Anne of Green Gables

The appeal of this Canadian classic children`s book is seemingly everlasting - for it is a story of an individual making good by her own efforts, an orphaned girl sent to live with an elderly brother and sister who really want a boy to help on the farm. First published in 1908, the book was written by a scoolteacher who`d experienced the same upbringing as her heroine and who set her story in the place she knew best - Prince Edward Island. The story was popular from the start, and Mark Twain described Anne as `the dearest, and most lovable child in fiction since the ommortal Alice`. The book has been filmed, staged, tramslated in many languages, and has been introduced by a highly successful TV dramatization. Sybil Tawse, English portrait painter and illustrator of many classics, including Mrs Gaskell`s CRANFORD and Lamb`s ESSAYS OF ELIA, provided the pen-and-ink drawings in 1933.