Emily Webster is my hero. She is at once an unabashed flag-waving patriot, and a passionate advocate for Syrian refugees.

This is, I think, my third reading of this book, but the first in a good long while. I had thought I remembered it pretty well, but it turned out there were lots of details I hadn't remembered, such as how great Cab (a minor character from the main series) is in this book. And also that Betsy makes an appearance. I had also forgotten just how sad the first half of the book is, but I remembered quite accurately that it becomes really wonderful. It almost (but not quite) makes me want to take up a volume of Browning and Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life.

This book is so so dear. It’s a book for those who have been left out, or left behind. And a book for those who have despaired. And a book for those who have had dreams shattered. And finally a book for those who have faced those things and made the world a better place. In a world full of Dons…be an Emily!

I absolutely loved this book. If you are a fan of Anne, you’ll like this sweet story with a likable, relatable heroine, that moved along at just the right pace.

ETA: The premise of this book is that Emily is unsure of what to do after her high school graduation - all her friends are going off to college, it she stays home to care for her grandfather. However, she (rightly) decides that she must continue on with some kind of studies, and what she chooses are what we might call “extras” or “the riches:” she begins a literary club to read and discuss Browning’s poetry; she resumes piano lessons, and begins dance lessons. She reads Scott to her grandfather of an evening. And she finds a way to live out what she might have studied at school, right there at home.

I don’t have the words to describe what this means to me, I can only say that this is one of the reasons I love to read old books - because they seem to have a better understanding of Life and what is what makes a good one and what Life is About. Similar themes came up in The Harvester, which I read immediately after this book, and it’s a refreshing change from some of the ridiculous themes that are the focus of many contemporary novels.

There were two books that sustained me the most during my first year of marriage - a year when everything was changing, I had moved away from everything and everyone I knew, and I was post-school but pre-job or -kids, when my new husband was working long hours and I had huge spaces of time just by myself, wondering what my purpose was. One book was The Blue Castle, by LM Montgomery. The other was this book, Emily of Deep Valley. The questions and struggles Emily endured, the feeling of something ended without something else starting, the need to "muster her wits" and make her own path ... it all provided such encouragement and hope to my lonely soul!

I love that Emily's love story is secondary to her own self-discovery, that it provides a counterpoint to the lessons she is learning throughout her "lost year" but does not overshadow them. I love that Lovelace is not afraid to go against tradition - we are never sure if her heroines are going to end up with their first loves or with somebody new (in Lovelace's world, Anne Shirley and Roy Gardiner might very well have ended up more suitable to each other than Anne and Gilbert, shocking though that may seem!). I love that throughout everything she does is a thread of love and devotion to her grandfather, and never once is it suggested that she is wasting her life by staying with him. And I have to admit, I love all the descriptions of the clothes from back then!

It is an old-fashioned story, but Emily is a heroine for all ages.

Re-read for November VSC. Still think Jed is written as a too good to be true guy, but oh well. I am firmly convinced that the engaged–practically! situation will wither away before it becomes real engagement.

Love this line which could be in a screenplay for the rom-com version:
"Miss Bangeter, casting off dignity for once, caught Emily to her queenly bosom."

Read:
1-16-2006. I know I've read it since then, but where are my records?

The fact that I didn’t know this book existed is a TRUE CRIME. If you’re trying to place the vibe, think “Brooklyn” meets “Anne of Green Gables.” I haven’t devoured a book like this in so long. Maud Hart Lovelace paints a beautiful picture and the romance is to die for!!!!! I don’t know if another book will ever make me this happy ever again.

I have always loved the style of literature that came from the early twentieth century, but somehow I had missed this gem by Maud Hart Lovelace until some friends wanted to read it in our book discussion group. I'm so glad they suggested it, because "Emily of Deep Valley" has claimed a place in my heart and won't be forgotten any time soon.

The story opens with Emily Webster on the cusp of her high school graduation in 1912. Emily has enjoyed school and desperately wants to go to college, but she lives with her elderly grandfather and really can't leave him. As many of her friends head off for higher education, Emily struggles with being left behind and finding a new rhythm in her life.

As Emily's friends come home for their holiday breaks, Emily feels more lost than ever. She's not having the same experiences and is no longer part of their circle. She has new pretty dresses but few invitations to the parties that everyone else is going to.

While tempted to give in to despair, Emily decides instead to muster her wits. Maybe she can't follow her preferred life choice, but she can take control of where she is today. She begins to look outside of herself, to form and foster connections, and to build community in places that some would call unlikely. Emily comes to find joy and fulfillment, and endears herself to many - including a wonderful man who will capture the hearts of readers everywhere!

This ranks among the best 'coming into her own' stories that I've read, right up near longtime favorites Rilla of Ingleside and A Girl of the Limberlost. If these kinds of stories appeal to you, I couldn't recommend "Emily of Deep Valley" more highly!

This review originated at http://reviewsbyerin.dreamwidth.org

This is, by far, my favorite out of all of Lovelace's books! It's a in depth story of a young woman coming into her own, and realizing that she can gain education and purpose right in her quiet home town. Watching Emily spread her wings really inspired and moved me, and the ending is just the cherry on top!

I always say I don't like this book, and it's one of the few in the series I have not read countless times. This time through, I wanted to analyze that assertion, and I can say with conviction that I like the book just fine. It's Emily I don't like. There's very little I find congenial about her, and I am pretty sure we couldn't ever be friends. All this time I thought it was Grandpa Webster who rubbed me the wrong way but, no. It's Emily.

My friend Wendy is absolutely right, Grandpa Webster would have happily gone along with anything Emmy wanted. He would have signed checks and engaged a day nurse so that Emily could go off to college. But no, martyr-like, she needs must stay at home with him. I could enumerate the things I don't like about Emily (I took notes!) but it doesn't matter.

I enjoyed the book very much as a return to Deep Valley. I loved visiting with familiar, well-loved characters. I especially liked Miss Bangeter smiling and hugging Emily. There's a lot to love about this book, I realize belatedly. It's just that the main character isn't one of those things for me.

This had everything I love in an old/er book. Emily was so relatable; her successes and failures were like your own; she was sort of a plain Jane, but not overly so; and she wound up happy. All of the other characters were so lovely too. Grandpa, Cab, even Don and Annette, and of course Jed. The children were lovely; I loved Kalil, Yusuf, and Layla. I loved the little cameos from Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, and Winona. This was just such a charming book. So like some of the Anne books in so many ways, but better in other ways. I just loved it.

Oh, how I love this book! I finished it with such a glow of joy. It left a song in my heart that just wants to burst forth, an anthem to be and do good in the world. I wish everyone could read this, especially now.

It is uncanny how this story came into my life at the exact perfect moment. After reading Betsy’s high school years as a cheerful antidote to quarantine life earlier this spring, I enjoyed Carney’s House Party and wondered if I should pause longer before reading Emily. Yet, something compelled me to pick it up. I found in Emily not only a kindred spirit, with many thoughts and feelings I could relate to, but also a heroine to admire and inspire.

In an uncanny coincidence, I found myself reading the chapter about Decoration Day on Memorial Day! It so poignantly and beautifully renders the true meaning of the day (I sometimes bristle at the way it has, in recent years, become merely a holiday to kick off summer fun or nab some good sales) and I found my eyes flooding with tears as I read.

Emily’s sense of loss, her bouts of depression at being unable to move forward with the kind of life she would have wished for herself in college, being left behind to care for her grandfather while all her high school chums moved on to college… how apt I found this while reading it, several months into the coronavirus pandemic, so many goals and plans on hold, so many questions about the future… Yet, Emily’s courageous and generous spirit overcomes her “slough of despond” and she moves forward, first to better herself, and then to better the world. What a heroine for our times!

I found myself getting a little impatient in some of the earlier chapters. Don annoyed me the moment he appeared and Emily was so wise beyond her years in so many ways, I just wanted her schoolgirl heart to catch up and wake up. Yet, it was impossible to feel anything but empathy for her and for her situation. More than empathy, admiration, even – for, while she may lament her situation, she never was anything but loving toward and grateful for her grandfather (and, oh, how I loved him, too!) Some of the early chapters were hard to read, I was not used to melancholy from Lovelace, but she simply and masterfully brought us into Emily’s feelings and it is so right that we begin there.

When Emily “Mustered Her Wits” I was elated, energized, inspired. I love that she took responsibility for herself, that she sought to change herself when she couldn’t change her situation. I felt such a kindred spirit in Emily, in the way she was more comfortable with the “older crowd.” I loved the way some of the old crowd from Betsy’s years came into play (I wanted to hug Cab!) It was even a delightful surprise when Betsy herself appeared in one chapter. I couldn’t help but think of our current situation, when so many of us are isolated from our normal doings and plans, when Betsy spoke of the “lost year” when she had to miss college and spend time recovering from illness at her grandmother’s in California: “That ‘lost year’ gave me a chance to do some thinking. I got acquainted with myself, I found myself, out there in California. It's hard to explain.” Emily turns her “loss” into remarkable gains, too. I especially love how she learns she can educate herself without having to attend college, that true learning can be done anywhere, and is a lifelong process. I love that, along the way, she learns to surround herself with people who appreciate her for who she is and who uplift her, rather than those who make her feel inferior or tear her down.

While Emily begins to blossom and thrive when she begins to broaden her interests, looking toward attainable goals for the future and not impossible dreams or a vanished past, she finds her deepest joy and fulfillment when she begins to think of, and do for, others. Her interest in the Syrians, first beginning with a spontaneous kindness, a genuine outpouring of sympathy and a disdain for prejudice, is quickly kindled into something much greater as she longs to help the Syrians become better accepted and appreciated in Deep Valley (where they often experience prejudice) and to help them with their dreams of “Americanization.” Lovelace handles this with a grace, sensitivity and broadmindedness rarely seen in the early 1900s, and I was so proud of her when “Webster Talks a Few.” It is bittersweet that many people today could still learn lessons from a book that was written 60 years ago and takes place over 100 years ago. That an eighteen year old girl, who once felt incapable of even shaping her own destiny, could do so much good in the lives of others, is wonderful and inspiring. (And I haven’t even mentioned how much I love Mr. Jed! Though he appears in so few chapters, he is undoubtedly one of my top literary crushes!) Highly, highly recommended!

This book has a . . . mood or presence that simply permeates it in a way that I expect is powerful for those who connect strongly to it. The sense of isolation from your crowd, of wanting to belong even while knowing it is impossible and, worse, existing on a fringe where you are accepted and welcome but still just that wee bit off is extremely strong in this book and conveyed with an understanding and depth that is very evocative.

I had a couple problems connecting to the book, though, and not any of them the obvious ones. Two problems, to be specific. First, and most significantly, Emily's experience is very close to my own but with an important and significant difference that made it difficult for me to relate. Moving around as much as I did in my childhood meant that I know something of existence on the fringe. So in that way, it was very like. But for whatever reason, I just didn't care that much about being on the fringe and was content with doing my own thing. So Emily's concerns are familiar, and yet completely alien at the same time. I think being that close and yet off kept me from connecting more than if I had been closer to the poles of popularity (and yes, I'm conscious of how deeply ironic that is given the book is about being so close and yet off).

The second problem is Don. That guy was a complete poo and Emily's obsession with him diminished her. Further, I think Lovelace showed exactly how much it did so very clearly and that Emily couldn't see it was a little maddening. He didn't deserve the time of day from her and that she considered herself in love with him was simply silly. And it persisted for freaking ever.

The book isn't helped by the distance in time or Jed's way, way too gentle "courtship" (though can it really be a ship if it doesn't actually ever move???), either. Some of the customs and language are enough foreign, now, that it takes a conscious adjustment to meet it half-way. That may actually play in the book's favor, though, as coming that much out of your customary thought patterns may make living in that world a bit easier when all's said. Which is why I chalk that displacement up as a wash.

Anyway, all the personal foibles aside, I liked the book and found it entertaining—so much so that I'm up way too late for the second night in a row despite all my best intentions. It's enough foreign and I'm enough disconnected that it's a "like" as opposed to a "really like" but that's a subjective call that I acknowledge is coming from a personal space. Lovelace is incredibly good at evoking the deeply internal lives of her characters, even in a time when big personal/historical exposition dumps were much more acceptable/common. You can see why her stories have persisted so long, despite a century of distance from her frame of reference. Well, that and they're awesome people that you'd just love to have as friends...