The "Emily" books

These are by far my favorite L.M.Montgomery books! And I have read them all, of course the "Anne" books are more famous, and they are good too, they do not come close to the "Emily" books, at least in my opinion. There are those that would disagree with me, most loyal fans of L.M.Montgomery prefer the "Anne" books, and as much as I myself love Anne, there is something about Emily that awakens a kindred spirit in me. 


These books are much "darker" than the Anne books, I'm not sure why the word darker works here, but it just seems more appropriate, Emily is a more a deep thinker than Anne is, her life is so much more complicated, maybe because she actually knew her father before he died, whereas Anne never knew her parents at all. Also Emily's aunt Elizabeth is a much harder character to love than Marilla is. She is harsher with Emily, maybe because Emily's mother defied her family to run of and marry Emily's father, and her aristocratic family have never truly forgiven her for that. But duty calls, and when Emily's father dies, her mother's family rallies around to draw lots for Emily at the funeral, which Emily witnesses hiding beneath a table. Hearing the unflattering things about her father, Emily gives herself away, and this eavesdropping does not endear her to her aunts and uncles. Especially aunt Ruth, who seems to have an extra malice regarding Emily. But as the story progresses, even aunt Ruth seems to develop a fondness for Emily, this is shown to us when Emily gets herself in a scrape, where her reputation suffers, aunt Ruth rises majestically to the occasion, and "rescues" our heroine with all the style and fluster as only aunt Ruth can. Where Emily decides that she may never "love" aunt Ruth she at least comes to regard her in a different light.

We are introduced to Teddy early on as she moves to New Moon with aunts Elizabeth, aunt Laura, and cousin Jimmy, aunt Elizabeth having drawn the short straw, which means Emily will live with them, but all the other aunts and uncles will contribute to her education. Cousin Jimmy is quote: "not quite all there" having been pushed into a well by aunt Elizabeth when they were children, by accident, but Emily loves him, although there are times when he scares her when he reaches a dark place inside him.


Teddy, we are introduced to him almost right away, and there we all "know" that he is the one for Emily, all except Emily of course, but the course of love never did run smoothly and L.M.Montgomery makes sure of this by bringing in Dean Priest. This is one character whom I never did like when I was younger, I was so angry at Emily for her stupid pride and for giving in to his proposal, which came at a weak moment for her, so I can understand and maybe forgive her for allowing it to happen. But at the last moment, a month before the wedding, Emily "changes" her mind. I don't want to spoil the book for those of you who haven't read it yet, but I am eternally grateful for the "reason", even if it did give me the shivers.


Being older now, though, I can understand the attraction to Dean, there was something about him that called to something deep and mysterious inside Emily, He had been all over the world and had witness a few things which she had only ever dreamed about. Intelligent and mysterious, he is able to say the things which Emily soul longed for. But having said that, I still love Teddy for Emily, nobody can and did compare to the sweet love that they had, which of course Emily didn't know or want until it was almost too late.


There are two things which I require before I purchase a book, the first is that it has to make me cry, (and these books make me cry every time I read them.) The second, if it's a book that I read more than two times, that is a requirement right there. I read them for sure once a year, and every time I read them, esp. the last one, Emily's Quest, I cry, unashamedly and unabashedly, I cry. I tell myself, this time I won't, I know exactly what will happen and I won't cry. but here is where L.M.Montgomery is queen of the written word. I have never met anyone who has read these books and loved them, who hasn't cried. Those who haven't, only say the books were so, so. Well I guess they are missing the whole point, and the best part of them all. I can't not tell this incident, one night I was reading the last book and was right at the parts where I cry, when my brother Gary came in, I was facing away from him, (I was already in bed) and he came in and asked mundane questions of me, where I was only giving him yes and no or no answers at all. The next morning I was telling this to my sister Matilda, and telling her how I couldn't talk to him because I was crying and didn't want him to know, he overheard us. That evening he came into my bedroom again took the book from my hands and walked around where he could see my face, asking and laughing all the while if I was crying! Grrrrr! He figured I was completely nuts, but then again I don't think he ever a read a book in his life, unless he absolutely had to in school, so there is no way he would have understood. He kept doing this for about a week or so, before he finally quit, good thing I was done reading that one! I think to this day he is so sorry he didn't know to check why I wasn't talking at that time! 


When I say these books are much darker than the Anne books, I mean that L.M.Montgomery went a bit into the dark side with premonition I guess is the word I'm looking for here, Emily inherits this from her grandmother who had the "sight" as they call it. There are a number of incidents in which she unintentionally uses this. She is not comfortable with this, and would wish it otherwise. For myself, I am not comfortable with it either, I am of the mind in this day and age, "traumer sindt luenger" (Dreams are lies) but I must say they add the mysteriousness to these books, and that is part of their appeal. 


For those of you that have not read the "Emily" books yet, please do so. I can't promise you will become a fan, or will prefer them over the "Anne" books, because as far as I can see, you either love them or not. Most people prefer Anne, but there are a few Emily fans out there.


At any rate I hope you enjoy them to a point. Please feel free to comment on whether you do or not, and why or why not!