Abstract
This article examines the similarities between L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. It raises a number of questions about the Canadianness of Montgomery's best loved novel and considers the author's literary indebtedness to Wiggin and other American authors including Gene Stratton-Porter and Sarah Orne Jewett. It concludes with the argument that even though statements regarding Anne's originality and distinctive Canadianness are problematic, as a literary work, Anne has real strengths that make it more than a simple formula story. Anne of Green Gables is the work of a consummate storyteller.
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Dawson, J. Literary Relations: Anne Shirley and Her American Cousins. Children's Literature in Education 33, 29–51 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014415709167
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014415709167