Telling the adventures of an orphan named Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908. The novel recounts the events of Anne's life after she is mistakenly sent to a farm on Prince Edward Island for two brothers who wished to adopt a boy to help with the hard work. 
Inspired by a series of notes and newspaper clippings she had collected as a young child, author Lucy Maud Montgomery began to write the story of Anne after reading an old article about a couple who were mistakenly sent an orphan girl instead of a boy they had requested, but decided to adopt her anyway. Montgomery also used a picture of Evelyn Nesbit, a popular chorus singer, as the model of Anne's face.
Since its publication, Anne of Green Gables has sold 50 million copies and has been translated into over 20 languages. The book is still read, studied and adapted today and is especially popular in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan.