Emily of New Moon (Emily, #1) in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jan 13, 2019 Manybooks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-reviews, l-m-montgomery, classics, favourites-read, childrens-literature, school-story

Even more so than L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, her Emily of New Moon trilogy novels (Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest) have always been absolutely and utterly personal favourites, and mostly so because while I have definitely and certainly enjoyed reading about Anne Shirley, her bubbly extrovertedness is not and can never be even remotely as close to me and to my own rather internal and quiet personality as equally imaginative and dreamy as Anne Shirley but als Even more so than L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, her Emily of New Moon trilogy novels (Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest) have always been absolutely and utterly personal favourites, and mostly so because while I have definitely and certainly enjoyed reading about Anne Shirley, her bubbly extrovertedness is not and can never be even remotely as close to me and to my own rather internal and quiet personality as equally imaginative and dreamy as Anne Shirley but also considerably more introverted Emily Byrd Starr. For indeed, Emily is absolutely and totally I, and a character, a persona to whom I can therefore relate much better and with considerably more ease than to either Anne Shirley and yes also to Emily's main sidekick and best friend Ilse Burnley who most certainly is an enjoyable and interestingly enough depicted character but who is also much too external and often considerably too all over the place, even bordering on the extreme for my personal reading tastes.

Now aside from my emotional kinship and attachment to young Emily Byrd Starr, I guess what has always made the Emily novels so special, so encouraging and uplifting (and indeed all of them, but my favourite is most definitely this here first novel, is Emily of New Moon) is that even with tragedies, sadness and emotional neglect being often rather overtly and painfully described by L.M. Montgomery (and in a manner so detailed and laden with pathos that she obviously seems to be writing from her own personal experience here), Emily is always able to keep engaging in her passion and need for writing even when especially her Aunt Elizabeth staunchly and rather unbendingly at first disapproves (and of course primarily and delightfully with Cousin Jimmy's help, who is probably one of my most favourite male L.M. Montgomery's male characters, period, richly and with exquisite and loving detail depicted, possessing a total and sweetly pure heart of gold and who is in fact also more than willing to unconditionally forgive Aunt Elizabeth for having pushed him into the New Moon well when they were children, even though this has had a lasting both physically and mentally painful effect on him).

And most definitely, I have certainly always in the Emily novels much preferred Cousin Jimmy as a character to say Aunt Laura, who while sweet tempered and always sympathetic towards Emily, is actually a rather pale and paper thin character with not much if any backbone and fight so to speak (and if truth be told, I do even rather prefer Aunt Elizabeth as a character to Aunt Laura, for while there is not really anything to Aunt Laura, Aunt Elizabeth always does appear as a real flesh and blood individual, as a character who might indeed be hard, severe and not always very sympathetic and empathetic towards her niece, towards Emily, but who still is a much more richly nuanced character than Laura who mostly just appears as a one dimensional leaf in my humble opinion). And yes indeed, I also do very much love love love how slowly but surely throughout the course of Emily of New Moon, both Emily and Aunt Elizabeth start to increasingly understand and appreciate one another until by the end of the novel, the latter considers her niece no longer merely an inconvenient duty and burden, no longer just the unloved and loathsome offspring of Juliet Murray's and Douglas Starr's unapproved of elopement and marriage, but a beloved and increasingly appreciated child (so eloquently and warmly depicted at the end of Emily of New Moon during Elizabeth's vigil at Emily's bedside when Emily is seriously and frighteningly ill with the measles, and where Elizabeth finally does admit to her sister Laura just how much she loves her niece and how much Emily actually has come to mean to her).

And now finally (but for and to me very much importantly), I do have to admit that I have aways had a somewhat difficult time accepting those dissenting voices which seem to imply that the character of Dean Priest is somehow and supposedly a pedophile (although I still do respect those readers who find him creepy, as what my reading tastes and viewpoints are, are of course not necessarily those of other readers). However and the above having been said, I personally do still NOT in any manner consider Dean Priest a potential pedophile (never have and never will), since his interest in Emily is (and in the first novel, in Emily of New Moon especially) entirely spiritual in nature, that he is not at all interested in Emily in a sexual and physical manner whatsoever, but in my opinion simply recognises and appreciates a kindred soul (as yes, Emily herself also does with him). And truthfully, aside from Cousin Jimmy and main protagonist Emily Byrd Starr, Dean Priest is probably also one of my favourite characters in Montgomery's Emily of New Moon series, well, at least until the third novel, until Emily's Quest, where Dean becomes more and more jealous of Emily's writing and actually causes (coerces) her to destroy, to burn her manuscript and then to be so devastated by this that she falls down the stairs and seriously injures herself. And yes, I do hope that those readers who tend to consider Dean Priest as a problematic individual and perhaps even as somewhat pedophilic will NOT now equally consider me thus, but be that as it may, I have indeed always adored Dean Priest (at least in the first two Emily novels, in both Emily of New Moon and Emily Climbs) and indeed until Dean's jealousy and almost stalker like clinginess in Emily's Quest, I for one had also kind of wanted Dean and Emily to become a couple as I just do not all that much like Teddy Kent as Emily's love interest (finding him a nicely enough conceptualised character but with not all that much which I personally would find either stimulating or engaging, and the same holds true for Perry Miller I might add, whom I do find more interesting than Teddy Kent but still not really of much narrative substance). ...more

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Jan 03, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-the-world-2018-2020, read-the-world, read-in-2019, childrens, canadian

A sweet and nostalgic story of another era. Emily is spunky, smart, imaginative, needy and completely real. I wish that I had read this on in my own childhood. I think it would have been a favorite.

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Nov 22, 2016 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel-the-world

Years ago I read the Anne of Green Gable series (maybe the first four books). I have always wanted to read the Emily trilogy. Although, I didn't enjoy this first book as much as the first Anne book, I am glad I read it, and plan to read the rest of the trilogy. ...more

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