A worthy follow-up to "Emily Of New Moon"which follows the young protagonist to attending High School in a nearby town alongside her best friend,the "Dramatically-Inclined" Ilse Burnley. There's also a budding romance w/ another friend ;aspiring young artist Teddy Kent, as well as unwanted suitors such as her friend, Perry & cousin Andrew(this book is set around 1900,folks. ) while boarding w/her pain-in-the-butt Aunt, Ruth,who makes strict Aunt Elizabeth look almost look easy-going in comparison.! I enjoyed how LM Montgomery effectively depicted Emily's "growing pains" as she becomes a young woman ,as well as dealing w/the hard work (& many rejection slips) before finally achieving her goal of becoming a published writer. I've read about the author's life online have a feeling that this book is more autobiographical in tone than her "Anne Of Green Gables" series. Finally ,while Emily Starr is not as chatty or "Larger Than Life" as Anne Shirley, she's certainly interesting in her own way.

Pateicoties viņas dienasgrāmatas ierakstiem, Emīlija kļūst arvien interesantāka. Priecājos par viņas "mugurkaulu" un rakstīšanas būšanām un nebūšanām. Pieaugot Emīlijai, šķiet, ka pieaug arī citi tēli, tie šķiet taisnīgāki, laipnāki, mazāk krītoši uz nerviem.

"چطور می‌توانست خانه‌ای را ترک کند که به او پ��اه داده و عشق ورزیده بود؟
نگویید خانه که عشق نمی‌ورزد."

دوستش داشتم با اینکه پونزده بیست سال زودتر باید می‌خوندمش.

Cykl o perypetiach Emilki Lucy Maud Montgomery jest mniej znany niż Ania z Zielonego Wzgórza, ale niemniej warty uwagi. Z lektury tych książek mam mniej wspomnień, zachowały się u mnie da tomy - pierwszy i trzeci, więc drugi (zapewne wtedy nie udało mi się go zdobyć) przeczytałam po angielsku.
Emilkę poznajemy w przełomowym momencie jej życia - właśnie umiera jej ojciec i dziewczynka zostaje sierotą. Jej mama nie żyje od dawna, jedynymi krewnymi jest rodzeństwo matki. Rodzina kostyczna, o sztywnych zasadach i o dobrym zapleczu finansowym. Spotkani ciotek i wujów z Emilką jest jednak zderzeniem dwóch światów. Emilka została wychowana w swobodzie, dziko, bez reguł, karcenia, za to otoczona miłością i zrozumieniem. Nowo poznani członkowie rodziny są zgoła inni - krytykują dziecko na każdym kroku w jego obecności, traktują ją jak przedmiot, który należy rozdysponować. Nieświadoma niestosowności swoich zachowań Emilka od razu sprawia złe wrażenie. Na szczęście zostaje zabrana do domu ciotek Elżbiety i Laury, który wydawał się być jej najmniej obcy. I faktycznie Laura to dobra dusza, emocjonalna, która od razu pokochuje dziewczynkę. Elżbieta bardzo długo utrzymuje wiktoriańską fasadę w swojej próbie wychowania Emilki na rozsądną panienkę. Na szczęście na Srebrnym Nowiu mieszka też kuzyn Jimmy, który jest nieco dziwaczny i na swoje dziwactwa może sobie pozwolić. W dzieciństwie z winy Elżbiety wpadł do studni i na skutek urazu jest podobno nieco upośledzony, np. pisze wiersze. Emilka znajduje w nim pokrewną duszę, ponieważ tak jak on kocha naturę, zachwyca się nią, uwielbia poezję i prowadzi pamiętnik, w którym sama tworzy pierwsze wiersze.

Ciąg dalszy: http://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot.c...

This is the second book of a lesser-known series by the author of Anne of Green Gables. The Anne books are more popular, but the Emily books are deeper and darker, and some of my favorite young adult literature. Like Anne, Emily is an orphan. Finding herself alone in the world, she goes to live with conservative relations. The three books chart her coming of age, her college years and her professional endeavors, and are excellently written. Emily is a character of ups and downs -- people who dismiss L.M. Montgomery as a flowery girl's writer have never read the Emily books (or are idiots). When she finally achieves hard-won and often bittersweet success (in life, in work, in love), you are soaring with her.

Montgomery's work is constantly under-estimated, and the way the books are marketed doesn't help (the flowery script, the swoony illustrations). There are many layers at work in her stories, and some pioneering feminist concepts tucked in between the deep appreciation of nature, the commentary on the stuffy contemporary society of her day, and the delightful, well-drawn characters.

To jau varēja paredzēt. Vispār es uz bibliotēku biju aizgājusi pēc Ingas Ābeles "Dunas", uz kuru man bija pienākusi rinda, vēl manu skatienu aizķēra Makjuana "Sestdiena", kindlā līdz pusei izlasīta stāv Nobela prēmijas autora Mo Jana grāmata, nemaz nerunājot par Tumana "Varonību Senajā Grieķijā", kuru jau pasen neesmu atvērusi, un faktu, ka tikko visai nopietni apsvēru pievienoties kādai no manām goodreads grupām, lai vēl šogad mēģinātu izlasīt "Ulisu".
Man ir tikai viens attaisnojums :) Manā bērnībā Montgomerijas grāmatas nebija pieejamas :D Es vairs pat necenšos kādu apmānīt, ka pie bērnu literatūras plaukta vienmēr eju tikai "lai paņemtu kaut ko bērniem". Sliktāka un dumjāka es, domājams, no šīs vājības nepalikšu.

2021 reread:
Emily's journal entries are my favorite parts of the book. I noticed this time, though, that Emily's voice changes drastically from the end of the first book to the beginning of this one. New Moon ends in "I am going to write a dairy." Then, in this one, suddenly there are no more misspellings, and the childlike tone is gone and replaced by a teenage one. Maybe more time passed than I realized between the books?

I realize more fully why I identify much more strongly with Emily than with Anne. Emily does not mind so much if people don't like her, while Anne must win everyone over, or at least try. Emily is okay with having a small circle of close friends, with going her own way regardless of whether people approve of her or not, and she allows herself to brood when she needs to. As an introvert, Emily is much closer to my personality, even though I wish I was more like Anne.

***
5 stars for being beautiful, inspiring, funny, magical.
1 star for being maddening-I desperately want to read the stories Emily writes! And the poems as well.

Somehow, I like this one even better than Emily of New Moon. I love the journal entries and-yes, even Emily's italics! I love her determination, her innocence that keeps her from seeing Dean is in love with her and waiting for her to grow up so he can show it, and most of all, I love her incessant 'scribbling'.

The part where Emily hides in the closet because she's wearing the hideous 'Mother Hubbard', and hears two malicious old ladies gossiping about her is funny and moving, especially when Emily goes upstairs and questions, honestly, whether what the women said was true. I like that in her, that she can face up to herself and recognize both her faults and strengths.

One thing I've noticed with the Emily series is that LMM doesn't use haunting, mystical last lines, like in some of the Anne books.

Anne of Avonlea: 'And over the river in purple durance the echoes bided their time.'

Anne of the Island: 'Over meadows where winds of hope and memory blew.'

Those lines just make me shiver with delight every time. And LMM doubted that she had crested the 'Alpine Path!'

To get back to Emily, the lack of last lines like those doesn't take away from her books at all. It's just an interesting contrast. The last lines in the Emily books seem more to reveal Emily's voice. The first one ends with, 'I am going to write a dairy, that it may be published when I die,' and the second one is, 'Perhaps Teddy was only shy!' Those ending sentences show Emily's autobiographic character, to me.

I like the almost-grown-up and adult Emily, whereas with Anne I felt a little sad when she was grown and had left her lively ramblings behind.

I love comparisons, but sometimes they can detract from the unique values of books I compare with each other.

This continuation of Emily's story was just as heart-warming and enchanting as the first book. Reading about Emily makes me feel happy, cozy and safe all at the same time, and I loved how in this sequel the setting actually changes as Emily grows up (which was not the case with the Anne of Green Gables series). The ending was a little bit surprising, because Emily made an unwise decision in my opinion. Nevertheless, I'm excited to pick up the last installment of this series very soon.

It took me a book and a half to get into this but it finally happened! Can't wait for Emily's Quest!

Emily Byrd Starr - what a delightful character you are. I enjoyed this second book in the Emily trilogy and found it as funny and moving in its own way as the first book was. There's something so special about series like this one, Anne of Green Gables, Betsy-Tacy, Little House, in which you're taken along on a journey through someone's life from the time she's little to the time she's an adult. By the end you feel you know and love the story's heroine like a dear friend, and that's especially true when the heroine is written by an author as talented as L.M. Montgomery.

Montgomery was such a gem. Her writing has such wisdom, humor, sensitivity, and most of all an incisive understanding of human nature. She gave those writerly traits to Emily too, and it's lovely to watch her work hard on the art and craft she loves and grow into a talented writer. I really love this stretch of Emily's story, as she goes to high school away from New Moon, boards with her difficult Aunt Ruth and has lots of memorable experiences, both good and bad. The mustache, canvassing for subscriptions with Ilse, the night spent in the haystack, Emily's "second sight" coming back in a spooky way, Emily's night of walking to New Moon and back, the blizzard spent in an abandoned house with Ilse, Perry, and Teddy, the horribly behaved dog during her interview with Miss Royal. So much happens to Emily over the course of these three years to help her grow up, and it's all so entertaining to read about.

Emily's friends Ilse and Perry are wonderfully vibrant characters. I wish Teddy was as vibrant himself, given that he's Emily's best guy friend and the one she is gradually falling in love with. The moments we get with him are nice (especially him rescuing her when she was accidentally locked up in the church), but I feel like we need more. I'm hoping the third book will be heavier on the Teddy/Emily relationship. I've read it before, but I don't remember much about it anymore.

The one fly in the ointment when it comes to this trilogy is the character of Dean Priest. I absolutely loathe him! Beginning in the first book, when he saves Emily's life after an accident, his weird obsession with her is creepy as can be. He's in his mid-30s, one of her late father's classmates from university. She is 12. After talking with her and finding her intelligence and fey nature charming, he instantly decides she is the one he will one day marry and tells her he will wait for her to grow up. Then, as the story continues, he is a constant presence in the background of her life. To her he's an intelligent older friend she likes talking to and spending time with, but to him she's the girl he can't wait to have grow up so she can be his. It's frankly disturbing. Especially when he gets jealous of her completely appropriate friendship with her beloved classmate Teddy, and when he starts downplaying Emily's ambition to be a writer knowing it will eventually take her away from him.

I find him to be a twisted character and his presence is just very bizarre. Thankfully Dean plays a fairly small part in the first two books, but I dread how much he'll be in the third one, now that Emily is more or less grown up and he'll be there, ready to pounce. I hope that aspect of these stories doesn't dissuade people from reading the series because it really is so good and special, but just be forewarned. If you've read the series too, do you find Dean as upsetting as I do? I don't remember what I thought about him as a kid/teenager reading the books, but as a grown woman? Yikes.

Anyway...overall I love this book and I absolutely adore Emily. She's a wonderful character. It's been decades since I read this series or any of Montgomery's novels other than The Blue Castle, and I'm having a great time reminding myself of just why her books meant the world to me when I was growing up. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books as the year goes on.

I wasn't happy with a few things. Here we are now in the second book, and in order to tell much the same tale, we have to pull Emily away from the home and family where she made a decent amount of progress and drop her in with what seems to be an even stricter, more prejudiced, and less sympathetic relative. Then halfway through, everything is magically fixed. It's not gradual, it's from one extreme to the other. (Though the intervention at New Moon where Cousin Jimmy takes on Aunt Ruth is a glorious scene.) I will say that it is thrilling to see Aunt Ruth finally roll up her sleeves and take on the town with gusto on behalf of family.

There were quite a few situations that played out in predictable fashion (I could see Evelyn Blake and the poem a mile off - though I was very disappointed that it wasn't resolved with a bit more retribution). Then there were other bits that seemed out of the blue - Janet Royal shows up and we've never even heard of her? I did like that there was some uncertainty in how that course would be decided.

I found the supernatural element to be weak and out of place. Where is this going? I fear that Hagrid will appear on his flying motorbike at the start of the next book to announce, "You're a wizard, Em'ly! We're taking you away from your awful relatives to the School of Magic at Queens Academy."

I don't recall the conceit of LMM talking to the reader: "I am only Emily's biographer, not her apologist" in the first book. I'm not crazy about that either.

Montgomery is still a magnificent writer and the book manages to overcome these and other faults. I look forward to the third installment.

This is my favorite book out of one of the best series I've ever read. I discovered the Emily trilogy a few years ago, even before reading the Anne series, and, looking back, I can see that those three books influenced the way I viewed life, my love of previous eras, and especially my writing. So if that isn't the best compliment an author can receive, I'm not sure what is.