The Blue Castle

Hooowww have I not read this before? Literally my DREAM is to find another world, free from the shitty parts of society, and I guess Montgomery (author of Anne of the Green Gables, btw), felt that too. So not only is she writing beautiful books for younger people, but she's appealing to a slightly older audience as well. Child AND adult me are so happy. This is a beautiful, classic book that is lesser known than AOTGG, yet has the same flair readers of Montgomery will notice and love. It's a book that indulges us in the dreams we have of escape and excitement and adventure, and it's written beautifully. Gahhh! It's rare you finally decide to read a less popular book from a popular/classic author, and even more rare when the book speaks to your soul. I guess I found that rarity.

If you loved Anne of Green Gables and are a romance reader now you simply must read The Blue Castle. I wish I could go read it for the first time again.

In some ways it feels like a proto- contemporary romance.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery is one of those backlist classic books I've meant to read for years. I've loved the Anne of Green Gables book series since I was a young girl, but I haven't read many of her other books. I read this mostly from an actual paperback book.

I think The Blue Castle is as good a classic romance as a Jane Austen book, though it takes place about a hundred years later.  It's one of the few adult novels that L.M. Montgomery wrote.

This book has social commentary, humor, tears, romance, and a wonderfully written cast of characters. Plus cats! This is a cat-friendly book. The chapters are short. There are 45 chapters in this book that's about 250 pages long. If you're looking for short chapters, this book has them.

 “Fear is the original sin,” wrote John Foster. “Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading.”

I thought that the rose bush Valancy “attacked” at the beginning of the book would be blooming at the end, and it was.

I cried big tears at Cissy Gay's story of her baby's death, then for her own death a few pages later. 

The only problem with this romance is that Barney Snaith is perhaps the worst name for a romantic lead I've ever heard. 

I'm interested in how much detail is on the page compared to what we're supposed to understand is going on off-page. In my experience, intimacy is rarely mentioned in a book like this. A “respectable” book published in 1926. 

To “make love” means romantic speech or “sweet nothings” and seems to have no “bedroom” implications. I've read this in “older” books before, but it was especially noticeable here that this was still accurate. On the drive home after they get married, Valancy says she doesn't “want him to make love” to her, and suggests that she just wants him to talk to her like usual. 

But I wanted you to talk. I don't want you to make love to me, but I want you to act like an ordinary human being.

Then as soon as they get to the island, they have their first kiss. I think we are to understand from this first kiss, that they have an intimate physical relationship. 

Barney lifted Valancy out of the canoe and swung her to a lichen-covered rock under a young pine-tree. His arms were about her and suddenly his lips were on hers. Valancy found herself shivering with the rapture of her first kiss. “Welcome home, dear,” Barney was saying.

And a bit later, this line.
And that little kissable dent just between your collar bones.

That sounds quite intimate to me. Interestingly, none of the “marriage of convenience” style tropes such as sleeping apart happened. That's not where the romance is. A sweet and wonderful relationship is described for them, from companionship to implied physical intimacy. The conflict comes from the unknowns in his past as well as her assumed quickly approaching death. 

All this, and still Valancy does not believe he loves her. She truly thinks he's just been pitying and humoring her. This is frustrating to the reader but is not unbelievable given her emotionally abusive upbringing.

Thankfully, they sort it all out in the end.

The hypocrisy of her family! Ugh!

Not so original of a story that you cant see what happens coming, but a delightful read with wonderful characters and just that sense of feminist rage we all feel when we spend a bit too much time with older relatives.

I struggled at the beginning of this book. I felt so depressed by the situation of the main character. As the story grows she becomes stronger. It's fun to see her go after her own happiness.

Absolutely adored this book! ❤️

3.5 The preposterous secret identities undermine the message of breaking free from the conventions of society. Past that, and the early whining, it is a charming of-its-era read; the beauty of nature sparkles in the text.

I connected so much with this heroine. I've known a number of people who were just as stiff and narrow as Valancy's relatives, and have watched people near them struggling with similar self-doubt or compulsive submissiveness. I loved how the good doctor's mistake catapulted her into growing a backbone for once and going out to live for a little while.

Barney was delightful! I guessed what his Bluebeard chamber was about five chapters before Valancy found out...somehow the Allan Tierney visit tipped me off. I don't know why! And the Dr Redfern appearance was so tragic yet so humorous all at once!

I liked the idea of the “John Foster” stories she loves so much, but a number of the quotes were not theologically sound. For instance, to blame all the evil of the world on fear is an interesting thought...but neither theologically nor psychologically sound. It gives a good thought; indeed, many people do act wrongly out of fear; but to blame all or even most of evil on fear is not correct in the least.

And the ending was quite good. Any man worth his salt will be willing to come running after his wife to win her heart. :)

I'll definitely be rereading this one.

I waited till I was forty-five to read Anne of Green Gables; I wish I'd met
Anne when I was ten, Anne that great mix of passion for life and knowledge about the harshness and inevitability
of disappointment.

So when I heard an online bookgroup member say The Blue Castle was her
favorite book, I couldn't wait to read it.

Valancy Stirling is and isn't Anne. Valancy, at twenty-nine, has had a non-life
life. Bound by the restrictions of her controlling family, Valancy feels ugly and unloved and superfluous. All that
keeps her alive are her dreams of a mythical Blue Castle. Fear keeps her in check until she learns she is dying.
That death sentence, paradoxically, frees her, and changes the course of her life.