Emily's Quest

This was the worst of the whole series. It was dark and depressing the whole time. The plot was really sad, and all through this book I just HATED Ilse. She was portrayed as a shallow, silly girl with no feelings for Emily or Teddy. She's obsessed with something the whole time. I liked the first two because of Emily and Ilse's good friendship. They both trust and stick up for each other. However, in the third, it seems as though she doesn't care for anything or anyone. And it's weird how Emily and Ilse are supposed to be such good friends, but Ilse doesn't sense Emily's love for Teddy EVER. How could someone be so stupid? And she's so malicious and it seems like she wants to ruin Emily's life. Finally she's engaged to Teddy and then runs off to Perry while he's in the hospital supposedly "dying." How could someone so shallow and mean and uncaring love anyone like that? I just hated her, which was sad because in the other two I really liked her personality. The third book ruined all her good characteristics and her bad ones took over.

Teddy and Emily's relationship? Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. They didn't know how to communicate, and they can't read each other at all. I was mad at both of them the whole time for being so dumb. I guess people are really like that, but still...

Dean? I hated him. Sorry to be a hater...but he was so self-absorbed, selfish, and cynical. When he lies to Emily about her story and then she goes and burns it...I wanted to put the book down. Why did she trust him so much?? Emily was such a bad judge of character.

The plot was SO SAD. oh....my...goodness. Emily loses her good outlook on life and I feel like she becomes sarcastic and cynical. And I get sick of all the writing. It seems like her life is only this: writing, get up, walk in the garden with Dean, talk, eat, sleep, write. I mean, it gets to a point where I hate her life. And when it says that she was content and happy with her cats and her life at new moon, everyone knew that she was going to be an old maid now, the only times that she was sick of her life was when she was reading Teddy and Ilse's letters and adventures, yada yada yada. How can you not hate her life? And all these sad things happen and the happy parts are few and far between. Mr. Carpenter dies, Emily falls down the stairs and cuts open her foot with sewing scissors (*shudder*), Emily has a horrible life...etc. The humor is really weird sometimes...like the one part where the man comes and proposes to her because he falls madly in love with her picture...and during his proposal he talks about how she ruined his story but he still loves her...what the...?

I cried during this book. I cried because Emily had a horrible, boring, depressing life. Everyone judged her wrongly and she NEVER tried to defend herself! Sure, the ending is happy, but that's like what...five pages of happiness? The rest is really depressing and hard to get through. I hate almost all the characters at some point in the story. The only reason I kept reading was because I had to see how it ended. I couldn't stand how the whole time the tone was depressing and nostalgic, and the story just ends with tons of loose ends. It was my least favorite L.M. book so far.

و پایان ماجراهای امیلی...

پنج ستاره‌ی طلایی؛
به خاطر قوی بودن امیلی
به خاطر تحمل سختی‌ها
به خاطر قوی بودنش
به خاطر تلاش کردن های بی‌وقفه‌ش
به خاطر خستگی ناپذیر بودنش
به خاطر شکستن قلبش
به خاطر نویسنده بودنش
به خاطر افکار و روح بلندش
به خاطر شوخ‌طبع بودنش
به خاطر حاضر جواب بودنش

3.5 stars. This was a nice conclusion to the trilogy, but there was a lot more angst and a lot less humor than in the other two books.

این کتاب به دوره جوانی امیلی ، که صد البته مربوط میشه به مسائل عاطفی پرداخته شده بود اما ...

با توجه به تجربه قبلی که از قلم لوسی در این موضوع های عاشقانه توی جلد سوم آنی شرلی داشتم به نظرم این بار ضعیف عمل کرده بود . دوره جوانی آنی شرلی سرشار شور ، هیجان و شخصیت ها و اتفاق های بامزه بود که این موضوع خودش یک پوئن مثبت به حساب می‌آید در مقابل جوانی امیلی که کسل کننده و غمگین بود که اگر گهگاه ایلزه و پری هم نبودند واقعا ملال آور میشد . کل این کتاب فقط روایت عشق و غم امیلی بود و فاجعه این بود که من اصلا با امیلی احساس همدردی نمی کردم !!
یه بار گفته بودم امیلی یه ویژگی داره که خیلی دوستش دارم اونم این که مثل آنی حرصم رو در نمیاره . آره حرصم رو درنمیاره این موضوع توی دو جلد قبل عالی بود اما این جا حرص نخوردنم و بی تفاوتی که در من ایجاد شده بود مسبب اش لوسی بود. شخصیت تدی اینقدر کمرنگ بود و بهش پرداخته نشده بود که من اتفاقات اصلا برام اهمیتی نداشت. توی کل این سه جلد شاید حداکثر سه تا دیالوگ مستقیم از تدی بیان شده بود و وجود تدی به طرز قابل توجهی کمرنگ تر از پری و دین بود در حدی که فقط یک بار ذکر شده بود که رنگ چشم هاش آبیه و یک بار هم گفته شده بود رنگ موهاش مشکیه . اونقدر تدی رو ما نداشتیم که شاید حتی رابطه امیلی و دین واقعی تر به نظر می رسید .

خلاصه از لوسی که شخصیتی مثل گیلبرت رو اینقدر زیبا می تونه به تصویر بکشه و ما رو عاشقش کنه انتظار نمی رفت اینقدر در حق تدی کم لطفی کنه با اون همه پتانسیلی که داشت برای اینکه بهش پرداخته بشه

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THIS BOOK.

October 2021 Rereading a chapter a day with the Litsy #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead group.

June 2016: Just reread the trilogy; I'd forgotten how melancholy this last book is.

This book is dragged down by Dean, who is The Worst.

I always give Dean my stories to read. I can't help doing it, although he always brings them back with no comment, or, worse, than no comment - faint praise. It has become a sort of obsession with me to make Dean admit I can write something worthwhile in its line. That would be a triumph. But unless and until he does, everything will be dust and ashes. Because - he knows.

THE ABSOLUTE WORST.

I don't think I've ever thought Montgomery was writing a series about abuse or depression before. I'm not entirely sure she is - this reads as more specific tortured-artist to me - and yet I could be persuaded of it.

It's not just that I don't like Dean. This book is oddly distant because of its diary format - something I didn't find true in the two previous books. But here there's more of a sense that Emily is censoring herself. And that reminds me of all the reasons I don't like the artificial, telling-the-story-to-a-diary point of view.

I also find this to be uneven. It's not that it documents the ups and downs of life as much as it gets the tragedy out of the way before the happily-ever-after, which means all of it loses its power a little; the most evocative moments happen earlier on, and then the narrative deflates a little. Mrs. Kent is the one redeeming factor toward the end of the book, and even that is less memorable to me this time around.

Mr. Carpenter does still give great writing advice:

No use trying to please - critics. Live under your own hat. Don't be - led away - by those howls about realism. Remember - pine woods are just as real as - pigsties - and a darn sight pleasanter to be in.

Emily's loneliness should be relatable - look at her letter to herself at 24! The comments from her relatives about her age! Dean's "You've never lived" comment (MONSTER) - but instead she's positioned as a tortured artist and her loneliness as unique and special. She gets critical raves (and sniffy negative reviews) and delightful congratulations from Miss Royal and petty congratulations from Dean, and all of it makes her a more distant character. I want to rejoice with her and cry for her but instead I can't quite feel what she's feeling. She lives so much in her head and her writing is so solitary by design that Montgomery almost backs herself into a corner here. Somehow the events in Emily's life lose their immediacy and impact.

It's deliberate, of course: this is the book where she loses almost everyone close to her. But she feels less like Emily as a result. That beginning - "Emily was a chaser of rainbows" - is so pitch perfect, and I can't find that Emily in the rest of the book.

I feel so out-of-sorts writing this: it clashes so much with my memory of this book, which I remember liking so much. This is still one of the saddest sentences in the English language -

But oh, for her unborn Seller of Dreams!

- DEAN, YOU ARE THE WORST - and yet my main reaction this time around is: Teddy, why did you whistle again?

PS: I felt so prescient when I read this:

Something nice happened today. I feel pleasantly exhilarated. Madison's took my story, A Flaw in the Indictment!!!! Yes, it deserves some exclamation points after it to a certainty. If it were not for Mr. Carpenter I would write it in italics. Italics! Nay, I'd use capitals.

2-2.5 stars

I can’t properly explain how badly this book went for me when compared to the wonderful time I had reading the previous two books in the Emily series. "Emily's Quest" was the worst book out of the trilogy, in my opinion, and felt like an endless chore to read and listen to.

None of the characters seemed to be who they were when we started out with them in the series. Of course they were children and we see them grow into adults so changes were bound to happen. The sequel gives examples of this while still having the characters be recognizable. Emily, Teddy and at times Ilse too were all changed into typical whiny, dense, and annoying characters that kept making stupid mistakes due to pride and lack of communication. What best friends can't be honest with each other?! I expect these kind of characters in a daytime television soap opera but not in the Emily series.

Everything seemed to be done in a lazy and hasty way. Maybe the author got tired of writing the series because I didn't feel the care that was put into "Emily of New Moon" and "Emily Climbs" was given to "Emily's Quest." It was a major disappointment to me as I really loved the series until I read this book. It was the last book I started in 2019 so I felt an obligation to finish it. This book will remind me why I’ve installed the new DNF rule in my reading life. It feels like “utter nonsense” as Aunt Elizabeth would put it.