Emily Climbs

Emily Climbs is a coming-of-age novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery, first published in 1925. It is the second novel in the Emily trilogy. Emily Byrd Starr is now in her teens, still living at New Moon and more certain than ever that writing is the work around which she wants to shape her life.

Her wish to attend high school in Shrewsbury brings two unwelcome conditions: she must board with the suspicious Aunt Ruth, and she must give up fiction for the duration of her studies. The compromise—writing only what is true—turns her diary and observations into an exacting apprenticeship.

School enlarges Emily's world without simplifying it. Her friendship with Ilse is tested, Perry pursues political ambitions, Teddy grows closer through a tangle of reserve and interference, and Dean Priest remains a troubling confidant. Literary rejection and small successes make friendships and first attachments part of the same education.

Montgomery balances humor, romance, and the discipline of artistic ambition. Beneath Emily's clashes with relatives and rivals is a sustained account of the formation of a young writer: learning to observe honestly, withstand judgment, and distinguish praise from genuine growth.

"Emily Byrd Starr was alone in her room, in the old New Moon farmhouse at Blair Water, one stormy night in a February of the olden years before the world turned upside down. She was at that moment as perfectly happy as any human being is ever permitted to be."