Anne of Green Gables Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

Anne of Green Gables book club questions · readeasy.app/book-club-questions/anne-of-green-gables/

1. 1. Anne renames everything — the Lake of Shining Waters, the Avenue. Is her imagination a survival tool, a social liability, or a moral position?

2. 2. Marilla's arc runs from caution to love without ever saying the word. Which small scene marks the turn, and would a more expressive Marilla be a better character?

3. 3. Matthew is the first person who keeps Anne. Why does his quiet do what speeches cannot — and what changes in the book after he is gone?

4. 4. Anne refuses to forgive Gilbert for 'Carrots' for years. Is the grudge comic, tragic, or a real portrait of how pride protects a wounded child?

5. 5. The book delights in places — lanes, ponds, orchards. Is Green Gables a character? What does the novel lose and gain by loving landscape this openly?

6. 6. Anne gives up the scholarship. Is the ending a surrender to domestic duty, a genuine free choice, or both — and does 1908 let Montgomery say which?

7. 7. Which single decision in Anne of Green Gables, made differently, changes everything — and would the book be better or worse for it?

8. 8. Where in Anne of Green Gables did you stop trusting the narrator — or realize you never should have started?

9. 9. What does Anne of Green Gables assume about its reader? Do you fit the assumption?

10. 10. Casting the adaptation of Anne of Green Gables: who plays the protagonist, and who steals the film?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

Anne of Green Gables runs about 99,000 words - roughly 320 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the Anne of Green Gables quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like Anne of Green Gables list is the handout.

Taking the club through the whole author? Our Anne of Green Gables books in order guide orders the full shelf.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

Pride and Prejudice questions, Jane Eyre questions, Little Women questions, The Catcher in the Rye questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

Frequently asked questions