Emily of New Moon

A trilogy of young-adult novels by L. M. Montgomery, her most popular books after the much more famous Anne of Green Gables series. These are also among the most autobiographical of her works.

Little Emily Byrd Starr has everything she needs: her loving father, her wild imagination, her cats, and her constant friend the Wind Woman. But upon the death of her father, Emily must live with her mother's folk, the Murrays, a clan known for being old-fashioned and proud. Emily comes of age under the care of stern Aunt Elizabeth, gentle Aunt Laura, and peculiar Cousin Jimmy in the Murray homestead of New Moon, making friends, enemies, and a few beaux along the way. Most significantly, she develops her talents as a writer, which sets her at odds against the more traditional ways of The Clan. However, Emily can be dissuaded from that path no more than can the Wind Woman from her course. Maturity ensues.

There are two sequels, Emily Climbs, which covers Emily studying away from home and beginning to expand her writing career, and Emily's Quest, which covers her career's launch, the changing dynamics of Emily's circle of friends, and romantic complications.


 * Adult Child: Cousin Jimmy. He's never been quite "all there" since the accident when he was a child -- but Emily knows that whatever part of him is not "there," it certainly isn't his heart.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Ilse and Perry. Oh, boy, Ilse and Perry. When she rushes to his bedside after his accident, though, we get a fantastic Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other moment.
 * Beta Couple: Ilse and Perry serve this role to Emily and Teddy.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: The Murrays may be seen (and see themselves) as the Chosen People, but they're really more this.
 * Byronic Hero: Dean Priest.
 * The Charmer: Teddy ends up as one of these; Ilse tells Emily he's become a Chick Magnet and is a wee bit too happily conscious of it.
 * Childhood Marriage Promise: Both defied and played straight. Perry's aunt tries to bribe Emily into making a promise to marry Perry (at the age of about ten) by saying that she (the aunt) will only pay for Perry's education if he can marry up into the Murray clan. Both Emily and Perry are embarrassed by the incident and don't take it seriously. But Emily and Teddy do agree that, if they reach a certain age and they're both unmarried, they'll wed each other.
 * The Clan: As screwed up as the Murrays may be, God help you if you snub or try to bring down anyone with Murray blood.
 * Clingy Jealous Mother: Mrs. Kent. She's cold and unfriendly to almost everyone, but passionately jealous of her son. Teddy even thinks that she poisoned his dog because she thought he loved it more than he loved her.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Cousin Jimmy. Which freaks people out when he starts to talk very seriously and clearly.
 * Cool Teacher: Mr Carpenter ends up as one of these.
 * Coming of Age Story: The whole trilogy is one of these for Emily's character.
 * Cursed with Awesome: Emily considers her imprecise and very rare psychic manifestations as awful, never-to-be-spoken-of incidents, when these powers only ever are shown as helping people. However, Justified when one considers Values Dissonance -- psychic powers were classified under "insanity" in the Victorian era.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Combined with Eyes of Gold in Ilse Burnley, who has yellow eyes and blonde hair.
 * Daddy's Girl: Emily. Which makes the resulting events of the first book that much more tragic.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Emily, when she grows up. For a priest, Father Cassidy has his share of it, too.
 * Due to the Dead: The residents of Blair Water, and especially the Murrays, are very particular about giving the dead what's owed to them.
 * Emotions vs. Stoicism: Emily careens back and forth across this scale; she's naturally very high-strung and emotional, but the Murray pride in her means that when she's really hurt she'll make damned sure you don't know it.
 * Evil Matriarch: Aunt Elizabeth's really not, you know. But try telling Emily that a few times during the first book.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: Emily is melancholic, Teddy is phlegmatic, Ilse is choleric, and Perry is sanguine.
 * Genre Savvy: As relates to an in-universe work, Father Cassidy. He hears Emily's synopsis of her poem "The Child of the Sea" and makes numerous asides about all the tropes that she's using.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: Mrs. Kent has a long scar running down her face, which she considers a disfigurement.
 * Good Shepherd: Father Cassidy, Catholic and Irish. He impresses the Protestant Emily by talking to her like an adult and taking her writing seriously -- one of the first adults she's met to do so.
 * Gossipy Hens: These characters tend to populate all of L.M. Montgomery's novels, and Blair Water's filled with them. Fairly appropriate, as anyone who's familiar with small-town life in the Maritimes can tell you.
 * Have a Gay Old Time: every time someone calls Emily "pussy". "Small pussy", as a child. *shudders*
 * Heartwarming Orphan: One of the fundamental underpinnings of the series.
 * Imaginary Friend: The Wind Woman. She has different guises depending on which direction the wind is coming from, and Emily never quite lets go of her.
 * In the Blood: The Murray family believes very strongly in this. Emily comes in for some snide comments, as any of her less-than-stellar personality traits are pinned on the fickle Starr blood from her father's side.
 * Jail Bait Wait: Dean is explicit about this on their first meeting, and the trope becomes increasingly obvious as the series progresses.
 * Last-Minute Hookup: Emily and Teddy in literally the last handful of pages of the entire trilogy. Presumably, they live Happily Ever After.
 * Lovable Rogue: Emily calls Perry this almost by name.
 * Missing Mom: Juliet Murray was dead long before the first book started; the suspicious disappearance of Ilse's mother also ends up being an important plot point.
 * Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Emily's father, before his death. Emily herself, possibly, later in the books. Dean Priest is an outcast in his own family for his deformity, and has developed a deep cynical streak as a result of this, but nonetheless he becomes one of Emily's best friends, a kindred spirit for her. Subverted when  Double Subverted when
 * Most Writers Are Writers: There are some strong autobiographical ties between L.M. Montgomery herself and Emily, much more than the Anne books.
 * Mouthy Kid: Ilse. And how. A side-effect of her Spoiled Brat (and Wild Child) upbringing due to her own Missing Mom.
 * My Beloved Smother: Teddy Kent's mother is scarily possessive.
 * Nephewism: Rather, Nieceism.
 * Orphan's Ordeal: The whole point of the books.
 * Pointy Ears: Emily has slightly pointed ears, which some characters comment on as "elfin." Oddly, the Verse of the stories is almost entirely mundane.
 * Pride: A distinguishing trait of the Murrays. Even Emily has her fair share of it.
 * The Promise: Quite a few of these, but Emily's deal not to write fiction as long as she's at Shrewsbury is one of the more significant ones.
 * Purple Eyes: Emily's shift between looking purple and grey and, sometimes, black.
 * Raised by Grandparents: Or, at least, much-older aunts and uncles.
 * The Resenter: Teddy Kent's mother.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Arguably, Ilse and Emily.
 * Runaway Bride: Ilse pulls this off in pretty impressive fashion when she hears (mistakenly) that Perry's been fatally injured in a car crash just before her wedding with Teddy is about to start.
 * Sadist Teacher: Ms Brownell. Oh, Ms Brownell.
 * Sins of Our Fathers: So, so deeply ingrained in the society of the books. Saying these people hold grudges is putting it mildly. Ilse, especially, suffers from it in the first book, thanks to what everyone thinks her mother did when she was a baby.
 * Spirited Young Lady: Emily is one; Ilse is too much of a tomboy to count.
 * Talking in Your Dreams: Emily, in the midst of a fever dream,.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ilse is the wild child and Emily is much better at domestic tasks when they're children. Later in life Ilse becomes quite concerned with fashion and a social butterfly, while Emily becomes more of a reclusive eccentric.
 * Tranquil Fury: How Emily gets mad, contrasted with Ilse's much more violent displays of anger.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: How everyone views Dean and Emily together.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Perry thinks he's one of these to Emily.
 * Victorian Novel Disease: Emily's father died of consumption and several of the Murrays think she'll suffer the same fate. As a result, she has to do unpleasant things like sleep with the bedroom windows closed (Emily loves the outdoors and fresh air) because night air is believed to be unhealthy.
 * Victorious Childhood Friend: Ultimately the fate for Emily and Teddy, and Ilse and Perry.
 * When She Smiles: Emily is not supposed to be beautiful, but everyone forgets about that when she smiles.
 * Wife Husbandry: It's unclear how much of Dean's relationship with Emily falls under this trope. Suffice it to say that he was her father's best friend, and he's known her since she was very young. Dean also consistently implies that he has a claim on her life, having saved it the day they met.