Emily Climbs is the second in a series of novels by well-known Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. While the legal battle with Montgomery's publishing company (L.C. Page) continued, Montgomery's husband Ewan MacDonald continued to suffer clinical depression. Montgomery, tired of writing the Anne series, created a new heroine named Emily. At the same time as writing, Montgomery was also copying her journal from her early years. The biographical elements heavily influenced the Emily trilogy. Emily Byrd Starr longs ...
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Emily Climbs is the second in a series of novels by well-known Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. While the legal battle with Montgomery's publishing company (L.C. Page) continued, Montgomery's husband Ewan MacDonald continued to suffer clinical depression. Montgomery, tired of writing the Anne series, created a new heroine named Emily. At the same time as writing, Montgomery was also copying her journal from her early years. The biographical elements heavily influenced the Emily trilogy. Emily Byrd Starr longs to attend Queen's Academy to earn her teaching licence, but her tradition-bound relatives at New Moon refuse. She is instead offered the chance to go to Shrewsbury High School with her friends, on two conditions. The first is that she board with her disliked Aunt Ruth, but it is the second that causes Emily difficulties. Emily must not write (aside from schoolwork) during her high-school education. At first, Emily refuses the offer, unable to contemplate a life without any writing. Cousin Jimmy changes the condition slightly, saying that she cannot write anything that is not true, meaning she must not write stories for the duration of her high school education. Emily does not think this much of an improvement but it turns out to be an excellent exercise for her budding writing career. Emily clashes with the ever-suspicious Aunt Ruth, who must know all but rarely believes it. After more than a year of Aunt Ruth's disrespect and arbitrariness, Emily walks the seven miles back to New Moon in the dead of night, only to walk back after fully venting her feelings to Cousin Jimmy. Emily's friendship with Ilse Burnley is tested by Evelyn Blake, the school's would-be writer, who is jealous and condescending. Emily vanquishes her once and for all when she finds physical proof that Evelyn plagiarized an old poem to win a school contest. Rather than tell everyone about it, Emily only shows the evidence to Evelyn who admits she did it so her father would allow her to take a trip to Vancouver if she won. Thanks to Aunt Elizabeth's ban on writing fiction, Emily starts to develop her powers of storytelling, writing 'portraits' of people and keeping a journal diligently. Through a series of adventures, Emily is furnished with materials to write stories and poems, and even sees monetary success with the short story "The Woman Who Spanked the King," as told to her by an addled Scottish woman. In the meantime, Emily also begins to see romantic possibilities for her life. She and Teddy Kent draw closer, but due to misunderstandings and interference from Teddy's jealous mother, the romance stalls. Emily refuses a proposal from her childhood friend Perry Miller, and her cousin Andrew, but continues her long-lasting friendship with Dean Priest. At the end of the novel, Emily, now a budding young writer, is offered the opportunity to move to New York with the famous writer Janet Royal to jumpstart her career. After much thought and hesitation, Emily chooses to remain at her beloved New Moon, intent on finding fame her own way. (Wikipedia.org)
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Add this copy of Emily Climbs to cart. $27.12, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2023 by Indoeuropeanpublishing.com.
This was a WONDERFUL sequel to the first Emily book. I honestly can't decide which book was better than the other.
Parts of the book are in diary form, while others are set in regular story form, so you get an all-around view of Emily's life. I like how the author weaved the two forms together.
I loved the storyline; it seems like very simple, little things that take place, but as you reflect on it, you realize the story is actually quite deep in thought, and well plotted. Emily is allowed to attend the Shrewbury school where her friends are going. However, the rule is that she must live with grumpy, old Aunt Ruth, who seemingly has stricter rules than Aunt Elizabeth did when Emily lived with her. And Aunt Ruth is always accusing Emily of being sly, which runs down Emily's patience.
During the time that Emily lives with her Aunt Ruth, she is not allowed to write fiction, which seems to put a damper on Emily's future career of writing. Her old teacher, who has helped guide her [Mr. Carpenter] says the time away from fiction will improve Emily's writing ability. Yet still, her wild, imaginative mind can hardly fathom being separated from her beloved hobby.
I am really anticipating the third and final Emily book now, to see how her story ends!
C D G
Mar 8, 2012
Emily Climbs
This is the second book in a series of three devoted to the young life of Emily Starr. It is well written but not as good as the later Anne of
Green Gables series was to be. It is beautifully published by Harrap which is why I have given it 5 stars.Nice reading for girls up to about the age of 11 or 12 years old.
BugEyeMidnight
Dec 3, 2007
good
This book has some of my favorite moments of the whole series. I love the adventure in the church best ? that is something that stayed with me over the years. I also like how we see Emily grow up in this installment. It helped me remember the way I felt when I was a teenager, in good and bad ways. Other parts of the book are less entertaining and it can drag in spots, but overall it?s a good read.
