Book Review: Emily of Deep Valley

This book title sounds deceptively like L.M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon, but thank all the mercies that it really isn't. I'll now proceed with the review.

Synopsis: Emily Webster, an orphan living with her grandfather, is not like the other girls her age in Deep Valley, Minnesota. The gulf between Emily and her classmates widens even more when they graduate from Deep Valley High School in 1912. Emily longs to go off to college with everyone else, but she can't leave her grandfather.

Emily resigns herself to facing a "lost winter," but soon decides to stop feeling sorry for herself. And with a new program of study, a growing interest in the Syrian community, and handsome new teacher at the high school to fill her days, Emily gains more than she ever dreamed...

Plot: Since this book is set in one of my favorite time periods, it already had a bit of push going for it. I love the early nineteen-hundreds and think that not enough good books are written during those golden years. 

Emily of Deep Valley is charming. A sweet story that is appropriate for any age. The sort of book I wish girls nowadays were reading instead of cheap, badly-written fantasies or silly romances that contain nothing but fluff and inappropriate topics. 

It's a simple story. It hasn't really got a plot, per say. It's just a sweet, wholesome narrative of an ordinary girl. It's also a very good advertisement for stay-at-home daughterhood.

The first part of the book is bittersweet and slightly frustrating. Emily is blue because she can't go to college with her friends and about a certain indifferent young jerk who she somehow adores. 

It gets better when Emily decides to improve herself, stops pining over worthless boys, and starts to live - even though she can't go to college. 

And then, a certain someone also walks into her life and Emily finds out that perhaps living in Deep Valley isn't so bad. 

You also discover that she's not as dull as she first may seem.

Characters: This is rather tough, since Emily is pretty much the monopolizer of the book. I got a little frustrated with her at times because she was so in love with this young man who wasn't worth her time. I wanted to shake her, but thankfully she was sensible enough to shake herself. 

Although she does a lot of good, charitable work, Emily doesn't come across as a goody-two-shoes. She lives enough for herself that it's not annoying that she's so good. Besides that, not every man in the county is madly in love with her, so it makes things easier to swallow when you hit the end. 

I liked Emily's Grandpa Webster. He was funny and eccentric and just forgetful enough to be a dear.

Annette, I hope, will have grow out of herself by the time she graduates - though I think she's getting the raw end of the deal when it comes to fiancees. 

Don is frustrating because I got so sick of being told how handsome he was and how much Emily adored him. He was such a cad. But he was used for contrast, so I suppose it's all well and good in the end.

And then there's Jed - but I won't spoil the story. 

Likes: I love wholesome old books that are reminiscent of those bygone days where everything was simpler and wasn't so messed up, so I loved Emily of Deep Valley because that's what it is. True, it doesn't have a flashy cover or a twisting, turning plot, but it's got a good, solid story that's worth reading just because it's for girls who are growing up and trying to understand what to look for in life. 

The romance was sweet and - though I disapprove of kisses before marriage - I realize that it does make a good story, so I overlook it when done in chaste and brief ways. 

Dislikes: The first few chapters are rather hard to get in to. It starts out with Emily being depressed over her lot in life and pining for a romance that you, the reader, don't want to come true. But I am only saying that because I need something to put in this category and if you can get through the first few chapters of any book, you ought to be able to make it through the start of Emily's story. 

Conclusion: If you like old-fashioned stories like L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series or Francis Burnett's A Little Princess, Lousia May Alcott books or even Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, I'm sure you'll love Emily of Deep Valley. And I've also heard that Maud Hart Lovelace wrote a series about Betsy and Tacy and that they're even better than Emily. So instead of picking up the pulp fiction and fantasies this summer, why don't you consider a wholesome trip to the past, where the girls are real and the romance is sweet and you can put it down with a sigh and realize that this is how life can be.   

Till next time!