Status
Available
Series
Publication
Laurel Leaf (1983), Edition: Reissue, Paperback
Description
Classic Literature. Historical Fiction. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: "I love Emily." �??Madeleine L'Engle Will Emily's Dreams Ever Come True? High school is over and Emily Starr is ready to find her destiny...but she's not quite ready to leave the safety of New Moon farm. She knows that she doesn't need New York City or some other exotic locale to help her become a famous writer. But as all of Emily's friends begin moving away to pursue their own aspirations in exciting places, she wonders if she's made the right choice. After suffering through a devastating illness, receiving rejection notices from multiple publishers, and nearly losing Teddy, her childhood sweetheart, Emily realizes that her quest for love, acceptance, and happiness is far from over. This new edition lovingly restores the original, unabridged text and includes an all-new, exclusive introduction with special memories from L.M. Montgomery's granddaughter. What Readers Are Saying: "Emily's Quest is my favorite of the Emily books (probably of all her books), and a wonderful real for any romantic like me." "Wonderful. As with all the Montgomery books, the beauty of the world captures you. Emily's Quest is a brilliant end to a most charming series of books." "Emily's Quest is truly a wonderful ending to one of the best stories ever written."… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Stewartry
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
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.
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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 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.
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LibraryThing member rainbowdarling
As the culmination to the Emily series, I like this one the best. It has that bit of drama and a little bit of mystery that made me want to keep reading. When I read it as a teenager, I remember thinking that the Emily books were dark, but having read them more recently now, I'm finding that really
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this is the only one with slightly dark elements, and even those pale in comparison to Montgomery's other books. All the same, I really did enjoy the progression of the story, the character's struggles with tradition, with ambition and with (perceived) unrequited love. The ending seems almost too clean to wrap things up in a satisfying way, but the ending does satisfy that need for closure and the need for all of the characters to be with those whom they love. I can't help it - sometimes I just need a story with a clean ending, and Emily fulfills that need. Show Less
LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
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
But despite the sense of melodrama that sometimes makes itself felt, this 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.
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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 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.
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LibraryThing member Antofranuc
Wonderful! Delightful! Enchanting! Descriptive, entertaining! Saddest, most romantic book that I have ever read. Recommended to anyone that likes romantic, yet sad books, that are anyways very, very happy. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.
LibraryThing member kathryngw
This book is amazing and spectacular! Good writing, painfully wonderful with supreme bliss at the very end. The author literally lifts you out of the most miserable depths that it is possible for a reader to feel and throws you up into clouds of bliss! Highly recommended!
LibraryThing member KendraRenee
ok, getting tired of romantic love stories. Time to read something by someone other than L.M. Montgomery, though I still do adore her.
LibraryThing member callmecordelia1912
Off all the Emily books, this was my least favorite. I spent most of the novel wondering how on earth she could become engaged to Dean, and why, oh, why, didn't she and Teddy simply tell each other how they felt. Then all this misunderstanding never would have happened. I felt so dreadful when she
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burned her first book. However, like all L M novel's every thing's always alright at the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member onlyhope1912
Off all the Emily books, this was my least favorite. I spent most of the novel wondering how on earth she could become engaged to Dean, and why, oh, why, didn't she and Teddy simply tell each other how they felt. Then all this misunderstanding never would have happened. I felt so dreadful when she
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burned her first book. However, like all L M novel's every thing's always alright at the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member seekingflight
Lovely to re-discover this old childhood favourite. It's said that the Emily books are somewhat autobiographical, and more closely resemble LM Montgomery's own life than the Anne books. Reading this shortly after excerpts of Montomery's own journals, it's interesting to recognise certain
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(occasional) chunks of Emily's journal which appear to be taken from Montgomery's own journal almost verbatim. Show Less
LibraryThing member lfae
Least favourite of the series. Oh, I still liked it enough, but it was a bit too old for me - I was only 10 or so!
LibraryThing member lfae
Least favourite of the series. Oh, I still liked it enough, but it was a bit too old for me - I was only 10 or so!
LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
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
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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! Show Less
LibraryThing member ErlangerFactionless
A stronger book than, Emily Climbs, this novel sees Emily on the cusp of adulthood and looking for love. Instead, she finds Dean Priest, ready to build a future with her, but not as a writer. Still Dean is fond of her, and takes excellent care of her, but what of Teddy? Can it be that Teddy really
I rather liked this book, but the ending was super abrupt. As with the first book, I'd say great for die-hard Anne fans.
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cares for Ilse?I rather liked this book, but the ending was super abrupt. As with the first book, I'd say great for die-hard Anne fans.
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LibraryThing member amelish
This cover is hilarious: Emily's quest leads her to the beach, where she is clearly at a loss.
LibraryThing member devafagan
Continuing my re-read. I tried to set it aside but my completionist brain would not let me! I had a hard time with the excessive (IMO) use of misunderstandings to create plot, and Teddy just never comes fully alive to me (especially compared to Dean, who has his faults, certainly, but is at least
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more *interesting*). But I did enjoy the natural descriptions and observations of the writing life, and I very much like Emily herself. Show Less
LibraryThing member sweetzombieducky
Rich conclusion to a wonderful series.
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Whew. I'm glad I read these, and glad I'm done. No more of Emily's confused passions; finally she's found her place as a remarkable adult. The thing that bothered me about Dean Priest resolved out appropriately, and we got to know Mrs. Kent better.
There are some nice observations & lines sprinkled
There are some nice observations & lines sprinkled
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through the melodrama: Most young men are *such* bores. They haven't lived long enough to learn that they are not the wonders to the world they are to their mothers."" Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
Another one of my childhood books that should go to a deserving child. I think I liked the Emily series of books even more than the Anne series because there is always one incidence of supernatural in them.
LibraryThing member fuzzi
A satisfying continuation of the Emily trilogy, focusing on her writing aspirations as an adult.
LibraryThing member rainpebble
Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery; (3 1/2*)
This is my least favorite of the Emily trilogy by Montgomery but it could easily have been my most favorite of all Montgomery's works!
I loved the characters and thought they were well drawn and that the growth was there for most all of them. Loved the 'wind
It saddened me that Emily was so lonely for much of the story. While she decided to stay at New Moon and write, her friends Ilse, Perry and Teddy all went off to travel and develope their careers. Emily began to feel increasingly distant from all of them and as a defence for her aloneness she put on her proud 'Murray airs' which alienated her friends even more.
She shut herself away in her room writing day and night trying not to think of her friends, where they were and what they were doing.
In this closing book of the trilogy we see Emily's growth as a writer and her compulsion to be out of doors, especially late at night. But in these hours is when she is blessed with most of her story ideas.
I found the ending of the novel too pat and sadly unsatisfying. But I wish that Emily could have lived on. I saw her living in the 'disappointed house' and writing her years away with just a cat for company. I guess I like dark.
This is my least favorite of the Emily trilogy by Montgomery but it could easily have been my most favorite of all Montgomery's works!
I loved the characters and thought they were well drawn and that the growth was there for most all of them. Loved the 'wind
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woman' and was sad that 'the flash' came so rarely in this third novel. Loved the basic storyline but was irritated that there was so much of: "see Emily of New Moon" and "see Emily Climbs". There was a lot of repetitiveness from the first two books of the trilogy and so this one did not seem as original as the others.It saddened me that Emily was so lonely for much of the story. While she decided to stay at New Moon and write, her friends Ilse, Perry and Teddy all went off to travel and develope their careers. Emily began to feel increasingly distant from all of them and as a defence for her aloneness she put on her proud 'Murray airs' which alienated her friends even more.
She shut herself away in her room writing day and night trying not to think of her friends, where they were and what they were doing.
In this closing book of the trilogy we see Emily's growth as a writer and her compulsion to be out of doors, especially late at night. But in these hours is when she is blessed with most of her story ideas.
I found the ending of the novel too pat and sadly unsatisfying. But I wish that Emily could have lived on. I saw her living in the 'disappointed house' and writing her years away with just a cat for company. I guess I like dark.
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LibraryThing member AngelaLam
My second favorite book of the Emily series. A bit dark and mature, but very fulfilling in the end.
LibraryThing member Wanderlust_Lost
The third and final Emily novel I think this book is brilliant. I love the story and the idea that some people (Emily and Teddy, Ilse and Perry) just belong together. It's beautiful and moving and so romantic. I love Emily's prophetic dreams and visions and I love that Emily, unlike her counterpart
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Anne, never changes and never stops being herself. It's a delicious read! Show Less
LibraryThing member MickyFine
Emily has returned to New Moon to live with her aunts as she pursues her goal of becoming an author. Through successes and failures her love of New Moon never fades but her relationships with her childhood friends continue to evolve as they all become adults. At the same time, Emily also strives to
There's plenty of charm as always in L.M. Montgomery's writing as she so beautifully paints word pictures of the PEI landscape. She also brilliantly evokes the highs and lows of Emily's life and knowing that Montgomery herself struggled with depression makes her descriptions of Emily's own low moments particularly realistic. At the same time, Montgomery will always give her characters a happy ending and while this novel's ending felt a bit rushed and not quite as satisfying as I could have hoped, it still leaves Emily in the best place.
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determine just who the best partner for her future life might be.There's plenty of charm as always in L.M. Montgomery's writing as she so beautifully paints word pictures of the PEI landscape. She also brilliantly evokes the highs and lows of Emily's life and knowing that Montgomery herself struggled with depression makes her descriptions of Emily's own low moments particularly realistic. At the same time, Montgomery will always give her characters a happy ending and while this novel's ending felt a bit rushed and not quite as satisfying as I could have hoped, it still leaves Emily in the best place.
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Language
Original publication date
1927
Physical description
240 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0553264931 / 9780553264937