She was sitting at her open window. The night outside was like a dark, heavy, perfumed flower. An expectant night -- a night when things intended to happen. Very still. Only the loveliest of muted sounds-- the faintest whisper of trees, the airiest sigh of wind, the half-heard, half-felt moan of the sea.

"Oh, beauty!" whispered Emily, passionately, lifting her hands to the stars. "What would I have done without you all these years?"

This is the third, and my favorite, of the Emily books. I'll miss her.

I loved the beginning of this series, and the second book was alright, but this book was the biggest let down ever. I had such high hopes to the end of this series, but this book did not get close to living up to them. The plot seemed to have been dragged out way to long just to last long enough for the whole book, leaving too much time for unnecessary things to happen. It left me feeling unhappy and gloomy at the end, despite things ending up alright. This book honestly destroyed my outlook at the whole series, and I wish I had just skipped this book and let my mind finish the rest. I would recommend the rest of the series, but would say to skip this one and not struggle through it.

Emily's Quest is a complex bildungsroman, as Emily comes into her own as a writer and as a woman. It's unclear how old she is by the end of the book--nearing thirty, at least. But the growth she makes in these few pages equals the previous two novels.

I especially love how Montgomery held up Dean Priest and Mrs. Kent as bookending doppelgängers. Each seeks to control Emily, and each nearly crushes her quest in their own quietly cruel, jealous ways. A trademark of the Emily books is how lovable and hatable each character is by turns, but only one of these two characters made amends. Mrs. Kent asked Emily to tell Teddy of her actions after her death, and Teddy/Emily did wind up together. Nothing, however, could bring back ,i>A Seller of Dreams, and Emily's extension of friendship to him is more Christlike than I can manage at the moment. Cruel child of a man! Step aside, creepy Dean Priest of the earlier books, and enter full-on manipulative villain Dean Priest. Confused, sad, and lonely he may be, but he knew killing Emily's writing spirit was the only way she would accept him. I also noticed similarities in the scene where Emily reads conflicting reviews of her work and the "Literary Lessons" chapter in Little Women. Both are highly amusing, though quite different.

Emily's complexity doesn't earn her as many admirers as Anne's simplicity. You never have to wonder what Anne is thinking, and her propensity is to love people; Emily is a closed book (except to the narrator) and her supercilious ways have not entirely evaporated. Yet, I find the Emily books improved greatly upon re-reading. Montgomery seems more in touch with the wild and dark side of nature in this series than in her other books. There is something of herself in these volumes that she didn't let slip into her other work, and that darkness stands in stark contrast to her sunnier novels and short stories. There are hints that Emily would have committed suicide had she continued into middle age alone; Montgomery may have died by her own hand at 67.

I won't return to the well of Emily as much as I return to the well of Anne, but I enjoyed my time with her. She just holds herself a little bit apart from me, and I can't let her into the depths of my readerly heart, but she is a good companion all the same and I do enjoy New Moon.

"I’m sorry for what I called you, little eighteen. You weren’t silly – you were wise – you knew."

I am finding that the more I reread this book, the less I enjoy it. I first read it when I was twelve, and thought Dean was romantic (whereas now he repulses me) and I just have never been the biggest fan of Teddy. They both seem so cruel to Emily, who I only wish happiness for!

It's difficult, the older I get, to read about Emily's depression. It's perfectly written - a very honest portayal - but I found myself trying to hurry through, not remembering just how large a part of the book it was! I hate Dean for causing Emily to destroy her book - when she refers to it as the day she died, I completely understand.

Exactly halfway through the book, she breaks the engagement with Dean, because she "belongs" to Teddy. For some reason, this made me uncomfortable all through the rest of the book, though I don't know how to explain it. I am married myself, I have always felt I "belonged" to my husband, even before I met him, but I feel like Emily's version of "belonging" seems to have more to do with fate than with love, if that makes sense. I guess that she seems to feel she had no choice in the matter, whereas I did choose to belong to my husband.

About the only things I enjoyed in this book is Ilse, who is gone far too often; and Emily finally publishing her own book. I dearly love Emily, and I am glad she finally got her happy ending, but I do wish she had not had to suffer so much beforehand.

This book is so beautiful. It’s moody and it’s heartbreaking at times but oh, that ending.❤️ I read this for the third time this evening yet I almost feel like I read it for the first time. So many things I missed before. I now understand Emily in a way I couldn’t when I was younger. Now I feel all the emotion within these pages and I better understand what growing up feels like and what Emily was feeling. Like her, I feel things deeply so I could relate to her so much. I feel Emily is even more of a kindred spirit to me now, like a dear friend.
There are so many beautiful lines that I felt deeply. I teared up several times. So, so beautifully written. Yes, it is sad but there’s so much emotion in this book.
I love this book in a whole new way.
Goodness. All the stars. I felt this.

✨ Beautiful Quotes ✨

“Then she lifted her face and smiled gallantly at the empty sky. ‘There will be other rainbows.’ She said.
Emily was a chaser of rainbows.” pg. 5

“Don’t let a three-o’clock-at-night feeling fog your soul.” -Emily pg. 8

“‘Even if we never find it,’ he said to Emily as they lingered in the New Moon garden under the violet sky of a long, wonderous northern twilight, on the last evening before he went away, ‘there’s something in the search for it that better than even the finding would be.” -Teddy pg. 7

“She wanted summer; fields of daisies; seas misty with moonrise or purple with sunset; companionship; Teddy. In such moments she always knew she wanted Teddy.” pg. 33

“I went on the hill and walked about until twilight had deepened into an autumn night with a benediction of starry quietude over it. I was alone but not lonely. I was a queen and has a fancy.” Pg. 151

“I know that into everybody’s life must come some days of depression and discouragement when all things in life seem to lose savour. The sunniest day has its clouds; but one must not forget that the sun is there all the time.” Pg 153

“ and she knew, just as simply and just as surely that she loved him— had always loved him, with a love that lay at the very foundation of her being.” Pg 90

“She could never, in any words, deny her love for Teddy. It was much a part of herself that it has a divine right to truth.”pg. 186

“For disguise the fact as we will, when friends,even the closest— perhaps the more because of that very closeness— meet again after a separation there is always a chill, lesser or greater, of change. Neither finds the other quite the same. This is natural and inevitable. Human nature is ever growing and retrogressive— never stationary. But still, with all our philosophy, who is if can repress a little feeling of bewildered disappointment when we realize that our friend is not and can never be just the same as before— even though the change may be by way of improvement?” pg. 6

First off, if I didn't know better I would say that Emily's Quest was left unfinished at Montgomery's death and fleshed out by another writer using her notes. It didn't feel right. I've never known LMM to use sentence fragments before, and yet this book was positively rife with them. (It was also rife with typos, although that was hardly her fault.)

And here's another thing: I'm all for a good bit of drama and tragedy in a novel, but this seemed positively agonizing for LMM's style of writing. I wouldn't mind reading about months of Emily in Despair, but years upon years? I think that's why I rushed through the last half, just wanting desperately to get to a happy part again. And she never did rewrite Seller of Dreams; I think that bothered me most of all.

And here's the final thing, at least the final coherent thing I can produce out of my brain so soon after the finishing of it. I liked Dean much better than Teddy. I think she should have married him. I don't think he should have been so jealous, of course, but ... they were so suited to each other. And I couldn't find the "happy" ending all that happy, knowing that he was out there alone in the world, thinking of Emily and Teddy living in the Disappointed House that he had furnished. I think her little "he must not be hurt anymore" was wishful thinking. A Dean doesn't "get over" an Emily.

And of course Dean is just a much better name than Teddy. Seriously.

”Jos hyvä haltijatar yhtäkkiä ilmestyisi eteeni ja antaisi minun toivoa, toivoisin että Teddy Kent tulisi tänne ja viheltäisi viheltämästä päästyään Korkean Johnin metsikössä. Enkä minä menisi – en astuisi askeltakaan.” (Runotyttö etsii tähteään)

L. M. Montgomeryn Runotyttö-trilogian päätösosa Runotyttö etsii tähteään on tummasävyisin sarjan kirjoista. Emilia kärsii pitkistä yksinäisyyden ja alakulon kausista Uudessa kuussa, kun hänen ystävänsä ovat lähteneet opiskelemaan. Kirjoittamisestakin katoaa hohto, kun Dean antaa tylyä palautetta Emilian romaanikäsikirjoituksesta.

Suuri osa kirjasta omistetaan Emilian kosijoiden kuvaamiselle. Kavaljeerit parveilevat Uudessa kuussa, ja moninaisesta joukosta revitään toistuvasti huumoria. Siinä missä edellinen osa oli täynnä kommelluksia ja sattumuksia, tämä kirja tarjoilee samaa lähinnä muutaman omalaatuisimman kosijan muodossa. Läpi kirjan Emilian ajatuksissa kummittelee Teddy Kent, joka välillä vaikuttaa olevan Emiliaan ihastunut ja heti perään käyttäytyy kylmästi kuin kivi. Emilian ja Teddyn piinallinen, hidas romanssi jaksaa kutkuttaa minua edelleen!

Nyt aikuisena erityisen kiehtovalta ja kaamealta vaikuttaa se väkivallan dynamiikka, joka Deanin ja Emilian suhteesta välittyy. Miten hyytävää onkaan, että Dean on mustasukkainen Emilian kirjoittamisesta ja yrittää ryöstää hänet itselleen valehtelemalla Emilian käsikirjoituksesta. Deanin häikäilemättömyys ja kontrolloivuus on ahdistavaa. Samalla olen vaikuttunut siitä, miten kammottavan hahmon Montgomery on Deanista onnistunut rakentamaan!

Tässä osassa keskitytään huomattavasti aiempia osia vähemmän Emilian kirjoittajuuteen. Kun Emilia lopulta saa kustannussopimuksen romaanilleen, itkin onnesta hänen puolestaan. Yksi suosikkihetkistä kirjassa on, kun Jimmy-serkku kirjan julkaisun jälkeen kertoo lukeneensa kirjan jo neljästi.

Loppu tulee nopeasti ja ehkä jopa hieman yllättäen. Mutta minä pidän onnellisista lopuista, joissa tulevaisuus jää kutkuttavasti auki. Sellaiset loput mahdollistavat niin monia polkuja kirjan henkilöille!

This book is painful. Why do they all torture themselves??? My advice is read the last chapter first. Then you can have your happy ending to the other two books. At that point you can decide if you even want to know what happened in the first of the book. You may be better off not knowing.

خیلی دلم گرفته که کتابا تموم شدن
واقعا باهاشون زندگی کردم

Actual rating: 2.5 stars. Rounded up out of loyalty to the writer.

Montgomery is an incredibly talented author. Anne of Green Gables is one of my all-time favorite books. But this last installment of the Emily trilogy had me rolling my eyes so constantly that I made myself dizzy. I think Emily Byrd Starr is a wonderful heroine, and I absolutely love the Prince Edward Island setting. There is something incredibly quaint and charming about the combination of that setting and Montgomery’s prose, which is unfailingly lovely. The element that made me groan constantly in annoyance was the romance. I don’t know that I’ve ever read anything quite so melodramatic. So much thwarted love. So many bruised and battered hearts. All because Montgomery’s normally intelligent characters don’t understand communication. TALK TO EACH OTHER, people. Jeez. I guess all’s well that ends well, but so many years of happiness were lost due to pride and miscommunication that even the ending felt soured because of it.

توی این جلد همراه امیلی درد عشق میکشیم، همراهش حماقت میکنیم، همراهش عاقل میشیم و از یه چیزی مطمئن میشیم: بزرگ شدن همیشه با درد همراهه.
(بیشتر از این بگم اسپویله)
_______
میخوام وصیت کنم بعد مرگم جزیره پرنس ادوارد دفنم کنن