Emily of New Moon (by Lucy Maud Montgomery)

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It’s more than twenty years since I read ‘Emily of New Moon’ by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I had vaguely remembered the storyline, and that I had liked it, but also that I had been a bit irritated by spelling errors in some of Emily’s writing. I was quite keen to read it again. The book was first published in 1923, as contemporary fiction, and set in Canada. 

Emily is eleven at the start of the book. She’s a dreamy, poetical child - far more so than ‘Anne of Green Gables’, the author’s better-known heroine. And Emily has spent the first ten years of her life living contentedly with her beloved father. Her mother died when she was very young, but her father understands her well. He encourages her to read widely, and to write, and they’re looked after by their housekeeper Ellen. 

But Emily’s father is not well - we learn, later, that he’s dying of TB (or ‘consumption’ as it was known). Emily is devastated; her world is breaking apart. And when he dies, her mother’s relatives gather. Her mother had been somewhat cast out of the family when she ran away to marry Emily’s father, but they all know their duty. And that must be to keep Emily out of an orphanage.

Emily is taken to live at a house called New Moon, with her great-aunt Elizabeth, her great-aunt Laura and her cousin (probably once-removed) Jimmy. I probably thought of Elizabeth as quite elderly when I first read the book. Two decades on, and she’s younger than I am. However, people aged faster in that era, so she still feels like someone rather older. She’s very keen on discipline, with strong Presbyterian leanings. Emily is not allowed to read novels, or dance, or play cards, or anything that might be ‘wicked’. Her aunt doesn’t even want her to write, but Emily can’t stop doing that.

Laura is a much milder character, and is very fond of Emily. So there’s quite a good balance there as they try, together, to bring her up. Jimmy works on the farm, and understands Emily better than the aunts do. But he had an accident when he was young, and is considered ‘not all there’. Sometimes he behaves rather oddly, but he’s a very likeable, caring person. 

The book is really a series of incidents, as Emily slowly settles in, gets to know the neighbourhood, and starts school. She makes friends, and gradually learns who can be trusted, and who can’t. She goes to stay with some other relatives, and learns a shocking secret, which she can’t bring herself to believe. And she has some very traumatic experiences, including almost falling off a cliff, and having a bad attack of measles. 

And in between the descriptive chapters, Emily writes long letters to her deceased father. It’s a form of journaling for her, as she was used to telling him everything. She uses her writing to express her deepest thoughts, and how she feels about everyone around her. She often writes when she’s upset or angry. And she also writes poems.  Her spelling does have errors which made it harder to read, but I didn’t find them as annoying this time as I did before. And while I don’t really like letters breaking up the storyline of books, they work quite well in this one.

I liked Emily very much. She is sometimes outspoken, sometimes stubborn. But she really wants to be good, and to be loved. She doesn’t always think before she speaks, and she makes judgements about people far too quickly. But she cares deeply, and her imagination is constantly on the go. Her deepest need is to write; I assume the author based Emily somewhat on herself. She comes across as three-dimensional and believable. She’s not beautiful, and sometimes gets distracted; she’s a very human, flawed person. 

I enjoyed rereading this book, which is excellent from the social history point of view, and also quite moving in places. I’m already looking forward to rereading the sequels in the next couple of months.

These books were originally intended for older children, and may still appeal to some who like this kind of classic, slow-moving character-based story. But more likely to be read by nostalgic adults like me. It's popular enough that it's republished fairly regularly, and is still in print. 

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