Oh, Mr. Cuthbert, " she whispered, that place we came through--that white place--what was it?"" Well now, you must mean the Avenue, " said Matthew after a few moments' profound reflection. "It is a kind of pretty place."" Pretty? Oh, PRETTY doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful--wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination. It just satisfies me here"--she put one hand on her breast--"it made a queer funny ache and yet it was a pleasant ache. Did you ever have an ache like that, Mr. Cuthbert?""Well now, I just can't recollect that I ever had."" I have it lots of time--whenever I see anything royally beautiful. But they shouldn't call that lovely place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it--let me see--the White Way of Delight. Isn't that a nice imaginative name? .L.m. Montgomery
About This Quote
The idea of things being "prettier than beautiful" is a strong one. In fact, as an English professor, I often use this as a prompt for students to write poems. In the quote above, Matthew Cuthbertson tries to find an inspiring name for the Avenue of Delight. He starts with pretty, but the term pretty doesn't quite fit.
He then settles on lovely and beautiful. However, these two terms also don't quite do it. So he goes to something that's a bit more descriptive: white and lovely.
His choice of white is a bit strange because it doesn't really help much with describing the scenery in the abstract. However, his choice of lovely is much better. His choice here reflects the fact that words can reflect our feelings about something without saying anything concrete about it at all--something that color words have trouble doing
Source: Anne Of Green Gables
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