1/9 Finished Emily of New Moon, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. An immensely rich book, with many ponderous thematic angles and favorite moments I can only hope to do justice to.

First off, and perhaps easiest of access, is the unparalleled wording and descriptions, which often show up in poetry. Emily Byrd Starr has a passion for writing, and so it makes sense for Montgomery to insert verse into her mouth. Plenty of it is fine mock juvenilia, but my favorite is the one complete poem, “An Address to a Buttercup”. When Emily shares the poem with Ilse Burnley (on whom see 2/9 in this series), it is no wonder she is incredulous that Emily wrote it.

Cover is a beautiful design used in a Netflix series, Russian Doll, where a character mentioned Emily of New Moon in 2019. https://archive.ph/sxnE8 Reportedly, in this show that I will never watch,

Ruth: "You know that was written by the same woman who wrote Anne of Green Gables?"
Nadia: "Ya of course. EVERYBODY loves Anne. But I like Emily. She's DARK."

I find myself puzzled that anyone could come away from this story and think it was “dark”. Emily endures some hardships as she fits into her new home (though not nearly so severe as Anne endured before coming to Green Gables), and she gets involved in unraveling a longstanding wrong against a woman’s name (with some supernatural help), Emily herself is dynamic and sunny. My guess is the screenwriter responsible, Allison Silverman (sigh), wanted some dumbed-down dichotomy between Anne and Emily to make reading the latter look cool.

At least the artwork is amazing, although it is hard to imagine Emily sneaking out at night to read under a (full) moon. The article says the show needed a new design as the current one is under copyright, though why not just have Nadia read an antique copy with the original art is beyond me, particularly as this design was never offered for sale as a tie-in good.

Second page is something humorous from my edition. Prince Edward Island is real, would you believe it! You can see how the Marities appear like a natural extension of New England, which we tend go forget about due to the national border with the United States.

See my entire series on Emily of New Moon:
2/9 Emily meets Ilse Burnley. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112607882198038154
3/9 The Murray look and heredity. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112599500646779818
4/9 Different rules for children? https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112599342106549795
5/9 A novel length ghost story? https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112597067690220533
6/9 Emily and Father Cassidy. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112594445786227749
7/9 By the shore, budding of first love. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112588003210960285
8/9 Temperance and alcohol. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112587138431533836
9/9 Emily starts up the Alpine Path. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112585556108042405
My earlier posts on Emily:
Emily of New Moon enters US public domain. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/109604115011631773
On purchasing. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112123396596116831
Emily and “the flash”. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112366953351577474
Emily’s thoughts on Anzonetta Peters. https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112424054602348043

#LucyMaudMontgomery #LMMontgomery #EmilyOfNewMoon #poetry #juvenilia #buttercups #flowers #popculture #Maritimes #NewEngland #AngloCanada #Canada #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books
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