Averil's Atonement

"Averil's Atonement" is a short story written by Anne Shirley. Upon writing it, Anne sent it to "the very biggest of the 'big' magazines", but it wasn't accepted. Heeding some advice Mr Harrison gave her upon critiquing her story, she 'cut out' her flowery description of a sunset and sent the edited story to the Canadian Woman, another magazine, but it was again rejected. Anne hence claimed, 'This is the end of my literary ambitions', and decided to never write a story again. She put "Averil's Atonement" away in a trunk with her old Story Club tales, a trunk which she opened a few years later and read the contents of, along with Stella Maynard.

Plot
Although the plot of the story is never explicitly related, the story seems to function as a sort of fairy tale. Averil, the story's protagonist,

Characters

 * Averil Lester (the heroine)
 * Perceval Dalrymple (Averil's boyfriend)
 * Maurice Lennox (the villain)
 * Robert "Bobby" Ray (the hired boy who lives with the Lesters)

From Diana Barry
Diana Barry was the first person Anne showed her story to. She liked the story overall, but both she and Mr Harrison preferred the villain, Maurice Lennox, to the man the heroine ended up marrying: Perceval Dalrymple.

From George A. Harrison
"Your story isn't bad&mdash;it's kind of interesting, I'll admit. But you're too young to write a story that would be worth while. Wait ten years."

- Mr Harrison to Anne after reading her story

Mr Harrison found Anne's story 'kind of interesting', but did not think it was worthwhile reading. He, like Diana, preferred the villain to the hero, finding the hero 'too good' and saying that he didn't have 'a spice of human nature' in him.

Behind the scenes

 * Robert Ray, the hired boy who lives with the Lesters, was the only character Anne allowed Diana to name. Diana originally wanted to call him Raymond Fitzobourne, but Anne declared that was too aristocratic a name, and hence he was called Robert Ray.

Appearances

 * Anne of the Island (first appearance)