The Anne of Green Gables house is the stuff of dreams and has been known to reduce tourists to tears. Get the latest top news stories sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter We have more newsletters Get the latest top news stories sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter We have more newsletters Tourists on this very spot have fallen to their knees and cried with joy. I’m standing under a cherry tree on the lush lawn of a green-shuttered farmhouse known as the home of Anne of Green Gables.
This is where Lucy Maud Montgomery based her classic story of red-haired, freckle-faced orphan Anne, who brought infectious exuberance to her community and brought the author fame even today, 116 years after her instant best-seller was first published. Across the world and generations, book lovers dream of visiting this literary landmark. In Anne of Green Gables, Montgomery created dizzying descriptions of her impossibly idyllic surroundings and it is the main tourism draw here to the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.
Her 1908 book is a cultural phenomenon in Japan, where it’s taught in every school. Hiroko Suzuki, considered the island’s most knowledgeable Anne of Green Gables tour guide, loved the book so much that she left Japan to visit here 31 years ago and has stayed. She has grown used to witnessing such emotion when tourists see the legendary house for the first time.
“It’s a lifelong goal for many people,” she says. “It’s hard to .