Early in Anne of the Island, Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe go for a walk in Point Pleasant Park with a few friends. L.M. Montgomery doesn’t call the park “Point Pleasant,” but neither does she give it a new name, in the way that she fictionalizes Halifax as Kingsport and Dalhousie University as Redmond College. It’s simply “the park,” recognizable as Point Pleasant because of its shore road and its view of the small, treeless island in the harbour – George’s Island, here named “William’s Island.”
“Gilbert and Anne loitered a little behind the others, enjoying the calm, still beauty of the autumn afternoon under the pines of the park, on the road that climbed and twisted around the harbour shore.” The two of them are good friends at this point, but Gilbert is beginning to indicate he’d like to be more than friends. Montgomery herself sought solace…
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Life in the Garden 