EMILY OF NEW MOON by L.M. Montgomery
The first in the "Emily" trilogy from Canadian literary legend, Lucy Maud Montgomery.
I have to commence this review with what I consider a bizarre confession (if you know me, you’ll appreciate this): I had never read Emily of New Moon until now, despite being a devotee of the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery and being ready to leave for Prince Edward Island, Canada, for the tenth time.
Why? No real reason - I was (and remain) an Anne girl, but it occured to me recently that it was much overdue that I read something else by Lucy Maud (I did read Kilmeny of the Orchard as a child and would love to find a copy to read again - a task for when I get home to the Island next month).
I discovered that Emily Byrd Starr’s story is not starkly different to Anne’s. Emily is orphaned around the age of 10 and is adopted by her maternal aunts, people she did not know. She finds herself living with adults and making the kinds of mistakes young girls of those times made - like Anne, Emily engages in activities which are not always seen as lady-like (such as writing stories).
Emily struck me as a sweet young lady, raised to think for herself and encouraged in her imagination by her father before his death. She struggles with the restraints her more conservative Aunt Elizabeth place on her, but quickly wins the hearts of her other Aunt, Laura and their cousin Jimmy.
Emily also befriends another local young girl, Ilse, who is being raised by her father, the local doctor. He is known as a wonderful doctor but indifferent father - somehow disconnecting from the daughter of his long-gone wife. Emily and Ilse have a fascinating relationship - Ilse struggles with proper social skills due to her father’s lack of attention, and she shows her love of her friend Emily by constantly picking fights with her. Emily quickly understands that the fights are not genuine, but Ilse’s way of communicating her feelings.
I really enjoyed my venture back into long ago PEI and the world created by L. M. Montgomery. However, there is one glaring matter which cannot be dismissed.
On a summer vacation with another Aunt, Emily is befriended by a distant cousin, the much older Dean Priest. At this stage, Emily is around 12 or 13 and Dean is in his mid-thirties. Quickly in the piece, Dean proclaims that he would “wait” for Emily and they commence a letter writing friendship when Emily returns to New Moon. It’s true that Dean provides Emily with intellectual stimulation which is, in and of itself, not problematic.
However, I felt strongly that Dean was essentially grooming Emily in a way that, in the twenty-first century, would be considered paedophilia. This made me really uncomfortable. Yes, this book is now 100 years old and things were different then, and I can accept that premise. That said, just because large age differences were normal in yesteryear, it doesn’t diminish the fact that Emily was a child when she meets Dean Priest, and he is well and truly an adult, and that he saw her almost immediately in a sexualised, marital sense, was gross. I actually had to stop reading and really consider if I wanted to continue with the book. I did finish, and I think I will read Emily Climbs and Emily’s Quest, but I cannot write this review without acknowledging this aspect of the story. Doing so would be deeply disrespectful to what we know, now, is unacceptable conduct of a man towards a child.
Setting aside this element of the book, this was a lovely novel to read (even if it’s about 40 years after I could have read it initially!). Montgomery is an enchanting writer, and the way she captures her beloved Prince Edward Island, is something I feel deeply connected to, too.
I look forward to what comes next for the delightful Emily Byrd Starr.
