Emily Climbs

Emily Byrd Starr climbs the "Alpine Path" in this second novel devoted to her story, following upon Emily of New Moon, and preceding Emily's Quest. Determined to persevere in her writing, Emily knows that further education is vital, but is convinced that her guardian - stern Aunt Elizabeth Murray of New Moon farm - will never consent. Imagine her surprise and delight when she discovers that she will have an opportunity to attend high school in nearby Shrewsbury! Delight, that is, until she learns the price: she must give up writing stories for three years...

L.M. Montgomery has always been one of my favorite authors, and I recall reading and enjoying the entire Emily Trilogy as a young adolescent, taking its sensitive heroine - with her show more close circle of friends, her entertaining adventures and misadventures, and her growing talent - very much to heart. I relished Montgomery's intensely descriptive language and romantic sensibility, and identified with Emily's almost mystical appreciation of beauty, and desire to be a writer. I joined her in her contempt for the false Evelyn Blakes of the world, mourned with her when a poem or story was rejected by a magazine, and thrilled with her when one was accepted!

Revisiting these books as an adult, as part of the L.M. Montgomery Book Club to which I belong, I have discovered that my appreciation for them, always strong, has been bolstered by a better understanding of the social constraints of their time. Nowhere is this more evident than in this second installment of the series, where Emily finds herself in hot water when her friend Perry steals a kiss, and is almost made a social outcast after a dangerous snow-storm forces her to take shelter in an abandoned house with her good friend Ilse Burnley and (horrors!) two young men. The fact that Emily is often described as Montgomery's most autobiographical creation, makes me wonder if the author was deliberately making a point here, about the absurdity of her own society's obsession with respectability.

However that may be, Emily Climbs has retained its place in my literary affections, while also yielding some surprising social commentary that escaped me as a younger reader. I'm glad to have reread it, and look forward to revisiting the third installment! show less

Emily unexpectedly leaves the familiarity of New Moon for three years of high school in Shrewesbury. The only condition from Aunt Elizabeth is that Emily can only write non-fiction while she goes to the school. It's a challenge for Emily, one that's nearly matched by the many trials that come with boarding with her Aunt Ruth, but one that forces her to grow in her writing. At the same time, Emily grows into a young lady and while she continues to get into occasional scrapes, she also becomes more mature as she considers her next steps into the adult world.

While not the strongest of Montgomery's novels, there's still plenty to enjoy here. It's simply impossible to read one of Montgomery's novels without ending up with the urge to take a show more wander in some woods. Emily is a heroine worth rooting for and as this is a first time read, I'm fascinated to see just where Emily ends up as she pursues her career as a writer. show less

Emily Climbs is the Squeakquel to Emily of New Orlando Bloom, by which I mean Emily of New Moon. It is another delightful L.M. Montgom extravaganza! It’s chock-full of fun, hilarious, touching, beautiful, infuriating, (and one quite scary) scenarios as per usual. I wish she had used some of her important side characters from the first book more, namely Teddy and Perry. But I like that she kept leaning into Emily’s mystical, psychic-y powers. All that to say it’s sick, but awesome, it’s like the best sequel, as a friend of mine once said in reference to the movie Saw II.

2010 review:
The second installment in L.M. Montgomery's "Emily" series continues the excellent work of the first. In this book, Emily matures as a writer and as a person, and experiences the trials and tribulations of high school in the neighbouring town of Shrewsbury, where she is forced to board during the school year with her disagreeable Aunt Ruth, who finds fault with everything she does.

It is said that the Emily books are more autobiographical than the Anne series, and from reading this book that's a fair assumption. Through a combination of the "biographer's" third-person narration and Emily's lively diary entries, we get a front-row seat to the development of a writer. She focuses more on portraying reality accurately instead of show more merely succumbing to flights of fancy, and this improves her work. She also learns just how difficult it is to break out into the writing world when she receives the usual barrage of rejection slips issued to beginning writers, but fortunately for us she perseveres.

This book was a joy to read. I suspect that in the "Anne vs. Emily" debate, I am very much an Emily, so reading Emily's diary was like reading something written by another, long-ago version of myself, although I do not think I was nearly so self-assured as Emily at seventeen. I love that she is not afraid to speak her mind, and I envy her her keen observation skills. She is also very pragmatic in her diary, as in this passage on Mr. Carpenter's criticism of her work, which has carried particular resonance recently:

"The better my essays are the more he rages over them. This one must have been quite good. But it makes him so angry and impatient to see where I might have made it still better and didn't -- through carelessness or laziness or indifference -- as he thinks. And he can't tolerate a person who *could* do better and doesn't." (18)

The other characters are very vivid as well, and the main personages grow and develop over the course of the book, as one might expect with teenage protagonists. However, my favourite character apart from Emily herself might just be Mistress McIntyre, whose Gaelic-flavoured story of how she spanked the king had me grinning like a madwoman on the bus. Montgomery really captured the voice well. The only way to improve it would have been to get an actual Gaelic-speaking woman from that time period to read it aloud.

In short, this book comes highly recommended if you enjoyed the first book in the Emily series, and especially if you're an aspiring writer.

2023 review:
Most of this still holds true. I’m not sure why I would have found the comments from Mr. Carpenter about writing particularly resonant; perhaps because I was just starting my career in a writing-related field and having the same sort of feelings about getting feedback on my work. What I paid attention to on this go-around was Emily’s relationships with her aunts and how she came to view them differently as she got older. And Dean Priest is still being creepy by trying to claim Emily as a romantic partner, not only because of the age difference but also because he makes fun of her writing! Don’t go for a partner who dismisses your interests that way. show less

I did some reflecting in my (review? Essay? Piece?) thing on Emily of New Moon about why I don't love Emily as much as Anne, why I haven't read the trilogy in many years when I won't let a year go by Anne-less. Emily Climbs clarifies the matter a bit more.

There is a great deal more cynicism in Emily's world than in Anne's. I was astonished reading the first chapters at Emily's perceptiveness – and, like any perceptive person moving among the unimaginative and less incisive, she has, very young, developed an almost inevitable shell of jaded sarcasm. Mr. Carpenter doesn't call her "Jade" for nothing. I don't class myself with Emily (or Anne) in terms of intelligence or sensitivity, but still, I am of their ilk. Emily weeps over David show more Copperfield - oh, how I understand that. Aunt Ruth (not of the race that knows Joseph) upbraids her for the tears – crying over people who don't exist! And, with Emily, I protest that of course they exist. In a meta moment, Emily tells her they are as real as Aunt Ruth is – and so they are, of course. But Ruth is part of the force that demonstrates daily for Emily how flat most people's lives are – none of the terrible deep dark moments for them, but also none of the marvellous highs – nor even the small secret pleasures a combination of being able to see and being able to appreciate can bring. Aunt Elizabeth is Marilla without the sense of humor, and with a solid layer of scarring – from the accident with Jimmy to, probably, the fact that she is single in a time and place where spinsterhood is a wretched condition – to prevent most softer emotions … Aunt Laura has her moments, is loving and more willing and able to share it, but is prim and easily shocked. Uncle Jimmy is wonderful – but not comfortable, always; there is the occasional glimpse of what he might have been, of what was all but killed in him by the fall into the well, and you never quite know when it will make an appearance. Dr. Burnley has gone from bitter and cynical to … rather less bitter and cynical, and somewhat excessive. Aunt Ruth … Were I Emily, I think of the two conditions going to school in Shrewsbury, that I would lodge with Aunt Ruth and that I could not write any fiction for three years, the Aunt Ruth half would be worse. Fiction will still be there when it's over; the scars Aunt Ruth might leave will linger forever. Writing fiction is a passion which would not die in three years; living with Aunt Ruth would be torment. And so it was.

The idea of the wild, dark vein that exists here but not in most of the rest of L.M.M.'s work intensified as it went on. Emily has a mean streak – not very big, and not well-developed, but expressed now and then in sarcasm and cutting remarks which send people off bleeding and vowing never to mess with her again. And she has an understanding for darkness; she hears goblins as well as wind spirits, and the thought is inescapable that she could have easily gone either way. Had she been raised by Uncle Wallace … I can see her at the age she is ending the trilogy, with a career as a viciously funny writer, slashing more tender folk to shreds and making millions doing it, but treasuring more the string of scalps at her belt than all the money.

I think I was too young to get hold of all of this the last time I read Emily, and so these three books were not as enjoyable as the sweet and lovely place that is Anne's Avonlea. Anne has her moments – but compare her handling of Josie Pye to Emily's dealings with the evil Evelyn Blake. Anne wins by taking the high road, and Josie Pye, Pye-like, would never recognize her victory; Emily routs Evelyn foot and horse and leaves her bleeding in the dust.

I loved this tale of the teenaged girl beginning to make a mark for herself. The tangled webs, to reference another LMM work, are beginning to tighten, but they aren't too heavy yet; the future is still completely unwritten, or seemingly so, and hope is high. There is a savor of the time and place, not so very long ago or very far away except in everything that matters; good companionship; wonderful writing; pathos in its best sense and moments that made me laugh aloud. Middle books are often maligned and disregarded things, but this is by far my favorite of the three. I'll never again be able to leave Emily out my list of the Montgomery girls I love. show less

Emily never imagined Aunt Elizabeth would allow her to go to high school in Shrewsbury, and she's thrilled, especially as her close friends Ilse, Teddy and Perry will be there. But there are certain conditions: for the whole three years Emily must board with hateful Aunt Ruth, and she must promise to stop writing stories. To Emily, this is unthinkable, but she wants an education, and reluctantly agrees. With the move from her beloved home at New Moon to Aunt Ruth's house, Emily's world is turned upside down. Not only must she prove herself at school, despite rejection and jealousy, but she can no longer count on her friends. Her happy childhood friendships, especially with Teddy and Perry, start to turn into something more complicated show more and in a small-town, the merest hint of gossip can cause scandal. show less

Much to my delight, Emily Climbs was every bit as good as Emily of New Moon! L.M. Montgomery’s ability to write characters that I actually feel genuinely concerned for cannot be matched. Halfway through I realized that I was reacting emotionally to their experiences on nearly the same level as if they were real people that I knew in real life! I couldn’t be more invested, and it’s all due to the way she writes. Just like Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs is a flawless 5 star all time favorite! Can’t wait to find out how the trilogy ends in the third book.