5/9 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. Some spoilers ahead.
A novel length ghost story? Emily Byrd Starr is a poetic, imaginative girl, so when, from the first pages, she spoke of seeing and hearing the Wind Woman, it is natural to assume a figurative personification. You can just see the Wind Woman beside Emily on the original cover; you have to look closely.
However, when Emily learns the tragic story of her friend Ilse Burnley’s mother, a detail of the sad tale suggests a connection between the two women. Further, Emily is growing up, and stops penning letters to her deceased father, having lost the knack for pretending they reached the addressed; yet, she still brings up the Wind Woman when she contracts a bad case of the measles and is in apparent delirium.
Earlier, Emily visited an old well, already renowned as the scene of a murder—“The Wind Woman was a giantess that day” (153-154). In a couple of lines, Montgomery lets us know one of the familiar perils of wells will not befall Emily.
“Emily coolly lifted up one of the planks, knelt on the others and peered down. Fortunately the planks were strong and comparatively new—otherwise the small maiden of New Moon might have explored the well more thoroughly than she desired to do.”
But it turns out to have been foreshadowing after all. When severely sick, after mentioning the Wind Woman, she tells Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Laura that Ilse’s mother is in the well, and orders they to go and get her out (333-334). Aunt Laura assures her they will. In a great passage where one can feel a child’s rage at not being taken seriously over a grave matter, Emily sees through her, and calls out Laura’s lie; she was only saying it to make Emily feel better. Normally, Emily gets along better with Laura, but here, she exacts a promise from Aunt Elizabeth: Emily knows Elizabeth is too proud to make her words a lie.
Illustration is an artist’s depiction of Emily and the Wind Woman. Photo is a (somewhat dressed up) stone well with a wooden cover, like the storied one in the book. #LucyMaudMontgomery #LMMontgomery #EmilyOfNewMoon #ghoststories #ghosts #wells #foreshadowing #honesty #promises #children #ethics #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books
A novel length ghost story? Emily Byrd Starr is a poetic, imaginative girl, so when, from the first pages, she spoke of seeing and hearing the Wind Woman, it is natural to assume a figurative personification. You can just see the Wind Woman beside Emily on the original cover; you have to look closely.
However, when Emily learns the tragic story of her friend Ilse Burnley’s mother, a detail of the sad tale suggests a connection between the two women. Further, Emily is growing up, and stops penning letters to her deceased father, having lost the knack for pretending they reached the addressed; yet, she still brings up the Wind Woman when she contracts a bad case of the measles and is in apparent delirium.
Earlier, Emily visited an old well, already renowned as the scene of a murder—“The Wind Woman was a giantess that day” (153-154). In a couple of lines, Montgomery lets us know one of the familiar perils of wells will not befall Emily.
“Emily coolly lifted up one of the planks, knelt on the others and peered down. Fortunately the planks were strong and comparatively new—otherwise the small maiden of New Moon might have explored the well more thoroughly than she desired to do.”
But it turns out to have been foreshadowing after all. When severely sick, after mentioning the Wind Woman, she tells Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Laura that Ilse’s mother is in the well, and orders they to go and get her out (333-334). Aunt Laura assures her they will. In a great passage where one can feel a child’s rage at not being taken seriously over a grave matter, Emily sees through her, and calls out Laura’s lie; she was only saying it to make Emily feel better. Normally, Emily gets along better with Laura, but here, she exacts a promise from Aunt Elizabeth: Emily knows Elizabeth is too proud to make her words a lie.
Illustration is an artist’s depiction of Emily and the Wind Woman. Photo is a (somewhat dressed up) stone well with a wooden cover, like the storied one in the book. #LucyMaudMontgomery #LMMontgomery #EmilyOfNewMoon #ghoststories #ghosts #wells #foreshadowing #honesty #promises #children #ethics #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books
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