Anne of Green Gables Books in Order: All 6 Free Online, Plus What to Read Next
Montgomery wrote eight Anne novels and did not write them in order. She jumped forward, went back to fill gaps, and produced two of them decades later out of obligation to a publisher rather than interest — so publication order and story order are different, and the usual numbered lists conflate them.
Six of the Anne books are free to read in the library, along with the two Avonlea story collections and four of her other novels. Here they are in the order the story happens, which is the order to read them in.
The Anne series, in reading order
1. Anne of Green Gables (1908) — Anne arrives at eleven, by mistake, at a farm that had asked for a boy. Montgomery's real achievement is that Anne does not reform Marilla by being good; she does it by being exhausting, and the softening happens off to the side where neither of them will admit it. The best book she wrote and one of the best openings in children's fiction. 2. Anne of Avonlea (1909) — Anne at sixteen, teaching in the village school. Quieter, more episodic, and the book where the supporting cast takes over. A second edition is in the library if you prefer a different setting of the text. 3. Anne of the Island (1915) — college at Redmond, and the one where the romance is finally resolved. Many readers' favourite after the first, because Anne is out of Avonlea and has to work out who she is without it. 4. Anne's House of Dreams (1917) — marriage, a first house, and a genuine grief in the middle of it that the series had not attempted before. This is where Montgomery starts writing for adults while still being shelved for children. 5. Rainbow Valley (1919) — Anne's children, and Anne herself mostly offstage. Read it as the necessary setup for the next one; on its own it is the slightest book in the series. 6. Rilla of Ingleside (1921) — and this is the one nobody expects. Anne's youngest daughter through the whole of the First World War, written by a woman who had just lived it, in a Canadian village sending its sons to France. It is the only contemporaneous novel of the war written from the home front by a woman, it is bleak, and it is the best book in the series after Green Gables. Do not skip it because it is sixth.
Missing from the library: Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside, which sit between books 3–4 and 4–5 respectively. Both were written in the 1930s to order, both are the weakest in the series, and their absence costs the reading experience close to nothing. Read straight through the six.
If you want the short answer: read 1, then 3, then 6. That is the spine.
The Avonlea story collections
Short stories set in the same village, with Anne appearing at the edges. Read them any time after Anne of Avonlea.
- Chronicles of Avonlea (1912) — the stories Montgomery chose herself, and the better collection. "The Hurrying of Ludovic" and "Old Lady Lloyd" are as good as anything in the novels.
- Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920) — published by her former publisher against her wishes, out of stories she had rejected, and she sued over it. It shows. Still enjoyable; just know why it is thinner.
Her other novels, and which one is actually the best
This is the part most Anne readers never get to, and one of these is arguably better than anything in the series.
- The Story Girl (1911) — Montgomery's own favourite of her books, and the case for it is strong. A group of cousins on a Prince Edward Island farm, and Sara Stanley, who tells stories. It has almost no plot and is entirely about the texture of a childhood summer. If you loved Green Gables for the atmosphere rather than the story, read this next.
- The Golden Road (1913) — the sequel, and the same children a year older. Slighter, and worth it if the first one worked on you.
- Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910) — short, romantic, and frankly a lesser thing: a beautiful mute girl and the schoolteacher who loves her. Included for completeness rather than recommended.
Reading notes
On the sentiment. Montgomery is often dismissed as sweet, and the dismissal survives only until House of Dreams. She writes grief, thwarted lives and small-town cruelty with real precision, and the humour is drier than the reputation suggests — much of it is at the expense of exactly the pieties the books are accused of holding.
On age. Green Gables works read aloud to a six-year-old and read alone at ten. The series ages with Anne, though: House of Dreams onward is adult in subject, and Rilla is a war novel. A child who starts at eight will meet the later books at the right time if you let the series wait.
On the period. The books are gentler on class and race than most of their contemporaries, but Rilla is wartime patriotic writing and reads like it in places.
For the wider shelf, books like Anne of Green Gables covers the neighbouring novels, classic orphan stories free online covers the plot Montgomery was working inside, and everything of hers is on her author page.