me to tea at a place Anne would love called Chat Noir, in Rockville Centre. Because when professionals serve you your tea service, there's no danger of mixing it up with currant wine and accidentally setting your best friend drunk!
It certainly was a treat! Vanilla chai tea in a beautiful matching tea set with delicate purple flowers, chocolate scones with jam and clotted cream, finger sandwiches with French-inspired ingredients such as crême fraiche and brie cheese, and bite-size desserts such as cream puffs made to look like swans and chocolate-cinnamon mini cakes!
This quaint escape from big city life, from the subway, left me feeling very similarly to how I feel revisiting the Anne books. How I wanted more of that feeling. How I craved it.
And so I wonder, if it were possible to bring Anne into my world, where would she want to go? What would she like to see? How would she try to find traces of quaint, rural, late-Victorian Avonlea in New York City?
I know, I know. The very idea is ridiculous. The idea of Anne Shirley (later Anne Blythe), of all characters, in New York City?! Her worldview is as foreign to this city as blue cheese is to dim sum! It just doesn't seem like it would work!
And yet... New York City is pretty damn versatile. True, I can't imagine Anne walking down Wall Street or through the crowded streets of Midtown. True, I very much doubt she'd get much enjoyment out of the subway or the skyscrapers. But that doesn't mean I think she'd hate all of New York City!
10 Places in New York City that Anne Would Like
(In no particular order except that which I think of them)
1. Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Why: Of course we all know that Anne loves nature. She loves trees and flowers and places of natural beauty. NYC has multiple botanic gardens, and of course I believe Anne would love all of them, but of them Brooklyn's is by and far the best. Personally, I think she'd adore the Shakespeare garden, the garden for the blind that invites you to touch and smell the plants, and the section near the back that's pictured above.
2. Central Park Conservatory Gardens
Why: Just as with location number one, Anne's love of nature and flowers plays into this choice. (And it's no coincidence that this is my favourite section of Central Park...) These gardens look like something transported from the grounds of a Tudor-era mansion, and I think Anne would love that. She would love wandering around their cultivated beauty and imagining herself a Shakespearean maiden. Though all three of the sections (Italian, French and English) are beautiful, I think she would like the English garden best, as it pays homage to The Secret Garden, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Anne would love that book.
3. Alice's Tea Cup
Why: She could take Diana here! As I said earlier, there's no danger of mixing up the beverages with something alcoholic if the staff is serving you. (Though this place does serve alcohol were they so inclined.) While I think Anne and Diana would appreciate anywhere in the city with a good tea service, Alice's Tea Cup gets extra points for whimsy. From its tables made from old Victorian sewing tables to its mismatched tea sets to its floral teas that sometimes are named things like "Fairy's Tea". I think this whimsy would especially appeal to them.
4. Prospect Park
Why: It looks wild and beautiful in all seasons, much wilder and less well-groomed than its more famous sister, Central Park. Thus, much more scope of the imagination! There are lots of trees for Anne to befriend, and lots of glorious surprises for her to discover, from the carousel and the Lefferts House, the the WWI memorial (which I think the Anne of later books would appreciate).
5. The Cloisters
Why: It's a well-known fact that Anne has an affinity for the medieval era. She expresses, in the first book, a longing to travel back to medieval times, to Arthurian Camelot. The Cloisters, at times, really does feel like you've travelled to medieval times. It helps that it's assembled from actual medieval monastery buildings. I just know Anne would love wandering its halls, enraptured by the tapestries and relics, and captivated by the gardens. It'd probably become one of her favourite spots in the city, and a nice quiet escape from the hustle and bustle and noise of other parts of NYC!
6. City Island
Why: Yes, it is one of my absolute favourite spots in the city (as are many spots on this list) and that's no coincidence - part of me always has identified with Anne, after all. But I really think she'd love this charming little island off the coast of the Bronx! In later books, Anne and her husband Gilbert move to a seaside fishing village called Glen St. Mary. City Island's quaint seaside fishing village mood is completely reminiscent of that. I can just see Captain Jim and the Blythes gallavanting around this community with its oddly small-town feel. I just know Anne would love the City Island museum with its friendly Barbara-shop Quartet, the homey little ice cream parlour Lickety Split, and the adorable seaside cemetery, just as much as I do.
7. Jane's Carousel
Why: Carousels are so romantic and Anne loves romantic things! While NYC has many to choose from (including the Prospect Park one mentioned earlier), this one in particular - with its spectacular view of the boats on the East River and the buildings of lower Manhattan - is really something special. I can imagine her and Gilbert riding it at sunset and then exploring the surrounding park in the twilight before eating a local Brooklyn dinner. (Perhaps at Brooklyn's Mile End Deli, which serves poutine - a dish as Canadian as Anne herself!)
8. Merchant's House Museum
Why: It's the only fully-original house in NYC (that I know of anyway - please feel free to correct me if I am wrong), with all of its original furniture intact, that's more or less contemporary to Anne's life. She's seen her beloved country farmhouse Green Gables, and her seaside homes the House of Dreams and Ingleside, and she's seen the grand mansion of Diana's great aunt Josephine Barry. I think she'd appreciate the opportunity to see the house of a wealthy American family in New York as well! And the Tredwell home definitely fits the bill.
9. Queens County Farm Museum
Why: While I'm mostly trying to confine this list to places I've actually been before, I'm making an exception for this one (which I plan to visit someday as well). This large swath of undeveloped farmland is the closest thing to Green Gables and Avonlea that dear Anne is likely to find in NYC. With historic farm buildings, an orchard, livestock, and even a corn maze in the Halloween season, it'd be a good place for her to retreat to if the big city life was just too much for her.
10. The New York Public Library Main Building
Why: Of course, voracious reader that Anne is, I can't really think of any libraries or bookstores in the city that she wouldn't like... But this building is in a class all its own. It's just gorgeous! And I think Anne would find it well worth risking walking through the horrors of Midtown to see it! I can't help but imagine her losing hours here, reading to her heart's content in the beautiful Rose Room.
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All in all, this was a fascinating exercise in imagination (and as anyone who's read any of the books knows, imagination is something Anne Shirley knows intimately) - and it's an exercise I encourage! It really helped me see NYC in new ways!
I encourage all of you to think about your favourite fictional characters and where you'd take them in the cities and towns you live in, if you were given the chance. And then, if you'd like, feel free to share the thoughts with me in the comments or on the blog's facebook page!
~Nym~
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