Is This How You Imagined Anne of Green Gables?

“Red hair is my life long sorrow.”

Fans of the Anne of Green Gables series will instantly recognize that as the titular character’s lament. But a modern update has given Anne a makeover that’s led to a change even more different than the time Anne accidentally died her hair green.

A version of the series put together on the self-publishing site CreateSpace and sold on Amazon portrays Anne with blond hair and a lustful look that’s more Twilight than the free-spirited character Lucy Maud Montgomery created.

“There isn’t one element of that picture—from the arm position, to the hair to the face, to the shirt, to the body—that says Anne of Green Gables in any way,” Mary Beth Cavert, a Minnetonka resident with the Lucy Maud Montgomery Literary Society, told an interviewer.

The change is one that has Anne fans talking—and not in a good way. The book has tallied 35 one-star reviews on Amazon so far, with virtually all of them criticizing the book’s cover.

Cavert discussed the change with the CBC Radio for a spot on As It Happens that aired Tuesday in Canada and on National Public Radio.

“Did you ever think of Anne of Green Gables as being sexy?” the interviewer asked at one point.

“No, she’s a young girl with freckles and red hair, and she’s undernourished.”

“And this one—she’s definitely not undernourished, this one,” the interviewer said.

Click here to listen to Cavert’s interview and then share your thoughts on the changes in the comments section below.

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