Emily of New Moon: Emily Byrd Starr, #1 -- L. M. Montgomery

Okay, okay.  I've calmed down a bit since my Emily freakout.  So now feel that I can actually talk about Emily of New Moon.

Judging from the comments on my Emily-related posts, it seems that I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't already read this book at least forty-seven times.  Just in case there's some quiet person out there who's in the same boat:

Miss Emily Byrd Starr, age ten, has lived with her ailing father in "the house in the hollow" for as long as she can remember.  People in the nearest town pity her for being motherless and for living in such a lonesome place, but:

Emily didn't know she was being pitied and didn't know what lonesomeness meant.  She had plenty of company.  There was Father--and Mike--and Saucy Sal.  The Wind Woman was always around; and there were the trees--Adam-and-Eve, and the Rooster Pine, and all the friendly lady-birches.

But consumption is consumption and eventually, her father dies.  And so Emily is sent to live with her Aunt Elizabeth, her Aunt Laura and her Cousin Jimmy at New Moon Farm.  Despite her troubles relating to her strict Aunt Elizabeth and her difficult first experiences with formal schooling, Emily grows to love New Moon and the people who live in and around it:  especially her friends Ilse, Teddy and Perry. 

Of course, I couldn't help thinking of the similarities between Emily Byrd Starr and Anne Shirley -- they're both orphans, both writers, both extremely precocious and both tend towards fancy and fantasy.  But Anne was an orphan for as long as she could remember, whereas Emily had a good ten years with her father -- so for me, well, you'll all be happy and smug to know that the first fifty pages of this book made me sob.  Sob.  And Emily has a passion for writing that I never felt from Anne -- Emily needs to write, while I felt that Anne just liked to write.  And this is the big one for me -- while I will always love reading about Anne Shirley, I've always thought that in real life I would want to strangle her.  Emily, on the other hand, I'd like to be friends with.

She's angrier than Anne, she's more prickly, and I think she has more spark.  Part of the reason, I think, is more than just simply personality, but the differences in their childhoods.  But now I'm starting to muse about the psychology of fictional characters and nobody needs that from me.  Anyway.  The scene right at the beginning where she hides under the table to listen to her relatives debate her flaws, merits and ultimately, her fate?  Brilliant.  And her time with Aunt Nancy, the time she goes to see the priest, her letters to her father, and the mystery of Ilse's mother?  All wonderful.  I don't know if I've ever despised a teacher quite as much as I despised Miss Brownell.  Or a little girl quite as much as Rhoda Stuart.

As for the other characters, I liked Dean Priest but I couldn't help but think that he's a pretty sketchy character for falling in love with an eleven-year-old.  (Or was she twelve at that point?  I can tell this is a book I'll need to read a few times)  I liked Teddy well enough, though I thought he was a bit boring -- but I'm definitely scared of his mother.  I loved Perry, of course -- the scene during Emily's bout with the measles where he sat guard on the stairs all night, "fists clenched, as if keeping guard against an unseen foe" just wrecked me.  And Isle's insults were AMAZING, and I loved her father.  I preferred Aunt Elizabeth to Aunt Laura because Aunt Elizabeth was more interesting, and of course I thought that Cousin Jimmy was a doll. 

I dog-eared so many pages with bits I liked that it would make more sense for me to go back and re-read the whole book instead of looking at the specific passages.  Yes, I loved Emily.  And I can see why so many people prefer her to Anne -- not just Emily vs. Anne, but the world of New Moon and Blair Water vs. the world of Green Gables and Avonlea.  We'll see.  I may end up being one of them.

________________________________________________________________

I read this book for the L. M. Montgomery mini-challenge.  My challenge post is here.

Comments

[Jen]

When I was younger, I liked Anne better than Emily, but as I grew older, Emily became and remained my favorite. She's a little darker, a little deeper, and maybe a little more realistic about certain things.

I had similar misgivings about Dean, especially rereading the stories as an adult - but I guess the standard age for girls to "grow up" was a little different back then. Maybe I give him the benefit of the doubt because, like you, Teddy bores me a bit.

[Emily]

yay! so glad you are enjoying emily. she is, like many other people, my favorite! i've read most of (all?) LMM's books, many are good, but the emily series remains my favorite.

[emmaco]

I didn't know anyone who liked the Emily books when I was a child so it's nice to see so many of us crawling out of the woodwork now. And it's very cool to read about your experiences reading these books for the first time as an adult!

I retrospectively damned Dean after events in a later book so can't remember if I liked him better than Teddy when I first read Emily of New Moon.

[BibliOphelia]

If you get a chance to read Montgomery's "The Blue Castle" I think you will really like it. Okay, so it's actually one of those books that you want to personally shove into people's hands and maniacally say, "You mussssst read thissss NOW!!!!!" (Confessions of an LMM-a-holic). I am glad you discovered Emily.

And you think you cried at Book One? Look out for Book Two...

[OolooKitty]

Glad you loved Emily! I also like that she has a touch of second sight, and always loved the episode about finding Ilse's mother. Creepy!!!

And yes, her letters to her father... Oh, man, I have to go dig out my copy and read it again.

[babs]

I can't remember what happens in book 2 that that's sad. And tell me at my email address. I don't want to ruin somebody else's reading.

Though I have a copy and could read it again.

I think I cried through much of book 3 too.

[k2]

I read My "Emily of New Moon" paperback until it literally feel to pieces.

[Virr]

emily is my favourite heroine, too. i identified with her the best. but my favourite book of hers is the blue castle. hehe.

[mamasonja]

Definitely, definitely, do read "The Blue Castle". One of her best It's the book I pick up to read when I'm sick.

On my honeymoon on Saltspring Island (B.C.), I found an almost untouched set of the Emily trilogy in a second hand bookstore - the ones with the covers I grew up with (the Bantam 1983 edition). I was beside myself - my old ones are falling apart and the new covers are just not the same. So exciting.

[Jennifer]

Yes, I'm rediscovering Emily lately. I read the Anne series as a preteen (and many times after), the Emily series as a teen, and then Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat as an adult. It's odd, I actually like Pat, and she has no great ambitions like either Anne or Emily - but I see similarities in all three. Emily is definitely the darkest of the three - and I remember loving the whole series.

[Florentine]

I have no problems with Dean Priest's interest in Emily as a young girl, seeing as he never tried to actually romance her until she was an adult. I think these days we are a bit too squeamish about the sexuality of young teens (which Emily was at that point, rather than a prepubescent child. Actually, I was always disappointed that Emily ended up with Teddy rather than Dean, Teddy being pretty bland in comparison.

[Clare J. Troy]

Florentine - I agree 100% about Dean and Teddy - I do find Dean's interest in the young Emily a bit creepy, but he's a much more interesting character. I think some critics have commented that he's LMM's most successful male character. I think that's true - I can only think of two male LMM characters who I really like - Dean and Mr. Carpenter, who I'd have loved to have had as my teacher! Gilbert was OK, I suppose, but I was never really all that fussed on him, ditto Matthew Cuthbert, whilst Teddy deserves some kind of prize for being the least charismatic romantic lead ever written - I think LMM was much better with female characters. As for Dean, I can see why a lot of readers don't like him, but I actually really like him.

[Luke]

I also read the 1983 Bantam editions when I was young. I own a boxed set of them now (thanks, eBay!)

If anyone's ever curious to check out the TV series - Approach. With. Caution. I wanted to like it so much, but I was disappointed over and over again. The writers take so many liberties that eventually the characters are living an entirely different story. The acting also leaves -much- to be desired. There are four seasons, but I only made it through one.

It does get a few things right, though. Emily's connection with the darker side of life comes across well. And as much as everyone loves Kevin Sullivan's Anne (including me), this show looks less pretty and thus more real. It was filmed completely on location, with some local actors.

And Phyllis Diller as Aunt Nancy? Awesome.

Maybe someday I'll try watching more. I think I'd rather re-read the books, though.