Anne of Green Gables for English learners: level, words and how to read it
L. M. Montgomery’s 1908 novel about a talkative red-haired orphan is one of the most loved books in English. It is funny and warm, but Anne loves long, dramatic words. Here is how difficult it is and how to read it in the original.
- Author
- L. M. Montgomery
- Published
- 1908
- Level
- B2
- Words
- 103,304
- Chapters
- 38
- Reading time
- ≈ 12 h
Read Anne of Green Gables in Booklex
In the app’s free library. Tap a word to see what it means.
What the book is about
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, an elderly brother and sister on Prince Edward Island in Canada, decide to adopt an orphan boy to help on their farm, Green Gables. By mistake, the orphanage sends a girl: eleven-year-old Anne Shirley, with red hair, freckles and an enormous imagination.
Anne talks without stopping, gives romantic names to everything around her and gets into one disaster after another: she dyes her hair green, accidentally gets her best friend Diana drunk and breaks a slate over the head of Gilbert Blythe for calling her “Carrots”. Slowly, she wins over the whole village and Marilla’s heart.
Themes
- Belonging. An unwanted orphan finds a home and a family.
- Imagination. Anne sees beauty and drama everywhere, which gets her into trouble and makes life richer.
- Growing up. Over five years Anne changes from a wild child into a thoughtful young woman.
- Friendship. Anne’s “bosom friend” Diana and her rivalry with Gilbert drive the story.
How hard is Anne of Green Gables to read in English?
Most of this book is made of everyday English. The 2,000 most common words cover 85.9% of it, so a learner who knows only those meets about 14 new words in every hundred. At 5,000 known words that drops to around 9, and at 10,000 to about 5.
Reading without help feels easy at about 98% familiar words (see our guide), which puts this book at B2–C1 by vocabulary. You do not need to know every word in advance, though: with tap-to-translate it works from B2. It is slightly harder than The Great Gatsby and slightly easier than Treasure Island.
What is hard: Anne loves big, romantic words and long speeches (she says so herself), and there are descriptions of nature full of plant names (firs, birches, poplars). What helps: the other characters speak simply, the humour is easy to catch, and every chapter is a self-contained episode, often with a clear disaster and its result.
Our take: B2 with tap-to-translate (B2–C1 by vocabulary). Anne’s speeches are the challenge and the fun. A great book if you want something warm, funny and long enough to really improve your reading.
Words to know before you start
Below are words that come up again and again in Anne of Green Gables but are rare in modern English. Knowing them before you start saves a lot of tapping in the first chapters.
| Word | Meaning | Times in the book |
|---|---|---|
| gable | the triangular top of a house wall under the roof | 36 |
| brooch | a piece of jewellery pinned to clothes | 34 |
| puffed | made round and full (puffed sleeves) | 22 |
| clasped | held tightly | 17 |
| firs | evergreen trees with needles | 16 |
| boughs | large branches of a tree | 15 |
| dreadfully | very, terribly | 14 |
| manse | the house of a church minister | 14 |
| mournfully | sadly | 12 |
| liniment | a cream rubbed on to ease pain | 9 |
How to read it in the original
- Enjoy Anne’s big words. Even Marilla does not understand some of them; the joke is often in the contrast.
- Do not save every flower and tree. Tap, picture the scene and move on.
- Read chapter by chapter. Each one is a small story, about 2,700 words.
- Pace it. At one chapter a day, the book takes just over five weeks.
The first line
Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook…
L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gablesdipped downwent downverb
Tap a highlighted word
The book opens not with Anne but with the village gossip, Mrs. Rachel Lynde, and a very long, winding sentence about a brook. Patience: Anne arrives in chapter 2 and the pace changes.
Frequently asked questions
Is Anne of Green Gables hard to read in English?
Moderately: about B2–C1 by vocabulary, B2 with tap-to-translate. Anne’s long, dramatic speeches and nature descriptions use rich vocabulary, but the plot is simple and the chapters are short episodes.
What English level do I need for Anne of Green Gables?
From B2, if you translate unknown words with a tap. Reading without any help needs about B2–C1. If it feels too hard, start with The Great Gatsby, which is a little easier.
