Book Review: Emily & Anne

[osprey_archer]

I’ve been reading Emily Climbs, the sequel to L. M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon, which is her second most famous series after, of course, Anne of Green Gables. And I can see why: Anne has a splendid romance, while I don’t like any of Emily’s romantic choices. I think she’s going to end up with Teddy, who is the least objectionable of the lot. But so dull!

On the other hand, Emily’s best friend Ilse is a thousand times more interesting than Anne’s best friend Diana, who is nearly as dull as Teddy. I always felt that Anne was in a sense projecting kindred spiritship onto Diana - not that Diana didn’t like Anne a lot, because she clearly did, but the poetic depth of the relationship was all Anne’s.

It works out all right, because Anne is a fictional character, but in real life attempting to believe someone into being a kindred spirit is pretty much destined to end in disillusionment.

Ilse, on the other hand, clearly has true kindred spirit potential: I love her wickedness. She flies into rages and curses, she wears clothes that are too grown up and goes around with too many boys, she doubts the existence of God, and she and Emily had adventures: they go skinny-dipping together (Emily protests: we kept our petticoats on!) and sleep out all night on a haystack.

Also, the Emily books introduce a word that I think ought to be dragged into the lexicon. Speaking of a cousin, Emily says, “She and I are friendish...we are more than mere acquaintances but not really friendly. We will always be friendish and never more than friendish. We don’t talk the same language.” (261)

ALSO because it is Yuletide week, I come bearing an Emily of New Moon Yuletide rec. A modern day version where Emily blogs, with a dash of Anne for good measure: Work in Progress. (The author lists the pairing as Emily Byrd Starr/Writing. I am in favor of this.)

Anne rolls her eyes. "Is your aunt really going to know if you cheat on your nonfiction with some hot prose on the side?"

"It's the principle of the thing. I've got my pride," Emily says.

"Ah, yes, Murray pride," Anne says, warming to the topic. "Also known as, your family is so ridiculously stubborn that whenever I think about them I thank God I'm an orphan."

"I'm an orphan, too," Emily points out.

"I thank God I'm adopted," Anne says.

Comments

[ladyherenya]

I've always preferred the Emily books over the Anne books. Partly because I read them first and can identify more with Emily than with Anne, and partly because I read the books aged 12 and I find it hard to separate what I think now from what 12-year-old me thought.

(12-year-me would like to insist that Teddy is NOT dull and how dare you suggest otherwise...)

Anyway, your comments about Ilse made me think that Emily's friendship with Ilse probably has a lot to do with with preference for Emily over Anne - their friendship is lively in a way that Anne's friendship with Diana is not. Also neither Emily nor Ilse seem like they would be the easiest people to be friends with, so that they manage to be friends in spite of their strong personalities and conflict says something about the strength of that friendship.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I apologize to 12-year-old herenya. Possibly I'll like him more when I read Emily's Quest? It sounds from the description like he'll be in the book more than he was in Emily Climbs. He doesn't have the palpable presence in the Emily books that Gilbert does in the Anne books, and because he's so intermittent it's hard for me to root for him and Emily to get together.

And yes, I think you're right about Emily & Ilse's friendship: they both seem like rather difficult people (Emily the more so, perhaps, because unlike Ilse she doesn't realize she's difficult) but they've created a friendship which suits them both to a T.

[ladyherenya]

Hmm, it is quite likely I would feel less strongly about Teddy if I were reading the books for the first time now. I suspect 12-year-old-me liked him so mostly because he seemed nice.

It's a few years since I've reread Emily's Quest, so I'm not actually confident Teddy will prove himself to be less dull than you presently consider him to be. (I am fairly confident, though, that Teddy will continue to prove himself less objectionable than some of Emily's other romantic prospects...)


Also, thank you for that fic rec! Emily the blogger being friends with Anne was amazing.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked the story!

[anomilygrace.livejournal.com]

At some point I read that Montgomery intended Emily as more of 'portrait of the author as a young girl' character. Which, to me, makes a lot of sense when thinking of the books.

When I was reading both sets of books as a little girl, I loved Emily more (possibly I was influenced by her name). But as an adult, I enjoy Anne more though I still adore Emily's determination to be a writer and difficultness.

[anomilygrace.livejournal.com]

Also thank you for this rec! It was a wonderful fic!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

My difficulty with Emily, I think, is that I can see her difficultness much more clearly than the book often seems to. I like difficult characters, but I don't like it so much when it feels like the story is playing favorites with them - which I never felt so much with Anne.

But writer!Emily is still a lot of fun. Go Emily go!