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#KindredSpiritsBuddy
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BarbaraJean
Emily's Quest | Lucy Maud Montgomery
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#KindredSpiritsBuddy read discussion for Emily‘s Quest - part 1

What‘s your interpretation of the title? Do you see Emily‘s quest as one for career or for love? Or something else?

Are love and career mutually exclusive pursuits for Emily?

How do you think Emily‘s writing would have been impacted if she and Teddy had sorted things out sooner (or if they never had)?

BarbaraJean I struggled with the love/career theme this time. In the past I've been caught up in the Emily/Teddy will-they-won't-they, but this time I was more concerned by Emily losing so much of herself because of both Dean & Teddy. I'm not sure whether Emily herself sees career & love as incompatible by this point in the series (as she seems to do in Emily Climbs); I think LMM wasn't able to sort this out consistently within the narrative, so it's muddled. 2y
rubyslippersreads I see it as Emily‘s quest for the Alpine Path, as well as for happiness, in whatever form it takes. 2y
Jerdencon I see it as a quest for happiness too - but it often felt like that got lost sometimes. 2y
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sblbooks I agree with @Jerdencon and @rubyslippersreads I think it's a combination of both of those things. 2y
Bkwrm7 @BarbaraJean Your comment above expresses my thoughts almost exactly. Watching Emily's ambitions be pushed aside by the last third of the novel was frustrating to me. It was as if once her book was published her career quest was complete and her passion for writing just......disappeared from the page to make room for the love story. I found myself thinking that Ilsa's story might have been more interesting! 2y
TheAromaofBooks I think that maybe one of the reasons this story frustrated me was that I think that if Emily and Teddy had worked things out earlier, Emily wouldn't have found her writing to be incompatible with love. Dean manipulated her into thinking that she couldn't have both for his own reasons, and I hated that. I think it's also possible that LMM felt like she could have both, but society at the time thought a woman couldn't, leading to the muddled ⬇ 2y
quietjenn I agree with what others have said. I think the nature of the quest shifts a bit throughout the story, but ultimately it's about Emily coming into her own, both as a person and a writer. Love and career do feel a disjointed and incompatible for most of the book, although I'm not convinced it was more in Emily's mind than in reality. I think *a lot* would've been avoided if Emily and Teddy just talked to each other and were honest with one another. 2y
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