Customer Reviews

Emily's Quest (Puffin Books)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wonderful. As with all the Montgomery books, the beauty of the world captures you. Emily's Quest is a brilliant end to a most charming series of books. Its sadder - had to be, for Emily is no longer a child of 14. She is now 24, with unfulfilled dreams. Hence, there had to be mor etears. But the book statisfied all expectations, except to some extent the final chapter. Rarely has a romance been built up so beautifully and so truthfully as here - and it deserved a much better final chapter. My favourite chapter here is the one where the 24 year old Emily reads the letter written to her by the 14 year old Emily. I cried a long while as I read and reread the lines. I have read nothing as beautiful. In conclusion, this is a must-read. A romance for all ages - to live in a world that is beautiful and captivating, but which alas, no longer exists in this dark world of today.

Emily's Quest is the third book in this trilogy. Emily, now struggling to be noticed as a writer, is deeply hurt when one of her dearest friends calls her stories 'pretty cobwebs'. Believing her childhood friend Teddy Kent cares nothing for her, she agrees to marry Dean, whom she does not love.

I loved this book. It is noticeably different from the other two books in this trilogy. In Emily of New Moon, Emily is a defiant, intelligent and brave little girl. In Emily Climbs, one of my favourites, she is blithe, brave and ambitious. Here, in Emily's Quest, she is more down-to-earth and she seems to be rather disillusioned. Although she is weary and heartsick at times, she is still 'Archibald Murray's granddaughter' and she can still glimpse her old starry world.

This book can make you cry, laugh or feel just as Emily feels at Ilse's news. Emily is as always a remarkably believeable character. Her trials and tribulations never fail to move you along in this conclusion to the Emily tales. I rather prefer Emily to Anne, although Anne is and will always be one of my favourites. She feels more deeply, is much more ambitious and somehow I love her more. She and all the other characters in this book are portrayed with humour and sympathy, and they are always believeable. The awkward scenes with Teddy (Emily's pride holds her back each time) are very well-written - it could almost be a true story.

This book does not preach or even try to, and overall it is a very satisfying conclusion to the other Emily tales.

Emily's Quest seems often to be telling two stories at once, in two different styles. Emily's relationships with Teddy Kent and Dean Priest often play out like conventional magazine romance of the time. This can get frustrating, particularly in the latter half of the book. However, Emily's continuing adventures as a writer and her from-the-heart journal entries are pure gold, and have the feel of L.M. Montgomery's own experience.

This book does have a bittersweet flavor that is missing from the Anne series, but I appreciate the emotional truth that comes through. Montgomery's insight into her characters is clear but gentle, and rarely unforgiving. My only wish is that she would have trusted her characters to forward Emily's story to the end without resorting to plot devices. Overall, however, this is a worthwhile read that fans of Emily Climbs will not want to miss.

Look, it was amazing. Because I am going through a misunderstanding similar to what Emily went through, I loved it.
But......I thought she should have got out of Blair Water, maybe gone to New York for a year. It wouldn't have killed her.
The ending.....it really looked like she wouldn't end up with Teddy. And the way she just ASSUMES she means nothing to him.
Wasn't she jumping to conclusions a bit? How could she be so sure? And couldn't she have told her own best friend about who she was in love with? It would have made her easier to relate to for me. Cool down, girl.
The ending chapter, as others have said, was simply not complete enough. A description of her wedding.....that would have been nice. If not in this one then in some book Montgomery wrote after this about Emily. We deserved to know more. And I wanted more of Teddy around. We always heard what Emily thought of him, but there was so much of Dean and so little of Teddy. Why?
I like that Dean character. I think Montgomery does a good job of showing the vile parts of human nature when she writes of how Dean told Emily "The Seller of Dreams" was no good. I seriously got angry when I find out he had done that to her though. It made me wonder, how selfish of him....when he knew in part at least that that accident she suffered was his fault, how could he have had that happy summer with her furnishing the Dissapointed House?
The Dissapointed House is a wonderful metaphor by the way throughout the novel.
Write better and less SUDDEN! endings Emily is tons better than Anne. I like the ambition of the woman. Anne lost all that. There is more of a mutual respect thing between Teddy and her. They are both going after "Rainbow Gold." Wish there had been more talk of that between them during the book. Wouldn't have hurt if he had come back to visit more often. Was Maud seriously depressed when she wrote this? I later read her diary, which has been published and my college library has. Parts of Emily's diary are copied write out of Maud's. All those fits and starts they both experienced as young women. Well, given all Maud was going through I can understand. If you read more about Maud's life you'll understand why she wrote this book the way she did.

I loved all the Emily books, but Emily's Quest was my least favorite. My main complaint about it was the resemblance it bore to a soap opera, with the whole Emily-Ilse-Perry-Teddy mess at the end. L.M. Montgomery is a magnificent writer, and was almost able to carry it off through her brilliant characterizations of Emily, Ilse and Perry, who all behaved in highly believable manners that were consistent with their characters in previous books. Emily's pride keeping her from Teddy--that was entirely in character. Ilse's impulsiveness at the end--also entirely fitting. Perry's blossoming into a mature adult--again, credible and endearing. But in order to create the soap opera, Montgomery had to paint Teddy as distant and aloof--not the Teddy we're used to and not the Teddy we can appreciate. I would have preferred less drama and thrills...and a more real, endearing Teddy that we could enjoy watching develop.

The third book of the Emily trilogy is another of L.M. Montgomery's masterpieces. The plot and characters truly sparkle against the painfully beautiful background that characterizes all of Montgomery's novels. Emily Byrd Starr has much to overcome to achieve her dream of becoming a writer, and in this way seems to suffer more than other characters, such as Anne Shirley from the Anne series. The plot, being more realistic, is also sadder and slightly depressing. Tho descriptions are always beautiful, and characters eventually find happiness, Emily undergoes a depression seldom seen in other L.M. Montgomery books of a similar plot. For that reason, I give only four stars to a wonderful book, because it seems that too much of the book is devoted to pain; when happiness comes, it is only in spurts or results in misunderstandings, and comes almost too late and too quick for the reader to find comfort in it. So while Emily's Quest is a beautiful book, the light and dark sides of life are not ballanced enough for my tastes.

"Emily's Quest" may be Montgomery's darkest book. Emily finds and loses love, becomes deathly ill, agrees to marry a man she doesn't love, and grows older both in years and in emotions. It's hard to believe that this is considered a children's book! Though when I was a young teen this was my least favorite of the series, as an adult I re-read the book and identified much more with Emily's troubles. There is no doubt that Montgomery knew and understood the anguish and pain in life because she perfectly describes it. However, the heartache in the book is well worth it's beautiful writing, facinating characters, and at last seeing what happens to little Emily.

First, its unfair to compare Anne and Emily. Both are different types of characters. Anne, for me, shines through because I recognize a sort of "bubbling-with-life" about the character which is absolutely enchanting. Emily is not lively like Anne - but a more sedate yet an equally lovable creation. Again, I consider "Emily climbs" to be superior to this one - but I do not think we could have done without this sequel. The romance element had to more pronounced here than the others in the series. This does take a bit of the shine off, but there is not a moment when you want to keep the book down. It keeps you engrossed right through. And LMM's beauty of langauage enchants you continuously. The finale is well handled, and it was about time too !! On the whole this is a must read for any book lover - as all LMM's books are.

Oh, this book made me laugh, it made me cry... It was excellent! It broke my heart that poor Emily was so sad in love. In this book, Emily's feelings for Teddy develop into love, and it seems to her that he does not feel the same way. In this story, we explore the love life of Emily, and meet all her suitors and fianceés. Finally at the end, Emily must make her choice. Although sad at the beginning, it picked up the pace quickly and keeps you aching for more! A must read!

I finished reading this book in two days' time. Well, now I like the Emily series very very much. I know I like Anne too. She will always have a special place in my life..but Emily, she is so down to earth. At first, I thought I wouldn't like this book as much as the other two...coz it's too sad. I kept on thinking, how come LMM will let her own character give up writing! That was the one thing Emily loved to do all her life. Then when I got to chapter 10, I just couldn't leave my eyes from the book. I was so absorded that I thought I might be Emily Byrd Starr myself!!:p It *hurt* me as much as it did to Emily when I heard that my best friend Ilse (well..at that time i believe i were emily..i was TOO absorded) is going to marry the boy (Teddy) whom I love all my life!! The only boy/man whom I love and belong to!! It *broke* my heart when Teddy said in front of me that "the only one star I HATE is 'Vega of the Lyre'" (oh..teddy, do you still remember we have promsied to think of each other when we see this star!!) Oh..our promise..our dreams ..our Disappointed House!! (well..I just can't help myself ..tears just coming out of my eyes..like non-stop!!) I felt as if I myself, like Emily, have also lost a true friend and teacher when Mr. Carpenter died. Well..there is one place in the book that i feel really heart-warming though..that is when Aunt Elizabeth told Emily she wouldn't mind listening to Emily's "The Moral of the Rose". It's just so Murrayish! LOL! But I can sense the she is indeed very proud of Juliet's daughter. See how she put Emily's first book in her living room whenever there is a caller at New Moon! LOL!!!...She loves Emily. I never doubt that!! :0) well..as for the ending..I won't say a word here!I don't want to spoil the fun here! What I would say is, it gives us so much scope for the imagination! All in all, I love this book! Just can't help myself!