This was the worst of the whole series. It was dark and depressing the whole time. The plot was really sad, and all through this book I just HATED Ilse. She was portrayed as a shallow, silly girl with no feelings for Emily or Teddy. She's obsessed with something the whole time. I liked the first two because of Emily and Ilse's good friendship. They both trust and stick up for each other. However, in the third, it seems as though she doesn't care for anything or anyone. And it's weird how Emily and Ilse are supposed to be such good friends, but Ilse doesn't sense Emily's love for Teddy EVER. How could someone be so stupid? And she's so malicious and it seems like she wants to ruin Emily's life. Finally she's engaged to Teddy and then runs off to Perry while he's in the hospital supposedly "dying." How could someone so shallow and mean and uncaring love anyone like that? I just hated her, which was sad because in the other two I really liked her personality. The third book ruined all her good characteristics and her bad ones took over.Teddy and Emily's relationship? Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. They didn't know how to communicate, and they can't read each other at all. I was mad at both of them the whole time for being so dumb. I guess people are really like that, but still...Dean? I hated him. Sorry to be a hater...but he was so self-absorbed, selfish, and cynical. When he lies to Emily about her story and then she goes and burns it...I wanted to put the book down. Why did she trust him so much?? Emily was such a bad judge of character.The plot was SO SAD. oh....my...goodness. Emily loses her good outlook on life and I feel like she becomes sarcastic and cynical. And I get sick of all the writing. It seems like her life is only this: writing, get up, walk in the garden with Dean, talk, eat, sleep, write. I mean, it gets to a point where I hate her life. And when it says that she was content and happy with her cats and her life at new moon, everyone knew that she was going to be an old maid now, the only times that she was sick of her life was when she was reading Teddy and Ilse's letters and adventures, yada yada yada. How can you not hate her life? And all these sad things happen and the happy parts are few and far between. Mr. Carpenter dies, Emily falls down the stairs and cuts open her foot with sewing scissors (*shudder*), Emily has a horrible life...etc. The humor is really weird sometimes...like the one part where the man comes and proposes to her because he falls madly in love with her picture...and during his proposal he talks about how she ruined his story but he still loves her...what the...?I cried during this book. I cried because Emily had a horrible, boring, depressing life. Everyone judged her wrongly and she NEVER tried to defend herself! Sure, the ending is happy, but that's like what...five pages of happiness? The rest is really depressing and hard to get through. I hate almost all the characters at some point in the story. The only reason I kept reading was because I had to see how it ended. I couldn't stand how the whole time the tone was depressing and nostalgic, and the story just ends with tons of loose ends. It was my least favorite L.M. book so far.
It occurs to me that though I finished my last reread quite a while ago, I haven't yet typed up my review. Well, here goes.It's difficult for me to know how to describe my feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's the closing volume to my favourite L.M. Montgomery series starring my favourite heroine, Emily, whom I've always felt close to and who was one of the principal helpers in getting me through the pre-teen and teen years when I felt quite alone in my love of books, writing and beauty and in not wanting to meld into the crowd. Having paragons like Emily made it much easier to be me, and so these books will always hold a very special place for my heart; and also just for the immense beauty of their writing and the fascinating characterisations. This book, too, has much that's wonderfully written, and many interesting psychological moments.At the same time, I know I'm not even alone in feeling that this conclusion to the Emily series is less satisfying than it could be. It's so sad, dark and painful, there's so much trouble and relatively little happiness, that it departs from the hopeful and comforting tone of the previous books and makes the reader feel the author puts her characters through way too much trouble for no clear reason. I've always felt that this volume concentrates too much on Emily's romantic difficulties and too little on other aspects of her life and personality, and the result is a little dissatisfying especially as her chosen romantic partner is not characterised deeply enough to make you really feel they belong together. Montgomery generally has difficulties creating interesting love interests, and especially in the Emily books I find that the strongest relationship is between Emily and her best friend Ilse, not between Emily and any of the men interested in her.These criticisms aside, I still love this book greatly. There's a haunting beauty in it, and some bittersweet, mature feeling which I only found myself able to appreciate on this reread, now that I'm older than before and have learned something about growing up and knowing life isn't only the dreamland you fancy it to be when you're young. There was something there that deeply resonated with me; but I still feel that too much attention was devoted to Emily's romantic difficulties and the pain associated with them, and too little to the happy things and triumphs that nevertheless are present in her adult life but glossed over too quickly. The book would be more satisfying if the pain and the happiness were more evenly balanced, and if the resolution of the conflicts wasn't so painfully drawn out and then the book brought to such an abrupt end as soon as things start working out.
What do You think about Emily's Quest (1983)?
After reading the first two books in the Emily trilogy, I was expectant of a brilliant, conclusive third. Alas, I was very disappointed. I spent 224 out of the 228 pages growling and was not able to enjoy it as fully as the preceding stories. In fact, I was absolutely livid (that would be in italics if I were 14 year old Emily) that my glorious Emily and Teddy would not be united. The lovely "Star" falls into a depression in the last several chapters and her world and Montgomery's writing, both usually so full of joy and wonder, became monotonous and positively dreary. If there were a fourth novel in the series to continue with Emily and Teddy's adventures post (also in italics)-marriage, then I would give Emily's Quest a much higher ranking because there would be hope and love for these characters and I could bear the pain that this book brought me. I also want to know how their lives turned out, how and if Emily finally climbed the Alpine Path, and how Ilse and Perry's bickering makes for a successful marriage. Many questions were left unanswered in this book and the conclusion was so rapid. I also have to note that at least a half of one of these stars was docked simply because of Dean... He gives me the creeps.
—Allison Whelan
This review contains spoilers. Also, lots of caps because Teddy and Emily caused me intense agony.This book is, in a word, depressing. It's far darker and more depressing than both Emily of New Moon and Emily Climbs combined. I adored Emily Climbs, and reading Emily's Quest straight after finishing the former was kind of a let down. I've heard that Montgomery was forced by her publisher to include the fairy tale ending that felt super weird and tacked on after the depress-fest that was Emily's Quest. Actually, it would explain the whole weird romantic subplot that was happening.Okay, so: first off, my conclusion that Dean Priest IS THE ACTUAL WORST came true. I don't think I've hated a character this much since Snape. His love for Emily is like Mrs Kent's love for Teddy: unhealthy and just plain weird. He doesn't like Emily writing because it takes her to a place where she can't go, and she shows more interest in her writing than she does in him. So after asking him for his honest opinion on her manuscript, because SHE TRUSTS HIS OPINION THE MOST, he tells her that it's no good and nobody will ever publish it AND SO SHE STOPS WRITING. And Dean obviously doesn't care for Emily OR really love her, because if he DID, he wouldn't get so insanely jealous when anyone else shows the slightest bit of interest in her, and he wouldn't stop her from doing - or go out of his way to convince her that she was no good at - something she loved. So, Dean is selfish and horrible and awful and did I mention that when Emily's nineteen he's forty-two and this is just a horrible UGH factor? After Emily cuts her foot on Aunt Laura's scissors and gets blood poisoning and spends the entire winter in bed with Dean her only visitor, she agrees to marry Dean even though she doesn't love him. Emily realises that she belongs to Teddy heart, body and soul and she calls off their engagement, thank the Lord. Dean isn't the only person who proposes to Emily, though. She had so many beaux. I lost count of how many men proposed to her. Please note: Cousin Andrew is now a widower.Next point: I spent most of this book in agony. The cause? Teddy and Emily. Through a series of miscommunications and Emily's 'Murray pride.' Teddy sends Emily a letter (view spoiler)[ declaring his love, but Mrs. Kent is terrified that Emily will take Teddy away from her and replaces it with a copy of a poem Perry wrote (hide spoiler)]
—Kim
First off, if I didn't know better I would say that Emily's Quest was left unfinished at Montgomery's death and fleshed out by another writer using her notes. It didn't feel right. I've never known LMM to use sentence fragments before, and yet this book was positively rife with them. (It was also rife with typos, although that was hardly her fault.)And here's another thing: I'm all for a good bit of drama and tragedy in a novel, but this seemed positively agonizing for LMM's style of writing. I
—Marie
