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The Deep Dive

Is EMILY OF NEW MOON Better Than ANNE OF GREEN GABLES?

Who wore PEI better—Emily, the cerebral baby poet of New Moon, or Anne, the pre-Pollyanna affection-seeking redhead of Green Gables?

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S. Zainab Williams

Executive Director, Content

S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.

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Would Anne and Emily be friends if they met? I asked myself as a young reader. Would Anne beat Emily in a bar fight? I ask myself today. I, like so many others before me, gobbled up the works of the patron saint of 19th-century Prince Edward Island orphans, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and had a clear favorite among her fictional darlings: Emily, the goth poetess of PEI. Emily has come to mind a few times over the years, such as when I shouted “Yes!” at the television as Natasha Lyonne’s Russian Doll character, Nadia Vulvokov, beat me to the punch, monologuing about why Emily is superior to Anne. But I didn’t think to reread Emily of New Moon until I decided to replace my lost copy for my daughters’ future library. It had been so long since I last read it, I only remembered the broad strokes.

I don’t often reread because I generally don’t enjoy more of the same, and revisiting a childhood favorite, especially a classic, is a treacherous exercise. You’re sure to find something you shrugged off or didn’t even notice the first time that now takes some of the shine off of the book. I gave it a go anyway because my last visit to New Moon was distant enough to make the story feel new again, and because I had to find out if my Vulvokov-level certainty that Emily is indeed the better character would survive.

I want to make it clear that I love Anne and because, as the more popular character, Anne of Green Gables got more merch, I ended up consuming more Anne content, including the older edition of The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook (I made a mess of Marilla’s Plum Pudding). As a once insufferable optimist, I had to appreciate Anne’s sunny disposition. But my bourgeoning artistic, subcultural side gravitated to the less popular Emily—her books felt like my special secret.

Since Anne is such a massive figure of the literary canon, I’m not going to spend time rehashing who she is (here’s a useful link to someone else’s rereading of Anne of Green Gables). What I am going to do is share the big takeaways from a reread of the first book in the Emily series that factored into whether or not she got to hold onto her medal:

All Access members read on to find out if Emily survives a reread!

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