Litsy

Emily Climbs | Montgomery Lucy Maud

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I enjoyed this second book in the Emily series, in which Emily has a number of difficult decisions to make while various member of her friends and family try to exert their influence. I'm noticing the many ways in which Emily is different from LMM's more famous character, Anne Shirley!

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread @BarbaraJean

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BarbaraJean

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1930-1933 | L M Montgomery

“Of course Emily II isn‘t half as good as New Moon. The second volume of a series, especially if it deals with a very young girl, is the hardest for me to write—because the public and the publisher won‘t allow me to write of a young girl as she really is. One can write of children as they are; so my books of children are always good; but when you come to write of the ‘miss‘ you have to depict a sweet, insipid young thing— ⤵️

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, GingerAntics, TheAromaofBooks

BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) …really a child grown older—to whom the basic realities of life and reactions to them are quite unknown. Love must scarcely be hinted at—yet young girls in their early teens often have some very vivid love affairs. A girl of Emily‘s type certainly would. But ‘the public‘… I can‘t afford to damn the public. I must cater to them for awhile yet.” ⤵️ 2w

BarbaraJean Do you agree that Emily Climbs isn‘t “half as good” as New Moon? Do you agree with LMM‘s reasons re: writing constraints for why it may be inferior? How do you think Emily Climbs might have been different if LMM had been able to “damn the public”?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread 2w

TheAromaofBooks I actually like Emily Climbs better, but maybe that is just because it doesn't feel as sad somehow haha But I do think LMM does a good job of providing us with a character who feels passionate, vibrant, and ambitious, and who is likable without “always being good.“ 2w

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lauraisntwilder I don't think it's any better or worse, but a continuation, very different from the Anne books. AoGG is very self-contained. Emily Climbs feels much more like Emily of New Moon than any of the subsequent Anne books feel like the first. Not that I don't love them! And Emily has love affairs! She's clearly in love with Teddy the entire time and eventually realizes it herself. Not to mention Dean and her two denied proposals. 2w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks @lauraisntwilder On this re-read, I decided I'm in no place to objectively judge which book is “better“! I remember liking this a LOT better than New Moon the first time I read the series. When I re-read New Moon a few years back, I LOVED it & rated it 5 stars, but wasn't as enamored with this one. This time, I was surprised by my previous 4-star rating & changed it to 5 stars—I honestly think I can't be trusted to be objective! ⬇ 1w

BarbaraJean I AM really curious what this book would have been like if LMM had felt free of public opinion and had written Emily's “love affairs“ as she wanted, as she felt would be true to life for Emily. What would have been different with Teddy? Would I have been horrified by her depiction of Dean (even more than I already am!)? I wonder if my own reasons for seeing it as “inferior“ would be very different from her reasons! 1w

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BarbaraJean

Emily Climbs | L M Montgomery

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

How do you see Emily‘s writing ambitions manifest & grow throughout Emily Climbs?

Where do you see similarities between Emily & LMM?

What do you think of the choice Emily makes at the end? Do you agree with her decision or were you disappointed? What does the decision say about her sense of self? About her writing ambitions?

Are there any other scenes, themes, quotes, or characters you‘d like to discuss?

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, GingerAntics, TheAromaofBooks

kwmg40 Though this book was published 100 years ago, Emily's decision seems uncannily appropriate for the current times. Without getting into politics, I'll just say that there is a wave of patriotism in Canada right now at a level I've not seen before and many young people are reconsidering their decisions to leave the country for work or study. LMM herself achieved great success staying in Canada and writing about regular small-town people! 2w

TheAromaofBooks I have such mixed feelings about the ending! On a personal level, I completely agree with Emily, that she doesn't have to leave her home to be a success, and that someone from a small town can still write about life just as well as someone out there experiencing the rest of the world or what have you. But as far as whether it is true to the character LMM has created - I'm not as confident. Emily turning down this offer just doesn't seem to 100% ⬇ 2w

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) match the ambitious, Alpine-path-driven Emily we've gotten to know over these two books. I feel like she would have said yes for a season - not forever, but for a year or something, just to gain the experience and hone her craft. 2w

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lauraisntwilder @kwmg40 @TheAromaofBooks I feel like it's that slight patronizing or condescending tone that made all the difference. So far, we've seen Emily thrive in the face of opposition and I think staying at home and being successful anyway would feel like a greater victory for her. 2w

BarbaraJean @kwmg40 I love that! The way LMM's pride in being Canadian peeks out in moments like this is lovely. I love that Mr. Carpenter says she'll go and get “Yankeefied“ 😆 And I think Emily is absolutely right to hold on to her sense of place and identity in the way she does. She's beginning to identify the things that shape her writing and is choosing how she wants to be shaped. ⬇ (edited) 1w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks I have ALWAYS been torn about Emily's decision. It seems like such an amazing opportunity. I always think it wouldn't have changed her that much, she could have held on to her sense of self, etc. And yes, it seems at odds with the ambitious Emily we've seen so far. But on this reading, it landed better with me. I saw it as Emily's real growth in self-knowledge—both in who she is & who she wants to be as a writer. ⬇ 1w

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder Yes, exactly—it feels like a greater victory for her to succeed on her own terms. I wonder if she had gone and found success that way, if she'd have always wondered whether her writing was actually good enough to stand on its own (without Miss Royal's connections, without compromising her writing and becoming “Yankeefied“) 1w

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BarbaraJean

Emily Climbs | L M Montgomery

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread
Emily‘s relationships with her family naturally change here, and the New Moon family members fade a bit into the background. Still, her family continues to (or tries to!) influence her choices.

Where do you see that family influence most strongly in this book?

How are Emily‘s choices shaped by her family—and where do you see her pushing back on that influence as she matures?

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, GingerAntics, TheAromaofBooks

kwmg40 Emily has a very strong sense of obligation to her family, and of course, some of those members don't hesitate in reminding her of her debt to them. I'd like to think that the most influential family member is cousin Jimmy, the one that most others consider “simple“ but whose wisdom Emily recognizes and whose quiet support she appreciates. 2w

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BarbaraJean

Emily Climbs | L M Montgomery

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread My least-favorite characters here are Dean and Aunt Ruth—for very different reasons.

What do you make of Emily‘s relationship with Dean here? Do you see any redeeming qualities in Dean‘s friendship and influence in Emily‘s life—or is it all just creepy groomer vibes for you?

What (if any) redeeming qualities do you see in Aunt Ruth? For you, does this mitigate the way she treats Emily for most of the novel?

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, GingerAntics, TheAromaofBooks

kwmg40 Had I read this book a couple of decades ago, I probably would have felt differently about Dean, seeing how he challenged Emily intellectually. Now, with changing attitudes in society, and also after having raised two daughters, I'm afraid he just seems creepy to me.

It's the same with respect to Aunt Ruth. All the bullying early on made it difficult for me to see her as any kind of ally to Emily, even with her later kinder actions. 2w

TheAromaofBooks I've really tried to be more attentive to Dean in this read-through, because it doesn't seem like LMM would have written him purposefully as a creepy groomer, so surely she was trying to make him a likable character/genuine romantic possibility? But it's so hard to get past the way that he is starting to manipulate Emily by being dismissive of her writing and using her trust in his opinions to undermine her ambitions for his own benefit. I think ⬇ 2w

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) that originally he does have good influences on Emily in the sense of broadening her mind and helping her to see the world beyond PEI, but like @kwmg40 said, at some point the creepiness outweighs any positives. His possessive attitude towards her since she was literally a small child is just so ick. 2w

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TheAromaofBooks Aunt Ruth is completely obnoxious, but much like Aunt Elizabeth, so much of it stems from her having literally no idea of how to deal with a young person. I think she's very narrow-minded, but I honestly don't think she's purposefully mean-spirited, so I have a little more forgiveness for her than some of the other characters. Her pride in the family name is what motivates her both when she is coming down on Emily and when she is defending her. ⬇ 2w

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) So I feel like in the end, I still don't like her because she doesn't actually love or even like Emily, but I never felt like her motivations in the rules and even accusations of “slyness“ stemmed from a personal dislike of Emily as much as they did from her worry that Emily was going to bring some kind of disgrace on the family name. Secondary thought - we get a hint of Aunt Ruth's teenage scandal - does that make her super sensitive?? 2w

lauraisntwilder @kwmg40 @TheAromaofBooks Dean is gross. There's no getting around it. There's no way to redeem someone who fell in love with a literal child, as he seems to have done in the last book, and then sticks around being weird. Aunt Ruth, however, changed for me on this reading. She's obnoxious, of course, but seems so much like the court of public opinion LMM fought as a child and during the writing of this book, with the Pickering court case. 2w

BarbaraJean @kwmg40 @TheAromaofBooks @lauraisntwilder Yep, Dean didn't feel creepy to me when I read these as a teen, but re-reading them in the past few years I can't get past the creep factor. I keep WANTING to see positive aspects to their relationship—he really does challenge Emily intellectually, he broadens her knowledge of literature and opens her mind to a wider world—but the glimpses of his motivations and possessiveness sour it all. Sarah, I agree ⬇ 1w

BarbaraJean (Cont'd) ...I don't think LMM intended Dean to be creepy, and I do think she intended him as a potential love interest. I think the groomer vibes we're all getting come from that intent. LMM wrote so many short stories with a super inappropriate age difference (I remember one in particular where an orphaned girl was raised by an older man, saw him as a father figure and then it was framed as an idyllic romance when he proposed...!!) ⬇ 1w

BarbaraJean (Cont'd) There's such a HUGE difference in the view of age-gap romances from then to now, that I'm sure LMM didn't intend Dean as creepy. The connections with Emily over literature and beauty were, I think, intended to show he was a kindred spirit and make him likable. My guess is that LMM wove in the possessiveness and manipulation as red flags early on, to suggest that he would figure in Emily's romantic future but wasn't a good match for her. 1w

BarbaraJean @kwmg40 I felt similarly about Aunt Ruth—when she finally defends Emily, it's too little too late. @TheAromaofBooks Absolutely—Aunt Ruth has NO idea how to respond to a young person, especially someone like Emily. It makes me think of how LMM says her grandparents parented her exactly wrong for someone of her temperament—I see that reflected in Aunt Elizabeth in the first book, and Aunt Ruth here. The difference is that Aunt Elizabeth grows! 1w

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder YES about Aunt Ruth and public opinion. So many echoes there to the pressure LMM felt and her horror of “what others would think/say.“ 1w

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BarbaraJean

Emily Climbs | L M Montgomery

“Emily did not sleep—did not want to sleep. It was too dear a night to go to sleep, she felt. She wanted to lie awake for the pleasure of it and think over a thousand things.
Emily always looked back to that night spent under the stars as a sort of milestone. Everything in it and of it ministered to her. It filled her with its beauty, which she must later give to the world…”

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread ⤵️

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, GingerAntics, TheAromaofBooks

BarbaraJean Emily‘s night of beauty under the stars is one of my absolute favorite scenes in this trilogy. That whole section where she and Ilse canvass for newspaper subscriptions still staggers my mind—two fourteen-year-olds, just turning up on a random doorstep and asking to stay the night! How‘s everyone‘s reading going this week? Which scenes have you particularly enjoyed? 3w

TheAromaofBooks Right?? I couldn't believe how they just would stay with random strangers, and went multiple days without contacting anyone from their families! So crazy.

Two passages I had noted this week. The first was about Dean. I was thinking about him and what beyond the age gap makes him so creepy. I think that if he just wanted to marry Emily it wouldn't be as bad - it's the fact that he uses her trust in him to manipulate her into being what he wants ⬇ 3w

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) her to be, and to convince her that she is less than she is. In the chapter Driftwood, we see the first instance of him really being so condescending about her writing because he KNOWS that Emily will only be a writer if she can be a great writer. Seeing him belittle her for his own ends just infuriates me.

The other passage I marked was later in the same chapter. Emily says that she read a story that ended unhappily and she says ⬇ 3w

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) “I shall always end MY stories happily. I don't care whether it's 'true to life' or not. It's true to life as it SHOULD BE and that's a better truth than the other.“ This sounded so LMM to me! As we've been reading her journals I've been amazed at how she could write such warm, happy stories during times of turmoil and intense stress in her own life. I so admire the way that she CHOSE to reflect good parts of life more than the bad. 3w

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BarbaraJean

Emily Climbs | L M Montgomery

“…over a hundred years ago great-great-grandfather Murray built this house and built it well. I wonder if, a hundred years from now, anybody will win a victory over anything because of something I left or did. It is an inspiring thought.”

This quote gave me chills—we‘re reading this 100 years after its publication. I think Emily would find that an inspiring thought!

How is your Emily-reading going this week?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, GingerAntics, TheAromaofBooks

AnnCrystal 🤩💝💝💝. 1mo

TheAromaofBooks I can't deal with Aunt Ruth and her “you're sly“ accusations 😂 And Creepy Dean is literally creepier than ever. Overall the whole everyone trying to convince Emily who she wants to marry even though she's an actual child is kind of weird. But I am enjoying looking for tiny bits of LMM within the pages!! 1mo

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Aunt Ruth is infuriating, and the way Emily handles all of it is a testament to how much Emily has grown!! I'd indulge in a LOT more smart remarks than Emily does. Aunt Ruth's persistent “but WHY did you do _____?“ (and then her refusal to accept an honest response to a ridiculous question) would make me want to slap her. I mean, Emily probably wants to slap her, too, but it's remarkable how much restraint she shows! 4w

TheAromaofBooks Right?? Nothing is more annoying than someone asking you a question and then refusing to believe your answer! 4w

kwmg40 I'm a bit late starting this book but now eager to get into it. 3w

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LitsyEvents

Emily Climbs | Lucy Maud Montgomery

repost for @BarbaraJean

The Kindred Spirits Buddy Read of Emily Climbs starts this week! This is book 2 in the Emily series. I‘ll post weekly check-ins, and we‘ll discuss the book on Saturday, Sept. 13. Let me know if you‘d like to join in—if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead
#LMMReread

#BuddyRead

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LitsyEvents

Emily Climbs | L M Montgomery

repost for @BarbaraJean

The Kindred Spirits #BuddyRead of Emily Climbs starts this week! This is book 2 in the Emily series. I‘ll post weekly check-ins, and we‘ll discuss the book on Saturday, Sept. 13. Let me know if you‘d like to join in—if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead
#LMMReread

BarbaraJean Thanks for the repost! 1mo

27 likes1 comment

BarbaraJean

Emily Climbs | L M Montgomery

The Kindred Spirits Buddy Read of Emily Climbs starts this week! This is book 2 in the Emily series. I‘ll post weekly check-ins, and we‘ll discuss the book on Saturday, Sept. 13. Let me know if you‘d like to join in—if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead
#LMMReread

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, LitsyEvents

TheBookHippie I love this book! Enjoy! 1mo

TheBookHippie @GingerAntics not sure if you read this one yet. 1mo

GingerAntics @TheBookHippie oh the second one in the trilogy. I bought this after we read the first one and I loved it so much… but then I totally forgot about it. I‘m in. 1mo

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TheAromaofBooks I started this one (against my better judgment 😂) so I'm in!! 1mo

BarbaraJean @GingerAntics Yay! I'll add you to the tag list. @TheAromaofBooks 😂 😂 I'm interested to hear how re-reading these lands for you!! 1mo

BarbaraJean @TheBookHippie I 💜 Emily so much. 1mo

TheBookHippie I do to! If I can squeeze in a reread I will let you know! 1mo

BarbaraJean @TheBookHippie You're very welcome to join if you can! Also, we're reading Emily's Quest in November—so there's that. 😁 1mo

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 @lauraisntwilder @kwmg40 @TheAromaofBooks @GingerAntics Soooo, I don‘t know how I keep doing this, but I got the number of chapters wrong 🤦🏻‍♀️ I‘ve corrected the pic on this post—if you were tracking which chapters to read based on the original version of the post, please note that it‘s changed. Because Emily Climbs has 25 chapters and not 34 chapters 😩😆 1mo

TheAromaofBooks Oh nice, that means I'm all caught up for this week! 😂 1mo

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