Emily's Quest

To say that this book took me on a ride is the understatement of the century. The sheer number of emotions I experienced are too many to count. I read this at the same time my husband did, and at one point while reading I turned to him in desperation and said, “Is she trying to kill us?!?”

By the time I reached the end, this book was officially an all time favorite, along with the rest of the series, and such a great conclusion to Emily’s story! Well done, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and well played!

The third and final installment of L.M. Montgomery's series of books devoted to the adventures of aspiring writer Emily Byrd Starr - begun in Emily of New Moon, and continued in Emily Climbs - Emily's Quest sometimes reads like a Prince Edward Island soap-opera, with all the romantic twists and turns implicit in such a description. The most mature of the three novels, it follows its eponymous heroine through a number of years at New Moon, as she becomes engaged, then unengaged, realizes her true love, becomes estranged from him (and watches as he prepares to wed another), all while spreading her literary wings, and achieving her first true success as an author...

But despite the sense of melodrama that sometimes makes itself felt, this show more novel still has the power to affect me deeply, involving me emotionally in Emily's turbulent journey through her young adult years. Although many of my fellow readers, particularly in our discussions over at the Kindred Spirits Book Club to which I belong, have expressed a distaste for the character of Dean Priest, citing his manipulative and possessive behavior, and his dishonesty regarding Emily's writing, I actually find him a moving character. His faults are considerable, but something about his lonely life - enriched by knowledge and impoverished by cynicism - always speaks to my heart. Given that this is so, I have always thought that Montgomery demonstrated great insight and wisdom in refraining from emulating that overused trope - so popular in sentimental novels - of the young innocent who redeems the world-weary cynic. That alone would make this book a worthwhile reading experience for me, although I found many other qualities to admire.

Montgomery's descriptions of her beloved Prince Edward Island are as lush as ever, with none of the purple prose that sometimes appeared in Emily of New Moon, and her cast of characters, from the Murrays of New Moon to the seemingly remote Ilse and Teddy, are well drawn. I did wish that Emily's three childhood friends appeared more often, but perhaps that too is a sign of a well-crafted narrative. After all, Emily is growing up, and change must come. The fact that the reader shares her wistful sense of things not turning out quite as expected - as in the bittersweet scene in which she reads her letter to herself at twenty-four, written when she was fourteen - is another testament to Montgomery's powers as a writer.

All in all, I am glad to report that Emily's Quest (along with the entire Emily Trilogy) has withstood the test of time, appealing as much to my adult self as it did to the adolescent reader of yesteryear. show less

This book is almost perfect (I'm prepared to defend my choice in italics). I really tried to not like these books—I wanted to stay loyal to Anne forever!—but there are so many things about Emily's saga that appeal to me more than the Anne books do. First and foremost being that we don't have to sit through endless pages of gossiping biddies telling stories. (I just want to read about Anne and Gilbert, geez.)

Emily and I aren't all that similar, but she has so much depth to her I couldn't help relating to her anyway. And because Montgomery's writing is so good, I felt everything Emily felt—heartbreak, hurt, loneliness, elation, happiness, regret, doubt. I've said this before, but Montgomery's writing is at its absolute best when she show more lets some melancholy in. There's nothing silly about this book; it's all soul. This book captured me with its deep portrayal of a life lived, without brushing over the disappointments that we're never prepared for.

But I still love the Anne/Gilbert love story the most. Just thought I'd make that clear. Emily and Teddy crossed the line from deeply romantic to stupidly frustrating one too many times. show less

What is interesting about this conclusion to Emily's story is how full it is of grief and doubt and mistakes. Ms. Montgomery brings it right in the end, but the heartbreaking emotions and the battle of head over heart is very real and pervasive in the book. I never really like Dean in this series and this last book makes me really despise him - Emily is a much more forgiving person than I am, and it is a tribute to her maturity that she knows forgiving will give her more peace than not forgiving. I love the end - and probably for Teddy all the mistakes made him a man worth loving. Of course, most of what we know about Teddy in this book comes from Ilse, who is sort of suspect as a narrator!

Good. This was a re-read, but I'd forgotten almost all of the plot, and so could really settle into and enjoy the story as it unfolded.

The first half was great. Emily's development as a writer and an adult is believable and well-paced. I found her injury and the decisions she makes in its aftermath to be the most interesting parts of the story. Poor Dean would have won me over if not for his deceit, and his near total destruction of Emily's career. He's such an interesting, sympathetic character next to Teddy's beauty and blankness.

The second half of the book is pretty tedious. NOTHING happens until Teddy and Ilse's almost-wedding, and the passive pridefulness of both Emily and Teddy drags the book on for about fifty pages (and, what, show more eight years?) longer than there really is plot to fill it. I guess there wouldn't have been a book at all if the characters could have just, you know, talked about what they wanted for five minutes. I really hate this plot device. It's so frustrating and insubstantial and so tragically commonplace. Do real people act like this? God I hope not. show less

Reading Emily of New Moon I began to have an idea of why I've never loved and spent time with Emily Byrd Starr as I have with Anne Shirley or Pat Gardiner. I began to suss it out then, but I loved the book and it still seemed strange to me. With Emily Climbs it began to seem clearer – that dark streak running through it, I said, and left it at that. But it is only on finishing Emily's Quest that I fully understand – and that is partly because I know, on closing this book, I will be leaving it closed for possibly another twenty years. Whether I have the moral courage to read it then will be interesting to see – almost like Emily's fortitude in reading her letter from her fourteen-year-old self to herself at twenty-four, except show more unlike the very young Emily I know the pain within the pages aimed twenty years ahead.

There is pain in the other books, deep and seemingly impassible, and I always cry over the other books (Matthew…). I recognize myself in Valancy, heaven knows, and Anne and Pat, and so their pain is very real to me. But it is their pain. The pain that laces through Emily is personal. I have never read L.M. Montgomery's journals or memoirs or letters, so I don't know if my reading is true, but it feels as though a great deal of Emily comes from Lucy Maude. I find it hard to believe, for one thing, that the snippets of reviews Emily reads to her staunchly supportive family aren't true to life. My feeling is that while the specifics of the circumstances of the years spanned in Quest are wholly fictional, wholly Emily's own, the emotions are not in the least fictional. Fictionalized.

After decades loving Anne and Pat and Valancy, still I can't help but identify most strongly of all with Emily – and it is the Emily in this book that brings me to tears. Alone, and left alone, and in no small way responsible for that aloneness, but knowing that there was no other action or set of actions that would have ever been tolerable in any given situation. "I have not heard even from Ilse for a long time. She has forgotten me, too." I know that feeling well. That was the feeling – of having been forgotten in general, compounded with actually being told by someone I held dear that he had forgotten about me, that caused me to – as someone wise recently said – be still and lock the gate from the inside. I walked away then and made some decisions and will hold to them. My locks might get a bit rusty.

Facing the daily struggle against the inner demon editor who insists that every word written is trash, or worse, that no one will read this nonsense, that … well. She was, obviously, far more successful in ignoring or silencing that voice than I ever have been, or, at times, ever hope to be. It's funny, though, and I apologize for a spoiler, but even Emily's greatest literary triumph to date was painful to me; I haven't finished a book, much less had it rejected by uncounted publishers, but I know that if I did, and gave up as Emily does, there is no Uncle Jimmy figure in my life to pull it out of storage and send it out again.

So I wonder, in a way, that I didn't love these books more when I was the age of Emily (book two). An artist of extraordinary talent, when I wanted to be, planned to be an artist; a writer heroine, when I already was scribbling a little here and there; hard work leading to success and happiness. It should all have appealed, then. Now … the pain is too real, and the abruptly happy ending not as easy to swallow. It's a beautiful book, and a beautiful trilogy … but not for the young and hopeful, or the … what? Not-so-young and futile-feeling. Perhaps it's for those who have been through the pain and persevered better than I have. For me? I think Emily is going to go into a box, and the box is going to be set at the back of a shelf, and the dust will collect on it, and – no. I won't even express the hope that one day I'll read them again without the ache. On the shelf they'll stay. show less

Likely my 2010 review:

A beautiful conclusion to the Emily trilogy. As befits the maturity of the protagonist, this work is more reflective, with elegant ruminations throughout the narrative on life, nature, getting older, friendship and the ties that bind. It's a very quick read, and even if you're pretty sure things will turn out all right, the road is not without bumps along the way. The most touching part of the book for me was Chapter 3, which nearly reduced me to a blubbering mess on the bus. Montgomery is an excellent writer, really putting the reader at the heart of the action. The series as a whole is very highly recommended.

2023 review:

This time I got more blubbery toward the end of the book, even as I thought the mechanisms show more for pulling everything together might have been a bit too pat. Never mind! Sometimes you need a book with an implausibly happy or sentimental ending. show less