OF ALL L.M. MONTGOMERY'S BOOKS, her Anne of Green Gables series remains the most well-known, and hence, the best-loved. Anne Shirley has been enchanting readers of all ages and nationalities for nearly a century. Many people are not even aware that Montgomery wrote twelve other novels besides the eight that tell Anne's story.

I first met Anne when I was nine years old. I don't remember who introduced me to the books, or where I got my copy of the first one, but I do remember falling in love with the red-haired, gray-eyed little orphan who often talked for two whole pages and named her geranium "Bonny." Through the local library I read the rest of the series, and eventually purchased them at bookstores. Each one has been read countless times, and the evidence of this can be clearly seen: the covers are a bit dog-eared, and the spines have many lines on them from being opened so frequently.

For a long time, I thought that the Anne series was rather like L.M. Montgomery's autobiography. Both Anne and Maud named things, imagined a great deal, had lonely childhoods, grew up without parents, etc. At first glance, it does seem that Anne was patterned after Maud. But when you look deeper, you find out something different!

Emily Starr of New Moon
Emily Starr is the heroine of three novels by L.M. Montgomery: Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily's Quest. In the first book, we meet Emily when she is ten years old. Her mother died when she was four, and now she lives with her father in a tiny house in the country. Her life is changed forever when her father dies, and she is taken to New Moon farm to live with her aunts, Elizabeth and Laura Murray, and their Cousin Jimmy. Life at New Moon turns out to be wonderful, with never a dull moment. Emily makes several friends, and discovers that she has a talent for writing poetry and short stories. As the book progresses, Emily's love for writing grows and an intense ambition to become a writer forms in her. Emily Climbs follows her through high school, and records her climb up the Alpine Path. In Emily's Quest, she finally does reach her goal, as well as end her quest for love and happiness.

Up the Alpine Path
L.M. Montgomery once said, "People were never right in saying I was Anne. But in some respects, they will be right if they write me down as Emily." The amount of similarities between Maud and Emily are quite astonishing when you sit down and count them all, as I recently did in preparation for writing this article. The most obvious similarity is their passion for writing. Both Maud and Emily begin to write at very young ages, and both find inspiration in the following verse from a poem, entitled "The Fringed Gentian":

"Then whisper, blossom, in thy sleep
How I may upward climb
The Alpine path, so hard, so steep,
That leads to heights sublime;
How I may reach that far-off goal
Of true and honored fame,
And write upon its shining scroll
A woman's humble name."

Very often in Emily's diary entries, Montgomery gives paraphrases or direct quotes from her own journals. Many of Emily's poems that are mentioned or quoted, were first Maud's. "Autumn" was their first poem, and "Evening Dreams" is the one they both tried unsuccessfully to get published in a local newspaper. Paper was scarce, so they wrote on the backs of red "letter-bills," which were saved from the time when their families ran the post office.

In Emily of New Moon, Emily is forced by Aunt Elizabeth to wear buttoned boots to school, when she wants to go barefoot as the other children do. She is also made to wear aprons with long sleeves—mockingly dubbed "baby aprons" by the girls at school—which her mother had worn when she was a young girl. Likewise, Maud was forced to wear boots and aprons to school—and she also detested them and suffered great humiliation.

Cousin Jimmy Murray is one of Emily's best friends. He is called "Simple Jimmy Murray" by the townspeople, because of the way an accident in his childhood left him. He tells Emily that he has composed hundreds of poems, all in his head, but has never written them down. Montgomery patterned him after James Macneill, her great-uncle's brother. Several other ancestors of Maud's are used in this series as well.

Not only does Emily love nature and give names to places and things, as Maud did, but her entire personality and imagination are strikingly parallel with Maud's. To really understand this, I had to read the series several times, and read my biography of Maud twice. The latter's autobiography (The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career) was particularly interesting, being Montgomery's own account of her childhood.

Two Heroines Compared
The Emily series is by far my favorite of everything L.M. Montgomery wrote. In my opinion, these books easily outdo the Anne series in nearly every way. Anne leads a very happy life that is rarely shadowed by trouble or grief, whereas Emily's life is enriched by many bitter trials and sufferings. While I do adore Anne and all the books about her, I have to admit that most of the books don't have much of a plot. A lot of L.M. Montgomery's writing is this way, and that is what makes her unique. However, the Emily books are much more structured and have much better plots. They are not action-packed, with exciting twists and turns, but they still do follow a recognizable plot—each book has a climax and conclusion, which the Anne books do not always have. Anne may seem more real because she has a little more common life; she has a happy childhood (after she comes to Green Gables), she grows up, teaches school, goes to college, teaches again, gets married, has six children. Emily, on the other hand, has a much deeper, darker character and leads a much more unusual life. She possess a passion for writing, and has quite a lot of pride—both of which keep her from living a life similar to Anne's, for they dictate many important decisions in her life. Many readers are repulsed by Emily's pride, and her overall "oddness," which explains why the books are not as popular as the Anne ones. Most people tend to like the brighter, happier, lighter atmosphere of Anne and her cheerful circle of friends and family; Emily generally keeps to herself, has some measure of melancholy, and has much more intense, strong emotions. All of these emit a very different feeling from the Anne books.

Unfortunately, there are some faults with the Emily series. There is a supernatural occurrence in each book which we, as Christians, would have problems with. Also, some of L.M. Montgomery's philosophies do come across, but they aren't too blatant. Some people have suggested that Emily Starr was an early feminist, but I disagree with that idea. Just because she had ambitions to be a writer does not make her a feminist! Overall, there is not too much to say against the books, and a lot to say in favor of them. I encourage everyone to read them!

I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. L.M. Montgomery is truly one of the best writers ever, and I am happy to be able to introduce more people to her and her wonderful storytelling!