Book Description

A new edition of this title may be available from McClelland & Stewart. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Twelve-year-old Pegeen lives in the sleepy town of Stratford. Money is tight since her father’s death, and she must help her mother run a boardinghouse. She even has to share a room with old Mrs. Leonard. Pegeen’s dreams of becoming an actress seem hopeless. Then an extraordinary thing happens – a Shakespearean festival is planned for Stratford. As the festival develops, so does Pegeen. She learns a great deal about Shakespeare, the boarders at home, and her circle of friends, including the mysterious pilgrim, Mr. Brimblecombe. ... Read more

Book Description

Cells of Ourselves includes fifty drawings (ten reproduced in full colour) organized allusively around the idea of a cage, presented alongside a prose commentary on the images. The drawings are all very small and reproduced, for the most part, size as. Tiny, but complex and richly detailed, these teeming miniature drawings are endlessly explorable meditations on the idea of the cage, the enclosure, the cordoned-off area: this cage theme encompasses everything from the calligraphic wrought-iron erected like architectonic ivy around French grave sites to depictions of animals in zoos, historical artefacts in glass cases, buildings within walls, anatomies of the Paris Metro cars, even an eloquent up-close exploration of the fearsome nature of an ordinary fly-swatter.

Running through all these drawings of cages and grids is a common theme: that what is inside an enclosure is not so much a part of the greater world held captive, but rather a part of the world now intimately focussed for our inspection. The act of entrapment (mimicked, to some extent, by the artist) becomes an act of homage, an endeavour to hold something still so that its true nature can be understood, so that it becomes possible to see the world in a grain of sand rather than to see moments of selected experience as moments endlessly lost in flux, endlessly condemned to freedom and dissolution.

Here the task of both artist and writer is to see much in little -- which is one of the states of reverie that leads to freedom. ... Read more

Book Description
An internationally celebrated novelist today, Jane Urquhart began her literary career as a poet. Some Other Garden brings together in a special new edition, illustrated by the beautiful photographs of Jennifer Dickson, two of Urquhart’s early poetry collections. These poems centre on another time and place while vividly evoking life in the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, as seen through the dispassionate eyes of one of his most influential mistresses, Madame de Montespan. Set amidst the ornate gardens and backrooms of the palace of Versailles, the poems brilliantly map the play of desire, vanity, dominance, and mortality that transpires within a king’s garden.

From the chateau at Marly and the machinations of the court at Versailles, to the worms that play their final game of love beneath the statues in the garden, Urquhart renders the intrigues of court and romantic entanglement with startling imagery and astonishing craftsmanship. Some Other Garden is a dazzling work of imagination from one of Canada’s most beloved writers. ... Read more

Book Description
In the second volume of the celebrated Emily trilogy, Lucy Maud Montgomery traces the often stormy course of Emily Starr’s life as she moves from the world of childhood into that of school and adolescence.

Emily Climbs unsentimentally reveals the world of the young as it really is – with its great moments of unalloyed wonder and joy, as well as its cruelty and suffering.

Along with Emily of New Moon and Emily’s Quest, Emily Climbs is a vivid, heartfelt portrait of youth and the road to maturity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (43)

A strong continuation of an intriguing heroine's coming of age...
First introduced as an orphaned ten-year-old in "Emily of New Moon," this second book takes readers through Emily's high school years in neighboring Shrewsbury. As New Moon, the family farm where Emily has lived with aunts Elizabeth and Laura, and cousin Jimmy, is too far to commute each day, Emily is now forced to lodge with Aunt Ruth, a stern middle-aged woman with very particular habits and ideas of how Emily should speak and act.

Emily might be able to suffer through her aunt's daily gripes if it weren't for the promise she made to her other aunt -- that she will not write fiction during her stay in Shrewsbury. Though Emily's mind brims with ideas that her fingers itch to write, she is determined to keep her word to Aunt Elizabeth, no matter what it takes.

In this coming-of-age story, Montgomery also shows the changing and maturing of Emily's childhood friends -- the once tomboyish Ilse, now set on drama; artistic Teddy, struggling to break free of his possessive widowed mother; and poor orphaned Perry, determined to make something of himself as a lawyer.

If you enjoy this book, make sure to check out "Emily of New Moon," which first introduces the child Emily; and "Emily's Quest," the last book of the trilogy, which takes readers through Emily's young adulthood as she struggles to establish herself as a writer. While each book could, theoretically, stand alone (there are several occasions where Montgomery mentions events of the past books, which are indicated by a footnote) it's always best to get the full picture.

Emily out in the world
Emily is growing up, and growing ever more confident in her destiny as a writer. life is good at New Moon Farm Aunt Elizabeth has grown slightly more bearable and even seems to genuinely care for Emily (at times) Aunt laura, and cousin Jimmy are as loving and supportive as ever. even the pain of her fathers death is easing, and she finds her feelings for Teddy are changing into something more. but there is a problem Ilse, Teddy, and parry are going away to High School in Shrewsbury, and Emily is not to go. No New Moon women has ever worked for a living so there is no sense in higher education (says Aunt Elizabeth) But wait, there is one way Emily must agree to stop writing. Everything and anything not related to school work. It's a high price, but Emily knows her future as a writer hangs on this chance. Emily experiences life outside of new moon with her usuall wonder and passion, making even the mundain magical. All of Emily's feelings and experiences are as real and vividly emotional as they where in EONM . Emily Climbs is a very worthy continuation in the Emily Saga

Emily on her own
I began reading LM Montgomery at age 10, with Anne of Green Gables, as most girls do. But when I moved on to Emily, I truly fell in love. In fact, I spent my entire 10 year old savings on LM Montgomery books after reading Emily of New Moon.

Emily's school years are a difficult time, just as they are for any teenager. She has to constantly choose whether to be herself, or be who her family wants her to be. Even though the struggles may be different than those of modern girls, the theme is the same.

It breaks my heart that LM Montgomery books periodically go out of print. I encourage anyone who wants to own her books to get them when they see them, or they may have to wait a long time for them to come back into print.

Emily leaves New Moon for three years of high school at Shrewsbury
"Emily Climbs" is the middle volume of the Emily trilogy written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, which tells the story of the orphaned Emily Byrd Starr, a character much closer in temperament and vocation to the author than that of Anne Shirley.After all, Emily is an aspiring writer and learning her craft is a key thread in these stories.Written in 1925, "Emily Climbs" is set at the turn of the century in "the olden years before the world turned upside down" (to wit, the First World War).In her room in the old New Moon farmhouse at Blair Water, Emily is content to write in the books given her by Cousin Jimmy.These Jimmy-books have become her diary and have replaced the letters she had written in her childhood to her dead father. Excerpts from the diary are used to link together the various events in the book.

The problem is not only that Emily is trying to develop her writing talent on her won, but that as far as her guardian Aunt Elizabeth Murray is concerned, writing is beneath a member of the Murray clan, even if Emily's last name is Starr.So when Emily, who is becoming a young woman, wants to go to the high school in Shrewsbury with the rest of her friends, Aunt Elizabeth will give permission only if Emily stops writing fiction for three years.Although Emily needs to write the way most people need to breath, she agrees and takes another step in her climb to adulthood.To add insult to injury, Emily has to stay with her Aunt Ruth while going to school, in a room that she thinks will never be anything like a home for her.Obviously this is a recurring element in Montgomery's books, where the young female protagonist has to win over the sour older person, so we know that Aunt Ruth is going to thaw sooner or later and that Emily will turn the unfriendly room into a place where she can be happy.

Much of "Emily Climbs" is devoted to what happens while Emily is away at Shrewsbury, where she has to do both with the prospects of romance and an opportunity to limb even higher on the path to her dream of being a writer.Montgomery uses Emily journal entries, which are clearly non-fiction despite their often narrative nature, to great advantage to get into Emily's psyche and her growth during these three years away at school (although I would have liked to have actually read Emily's class prophecies).The supernatural element of Emily's second sight, which had a significant impact in the first novel, "Emily of New Moon," shows up a couple of times in this novel to help save a missing child and Emily herself. Consequently, this middle volume is more of a character study and a series of life lessons for Emily than anything else, setting up the final volume where she tries to publish her first novel and to figure out her love life as well.

A lovely and more realistic L.M. Montgomery novel
The second book of the Emily of New Moon trilogy, Emily Climbs continues the story of Emily Byrd Starr.All of L.M. Montgomery's books contain beautiful imagery, whimsical characters, and lovely subplots that bring hints of romance into an otherwise frank story free of modern sex and gore.In contrast to the Anne series, Emily of New Moon is more realistic and a touch darker, viewing the hardships of life in a much more straightforward manner.Emily is just as imaginative and earnest as Anne, but she has a deeper yearning for the chance to write, and seems to suffer much more than Anne ever did.This tale of childhood and womanhood is characterized by Montgomery's flowery writing and brilliant backdrops, but heightened by the sadness and cutting hypocrisy that is finally allowed to shine through, making the Emily series all the more beautiful during the almost painfully happy moments. ... Read more