I reread Emily of New Moon last month and I must say, Anne Shirley gets all the fame but I believe Emily should be the one that is praised.

Now to provide some context, the Anne books had started as a serial for Montgomery in the local newspaper and before she knew it the delightful adventures of Annie Shirley spread worldwide, launching her into literary fame and prompting readers to call for more and more Anne books. There wasn’t a set plan and they didn’t come chronologically.

Emily of New Moon was written decades later, after Montgomery had a break from her burnout. She found her old writings and journals, and started on this trilogy at a quick pace, creating a more realistic, a bit darker, and more autobiographical tale of a writer much like Montgomery herself.

To Emily, Montgomery gifted her personal nickname for inspiration-“the flash,” and a reoccuring theme in the series is Emily expounding on the joys and trials of writing and a writing career, noting it is a jealous goddess that takes up all her time but Emily would die if she could not right. It is like breathing to her.

Thus Emily’s journey to writing is bitingly realistic from the years of going unpublished, the continued rejections, the brief sparks of hope when she’s complimented even by a family member, the well-meaning/mean spirited chiding that she should focus on a more sensible pursuit. Writing is Emily’s true romance and her professional journey is at the core of the book.

But it’s not just writing. The family aspect is similar to Anne as Emily is an orphan but she had known her father before he died, and is sent to live with her maternal relatives, the Murrys, that she never met. Relatives that are initially stern and strict with Aunt Elizabeth fitting in the Marilla-role, touched Cousin Jimmy being a more poetic Uncle Matthew, and Aunt Laura also taking up a Matthew-esque role. Much like Anne, Emily eventually wins over the staid Aunt Elizabeth but they continue to butt heads over the years.

In fact, the Emily books are more realistic in that Emily doesn’t win over everyone she meets. Other relatives continue to be a nuisance to her (and her to them in their opinions) and since Emily is part of the “Proud Murry” clan, folks tend to take negative opinion of her as a snob, stuck up, aloof and prideful. In fact, those people sometimes delight in her downfall when vicious rumors come about while suck up to her face when things are going well in her writing career. And Emily’s lesson is that she has to learn to hold a brave face in spite of it. No whinsome townspeople coming together here.

To be fair, it is deserved as Emily has lots of flaws. Anne does too with her overzealous imagination and romanticism but there is rarely consequences for Anne. By the end of her series, she marries her true love, has an adorable brood and lots of people adore her as the sainted Doctor’s wife. Yes, Carl dies, but it’s not from anything of her doing.

Emily’s actions do cause her problems and sometimes they’re unresolved. She’s prideful, she can be classist, she’s vain and flirtatious, stubborn in her grudges and unwilling to admit she’s wrong. Some people remain her enemies even. An while Emily tries to resolve her faults, I found her all the more relatable and human for it.

In that sense, I found Montgomery’s writing for the Emily books more mature. It also feels mature in that Emily’s world feels more expansive. Emily goes to university in the next town, earning her keep with Aunt Ruth, and dealing with school politics. She takes active effort in trying for literary magazines and magazine submissions and job interviews, making her question if she should go to the U.S. or stay at New Moon, and if the latter choice will make her career suffer and she’ll be stuck in the same small town.

Emily’s friends are also more alive. While Anne makes friends wherever she goes, one must admit, they do seem to fade away over time like Diane, Paul, Davy and Dora and so on. They take to the background in Anne’s story while Emily’s friends have clear dreams, stories and backgrounds outside of Emily and readers have a good idea of their arc even if they’re not privvy to their every move or POV. Teddy Kent wants to become a famous artist, Elsa, an actress, and Perry, a lawyer/politician. Together, the foursome seek to aspire in their professional lives whilst pairing up, presenting an encouraging view of Emily ‘getting to have it all’ while Anne ends up just being a housewife after her brief teaching stint.

To be fair, Anne’s writing and imagination, while intensely enjoyable, also seemed to be more of a hobby for her than a career goal as with Emily.

As for Emily’s romances, while Anne’s suitors are plentiful and seem to fall into her lap in romantic and hilarious ways, Emily’s romances are more unreliable. While Teddy is her true love, they take time getting together due to miscommunication, shyness and needing to be at the same place of professional stability and maturity.

There’s also Dean Priest that feeds the writerly side of her but he’s creepy and toxic which is such a shame since he is such a good confidante for her but I cannot get over that this thirty year old man fell in love with a twleve year old and waited for her.

But Emily has a few other romances, flirtatious really, that show how fickle and intense flings are which concerns Emily as she cannot believe herself to be so shallow. But she is only eighteen when that happens, and I just enjoyed the realness of her foolish mistakes.

Also there’s vague spiritualism in the fact that Emily has a sixth sense thanks to her Irish ancestor with the sight. Random but true.

So those are my thoughts on Emily for now. And of course, Anne Shirley will always be enjoyable to read, but there is something to be said that we relate to stories in certain times of our lives, and right now, I relate to Emily and her writerly journey and her stumbling on the path to growing up, from adolesence to adulthood, from. . . and I just realized I’m the same age as Emily in her final book which might be explaining a lot.

Basically, Emily of New Moon should have more mainstream praise, homages, adaptations and whatnot as her peppy, red head relative.