Laura didn't beat up Eliza Jane. The incident I was thinking of was when Carrie was punished by having to rock the school bench with a loose bolt, and Laura came to help and got all wild and violent (the illustration in the book was very impressive!)

I had forgotten that! Laura kicked A!

Okay, so Anne would have the edge in a verbal battle, but a physical tussle definitely goes to Laura.

I LOVE than picture. She is FIERCE.

I haven't read the books since I was a kid--sounds like I need to do a reread!

From the happy discussion it has generated, it sounds like in a fight between Laura and Anne, everybody wins.

Imagine getting to do this: [link] as a living. Like, you decide there is a niche for it, and fuck, Slazenger will pay you to do it. That's some highly refined goal manifestation right there, and I feel shamed that I merely took a job someone else created.

That's a surprisingly good question, Laura vs Anne! They are both scrappy...I think it might depend on WHY they were fighting--is Anne fighting for a friend's honor?

Laura, hands down.

Laura would win: she's the product of a pioneer lifestyle, and because of their poverty grew up much scrappier and tougher than Anne. Avonlea, by contrast, is really quite civilized: Anne's dangers are all social rather than physical (with the possible exception of falling off the rooftree when someone dared her to walk it).

Anne is certainly far better educated than Laura, and more confident in circumstances requiring intelligence or people skills. But come the zombie apocalypse, Laura would be more likely to survive.

I'm with Consuela! Laura helped in the fields, and rode horses at Silver Lake and fought of some kind of animal with a pitchfork (I can picture the illustration).