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 n  Emily of New Moonn, and continued in n  Emily Climbsn - Emily's Quest sometimes reads like a Prince Edward Island soap-opera, with all the romantic twists and 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 n  Emily of New Moonn, 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.

چقدر خوندن این کتاب برای من لذت بخش بود...حتی جذابیت بیشتری از دو جلد قبلی داشت...خییییلی دوستش داشتم:)))

If I didn't finish this book last night, I would have teared my hair out of my skull and believe me it was 200% worth it.

When I looked myself in the mirror this morning, when I saw my puffy eyes, a single thought crossed my mind: it was the best conclusion for the trilogy.



I don't think I can properly give words to what I feel about this trilogy, it has given me a good laugh, joy and most of all: I wept.
I wept with every single chapter when Emily Starr was being "educated", when she had thought she lost, and when she thought it was better to forget.
I cried the most with this book. I felt that I was completely into the character and I saw her grow from eleven to adult so I won't ever forget these feelings I had.
It tear my heart just from remembering her hardships but I was never this happy with the end.

Oh, how it pains me to give Emily's Quest a less than enthusiastic rating. It's by far my least favorite book of the trilogy, however, and is unrelentingly sad and frustrating and lacking in the humor that leavens the melancholy bits in the other novels in the series.

First of all, there's Emily's (thankfully short-lived) engagement to Dean Priest. Dean is a monster and he takes up way too much of the first half of the book with his monstrous, creepy behavior. Most unforgivable is his lie to Emily that her first, precious novel is garbage - said only because he was jealous of her ambition and knew it would take her away from him. Emily was so crushed she burned the book, which broke my heart and also filled me with murderous rage. It would be one thing if Dean was treated as the villain he is, but instead Emily feels sorry for him and the book ends with him giving Emily the Disappointed House (which they'd decorated together for their planned married life, which would be pretty weird for Teddy), saying one day he'll visit her and Teddy and be their friend. Hell no. He would never cross the threshold if I were Emily. For all we know he'd fixate on Emily's future daughter and decide to marry her when he's 70 and she's 18.

Secondly, Ilse becomes completely unlikeable. People change and relationships change, especially when people's lives grow so separated by distance and lack of common experiences. But if I'd been Emily I'd have had to move on from the friendship of someone who was constantly making digs at me and being so self-centered. And once she got engaged to Teddy, even though she didn't love him? Again - hell no.

Lastly - the whole thing with Teddy Kent was a dreary mess. Emily's stubbornness and pride and the constant miscommunications and misunderstandings between the two of them exhausted and depressed me. So many years they wasted being foolish. I also still feel that Teddy was the least fleshed out of pretty much all the major "supporting" characters in the series, so the love so deep that he and Emily have a psychic connection across the miles angle was sometimes hard to believe.

The main thing I remembered from this book prior to this reread was the incident with the scissors - it has made me shudder for years to think about that! In my memory it was a dominant part of Emily's story in Emily's Quest. Imagine my surprise when the whole thing took place and was over in only a few pages. Funny how certain things stick with you so vividly and others don't.

I'm glad the story had a happy ending, but boy was it difficult getting there. If the somewhat episodic Emily's Quest had a theme at all it seemed to me that it was Adult Life is Full of Disappointments and the Shattered Dreams of Youth. Which is fairly accurate, I must admit. Still...I wanted something better for my beloved Emily of New Moon.

"یک ریویوی عاشقانه برای امیلیِ نیومون"

شب‌های بلند پاییز همیشه اولین انتخابم یک رمان کلاسیک عاشقانه بوده و هست و احتمالن خواهد بود.
امروز که سه گانه‌ی امیلی رو تموم می‌کنم
بیشتر از 5 ماه از شروع جلد اولش میگذره!
اون روزها در بدترین حال روحی و روزهای سخت زندگیم امیلی رو انتخاب کردم چون فکر میکردم خوندنش آسونه و تمرکز زیادی نمی‌خواد اما همون جلد اولش 4 ماه طول کشید تا بتونم تمومش کنم.
این منی که امروز جلد آخر رو تموم کردم و با گریه کتابو بستم (بعد از مدتها با یک کتاب گریه کردم شاید چون بعضی موقعیت‌ها با امیلی همذات پنداری می‌کردم) با منی که جلد اول رو شروع کردم زمین تا آسمون فرق کرده و حالم خیلی بهتره. نه اینکه امیلی حالم رو خوب کرده باشه، نه!
من این 5 ماه یک مسیر سخت و فشرده رو از سرگذروندم که همیشه فکر میکردم تو زندگیم این مراحل قفل باشه
اما اینکه تو همه‌ی اون لحظات سخت و کشنده و بعدن آسون و زنده کننده، امیلی همراهم بود (هر چند کم و یا کوتاه و حتی این اواخر دوست نداشتم تموم بشه) باعث میشه تا روزی که بتونم فکر کنم و به یاد بیارم جایی در گوشه‌ای از قلبم داشته باشه.
اونجایی که توی کتاب میگه:
"هر شب به خودش می‌گفت فردا دیگر طاقتش تمام می‌شود اما فردا که می‌آمد باز زندگی جریان داشت" این رو من زندگی‌ش کردم.

6 stars

If the mark of a great story is the ability to unflinchingly, honestly, but gently peel open the human soul and hold it out to you in all its frailty, mistakes, courage, and glory, then this is one of the best stories I've ever read. I felt so deeply known through every page that I physically could not put it down. Highly recommend.

It's about time! I thought it would never turn how I KNEW it MUST end. I think if the book would have been longer I would have had second-hand heart break.
This one was definitely better than the other two. I would give it 5 stars but the ending wasn't quite as magical as I hoping.
Moral of the story: CoMmUnIcAtE. And don't try to marry someone you don't love!

I really did not want her to end up with the forty two year old priest

Yes and albeit that I have indeed always enjoyed reading Emily's Quest and have also found it a reasonable and generally satisfying enough conclusion to the Emily of New Moon trilogy (and especially with regard to Emily's writing career and that she has finally managed to reach the pinnace of success when her novel The Moral of the Rose is released by the Warehams, by one of North America's most famous and well known publishing houses), I also do NOT particularly (if at all) enjoy (and have actually and in fact NEVER all that much been able to personally completely accept) that L.M. Montgomery has made Dean Priest (one of my absolute favourite characters from the first novel, from Emily of New Moon in particular) into such a jealous and disgustingly petty individual, into someone who in Emily's Quest is actually depicted by L.M. Montgomery as being so insanely jealous of even Emily's writing that he tells her a blatant falsehood about the supposed lack of narrative quality in a novel she is in the process of completing, causing Emily to not only believe him and consider herself totally talentless and worthless as a writer but to also burn her manuscript, fall down the stairs at New Moon and almost consent to marry the individual who has thus shattered her dreams.

But truth be told, while after reading about Dean Priest's transformation from platonic and interesting friend to a very envious, manipulative and much possessive lover and fiancé in Emily’s Quest I am of course (and on the surface) happy that after realising how much she actually both physically and spiritually loves Teddy Kent (and how clinging and overbearing Dean Priest has become), Emily Byrd Starr breaks off her engagement to the latter and yes, that finally after many (often hopeless seeming) struggles, Emily does indeed become Teddy's bride, personally, I have also and ALWAYS found especially Teddy Kent a majorly uninspiring, uninterestingly depicted and featured character in the Emily of New Moon series. And indeed, that at the end of Emily's Quest, Emily and Teddy become a couple (and this even after Teddy was going to marry Emily Byrd Starr's best friend Ilse Burnley and did not only because Ilse basically abandoned him at the altar and eloped with Perry Miller) on an entirely emotional and how much I have never really found Teddy Kent all that interesting and relatable as a character level, I for one would actually and in fact have much preferred to have seen Dean Priest reform himself, conquer his jealousies and to have Emily's Quest end with not Emily and Teddy but with Emily and a newer and improved, less envious by nature Dean as the bridal couple (but then again, this is just my personal preference speaking and in particular the fact that I have never really been all that much enamoured of L.M. Montgomery's rather insipid and flat portrayal of Teddy Kent and I do know and respect that many readers seem to totally be enthralled with and by Teddy and Emily's love story and that they have therefore also naturally found the ending of Emily's Quest and Emily Byrd Starr and Teddy Kent being engaged to be married the perfect and romantic ending to and for the Emily of New Moon trilogy).

Seriously, this book was giving me vapors. I was yelling at it a lot of the time, like NO THAT CAN'T HAPPEN!
And then it ended OK. Whew. :)

فکر کنم فصل آخر، همون پایان‌بندی‌ایه که امیلی برای داستان «نامزدی سلطنتی» تو روزنامه‌ی آرگوس شارلت‌تاون نوشت! :D