The 1991 report highlights the immense success of Anne of Green Gables even after 80 years of the original publishing. The reviewer compares the popularity of the Anne books with the American children’s book series Little House in the Prairie, as well as with the Hungarian “Cilike” stories which date back to the beginning of the 1900s. The reviewer states that the success of the Anne books can be attributed to the character portrayal of the protagonist, the precise description of both society and nature, and a noticeable religious morality. The report highlights that two popular film adaptations as well as a theatre play were based on the book. In the following year, the Anne of Green Gables were published in Hungarian translation (translated by Katalin Szűr-Szabó, see Table 7.1.).

The 1996 reviewing document explains that the four volume book series titled Váratlan utazás [Unexpected Journey] (published in 1993, 1994, 1995, translated by Zsuzsa Rakovszky) is falsely accredited to Montgomery as they are only inspired by her books, she is not the author per se. The movie tie-in books follow the storyline of the CBC and Disney Chanel TV series titled Road to Avonley which were directed by Kevin Sullivan and screened in Canada between 1990 and 1996. In Hungary, the TV series were dubbed and screened on the Hungarian National Television between 1993 and 1997. The episodes were merely inspired by Montgomery’s The Story Girl and The Golden Road which novels were translated in 1999 at Európa Publishing House with the title Mesélő lány (translated by Katalin Gádoros and Győző Ferencz), and Az arany út in 2000 (translated by Katalin Gádoros). The mentions of the film adaptations – both Anne of Green Gables and the Montgomery inspired Road to Avonley – in the publisher’s in-house documents as well as in the readers’ online forums are important to note as they have always been part of the cultural assemblage that Montgomery’s books travelled with.

Table 7.1. shows the titles that have been translated into Hungarian (listed according to the date of publication).

Although Montgomery initially wrote her novels and short stories for adults and wished to share her personal experience with women on the topics of raising children, being a pastor’s wife, living in Canada during a world war, etc., the books became popular with adolescent and teenage girls as well. In the target culture, the translations were positioned for the younger generation from the start and were presented as such by the publisher which can be traced especially in the illustrations. Most of the illustrations in Európa’s published titles were done by Krisztina Rényi, a renowned Hungarian graphic artist who recreated the characters according to her own visual interpretation which clearly differs from the image presented in the film series. Most of the drawings depict only the contour lines of the characters, thus, those pages can be used as a colouring activity for children. Additionally, in the catalogue of the Szabó Ervin Metropolitan Library in Budapest, Montgomery’s books appear under the category of ‘children’s literature’ and can be located in the children’s library section.

The Hungarian translations of Montgomery’s books were produced by six publishers: Európa, Könyvmolyképző, Lazi, Manó Kv., Esély Mozaik, and Fabula. Európa’s portfolio became very diverse in the 1990s, as it had to publish a variety of genres including fast sellers and YA novels to cover raising publishing costs. In 1992, Európa acquired the translation rights for Anne of Green Gables. Miklós M. Nagy, former director of Európa, shared1 that in the publication of the consecutive translations, he also had a personal motivation: his daughters were avid readers of the Montgomery series. Európa published 10 titles, then released the rights. Next, Könyvmolyképző located in the city of Szeged (South Hungary), focusing on young adult readers, picked up the rights. Later, when Európa wanted to publish Montgomery again, the rights were still contracted by Könyvmolyképző. Currently, the rights are with Lazi, also located in the city of Szeged. This small publisher releases Hungarian and world literature, various genres from young adult literature to science fiction, fantasy, academic books, history, philosophy, psychology and often reprints earlier translations of literary pieces that are free of royalties (e.g. Jane Austen). The Montgomery books at Lazi are positioned slightly differently compared to the earlier publisher as the books are listed under the tab “International Literature” rather than “Children’s and YA Fiction”.