This guest review on The Blue Castle is from Erin M.
Erin M is a high school English teacher living in Oklahoma City, and she writes romance as Laine Ferndale with her amazing writing partner. Her first book, The Scandalous Mrs. Wilson, is published by Crimson Romance: it’s set in turn-of-the-century Canada and the hero shares a last name with Valancy. Good artists borrow, great artists steal, right? On that note, please don’t rat her out to the librarians at Live Oak High School, who presumably have a “Wanted” poster with her picture posted behind the checkout desk.
…
The Blue Castle was one of those random, magical finds that prove the importance of idle browsing in libraries and bookstores. I picked up the paperback in my high school library just because I liked the color of the cover; I’d never read the Anne of Green Gables books, so L.M. Montgomery’s name also didn’t ring any bells for me. But it only took maybe a chapter and a half before this book all rang my bells. Thoroughly.
The story’s set in a small town in turn-of-the-century Canada, and the main character, Valancy Stirling, isn’t young, or pretty, or confident, or charming. At twenty-nine, she considers herself an ugly, timid failure, and everyone and everything in her shabby-genteel life reinforces her self-hatred. What she does have is an innate love of beautiful things and a dramatic inner life: her recurring fantasy of life in a romantic “Blue Castle” gives the book its title.
She also nurses a burning desire to tell her extended family where they can shove their endless “old maid” jokes and backhanded advice. But things have never been bad enough to make her risk being ostracized and becoming even more alone than she already is.
Montgomery’s writing in these early chapters is so good that when Valancy is diagnosed with a terminal heart condition, it seems completely reasonable for that to be the best thing that’s ever happened to our girl. Her life is just a never-ending grind of small losses and embarrassments, and she’s relieved to discover that it won’t drag out for another sixty years:
Valancy did not sleep that night. She lay awake all through the long dark, hours — thinking — thinking. She made a discovery that surprised her: she, who had been afraid of almost everything in life, was not afraid of death. It did not seem in the least terrible to her. And she need not now be afraid of anything else. Why had she been afraid of things? Because of life. Afraid of Uncle Benjamin because of the menace of poverty in old age. But now she would never be old — neglected — tolerated. Afraid of being an old maid all her life. But now she would not be an old maid very long. Afraid of offending her mother and her clan because she had to live with and among them and couldn’t live peaceably if she didn’t give in to them. But now she hadn’t. Valancy felt a curious freedom.
She decides to keep her diagnosis a secret because she doesn’t want to “cause a fuss” (so Canadian, right?), and she also decides that life is too short for the ugly clothes and unflattering hairdos her mother has always insisted she wear. From now on she’s going to wear her hair the way she wants, damn it. And she’s going to stop laughing politely at her gross uncle’s gross jokes. And she’s going to redecorate her room.
Her series of small rebellions builds, and the success of each one leaves her happier and braver. By the time she works up the courage to propose (!!!) to local ne’er-do-well Barney Snaith, it feels entirely in character.
Let’s talk about Barney Snaith. Terrible name? Yes, absolutely. But otherwise? Freaking SWOON. He’s the local Man of Mystery: nobody knows where he’s from, he dresses like a day laborer but never seems to work, and he lives alone way out in the woods. Everyone is town is fairly sure he’s “an escaped convict and a defaulting bank clerk and a murderer in hiding and an infidel and an illegitimate son of old Roaring Abel Gay and the father of Roaring Abel’s illegitimate grandchild and a counterfeiter and a forger and a few other awful things.” But he’s also got a warm smile and a great sense of humor, and Valancy likes him immediately. And so will you.
By the way, this book was my first lesson in Never Trusting Covers. 1980s Cover Valancy was gorgeous, and scruffy-looking nerf-herder Barney is apparently Robert Redford fresh off the set of a movie about yachts. Like so:
Anywhoozle. Barney agrees to marry Valancy. He’s motivated almost completely by pity, and they’re both very up front about that. Valancy moves into his Pinterest-worthy cabin on the lake, meets Barney’s cats Good Luck and Banjo, and generally begins living my best life. Seriously, read this:
Autumn came. Late September with cool nights. They had to forsake the verandah; but they kindled a fire in the big fireplace and sat before it with jest and laughter. They left the doors open, and Banjo and Good Luck came and went at pleasure. Sometimes they sat gravely on the bearskin rug between Barney and Valancy; sometimes they slunk off into the mystery of the chill night outside. The stars smouldered in the horizon mists through the old oriel. The haunting, persistent croon of the pine-trees filled the air. The little waves began to make soft, sobbing splashes on the rocks below them in the rising winds. They needed no light but the firelight that sometimes leaped up and revealed them — sometimes shrouded them in shadow. When the night wind rose higher Barney would shut the door and light a lamp and read to her — poetry and essays and gorgeous, dim chronicles of ancient wars. Barney never would read novels: he vowed they bored him. But sometimes she read them herself, curled up on the wolf skins, laughing aloud in peace. For Barney was not one of those aggravating people who can never hear you smiling audibly over something you’ve read without inquiring placidly, “What is the joke?”
They go on long walks and develop inside jokes. Barney starts calling her “Moonlight” after she tells him she’s never really liked her name, and gives her thoughtful little gifts. As they slowly realize they “like like” each other, the stakes in their relationship go up exponentially.
The book was published in 1926, and while Valancy reads as surprisingly modern, in other ways The Blue Castle is very of its time. Sex, for example, is never directly mentioned. It’s not even clear if Barney and Valancy are sleeping in the same bed after they get married. But their rapport, built on companionship and empathy and shared interests, is so much fun that I didn’t even notice that sex was AWOL until my sixth or seventh reading. Plus Valancy’s medical condition provides a perfect justification for keeping the racing hearts to a minimum.
I was insanely lucky to read this book when I did, smack in the middle of my awkward late-bloomer period. While my friends all saw themselves as Buffys looking for their tortured-yet-redeemable Spikes and/or Angels, Valancy and Barney became my model for what I wanted in a relationship. They are great friends who are unfailingly kind to one another, even when they argue. They share interests. They share cats! And the idea that plain, frightened Valancy could find love and live the life she wanted without compromising? That was liberating.
Finally, a confession: when I retrieved my battered paperback edition to re-read for this review, I realized that I have the actual copy from my high school library. This book is such a keeper I freaking stole it at some point. You should probably try to acquire your copy legally. (#noregrets)
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This remains one of my favourite books for all the reasons you listed. I’ve enjoyed all the L.M. Montgomery books I’ve read, but The Blue Castle has such great writing, characters, plot points, message, etc.
Thank you for this review, which explains a lot about Colleen McCullough’s The Ladies of Missolongi.
Oh yes ! Oh yes ! Oh yes !
I own the 1980’s edition with the misleading cover and be reassured it never mattered.
And as for the sleeping together part, although it indeed doesn’t matter either when you first read the book, nor the second time, nor any time really, it’s actually pretty clear, when you think about it, that the house in the woods isn’t terribly big, only has one bedroom, and only one bed. For those of us who really wonder.
This one might very well be my favorite LMM novel, and I don’t mind the name “Valancy” at all, even if being called Moonlight must be dreamy.
Actually, Montgomery explicit states they sleep in the same bed, and I attribute the lack of more detail to the time period in which she wrote.
It made me like the book more, the fact that the functionality of their sex life is not commented on. Rather, it’s left to the reader to assume they were like all married couples.
This is the passage, copied from Project Gutenberg’s text:
“Now she almost counted that night lost on which she didn’t wake up and lie awake for half an hour just being happy, while Barney’s regular breathing went on beside her, and through the open door the smouldering brands in the fireplace winked at her in the gloom.”
Great review! This book is such a gem, they are so great together.
I stumbled upon this book after unsuccessfully trying to enjoy Anne of Green Gables as an adult. I just could not get into Anne, but I decided to give this one a try and IT WAS DELIGHTFUL. I absolutely loved it. So great. 100% agree with your squee.
I LOVE The Blue Castle. I reread it recently, and so many of the things that I read in childhood don’t hold up, but this certainly does. The smartass comments she starts making when she has finally had it with her family’s nonsense? They are amazing.
Also, speaking as an adult that picks up subtext where adolescent me did not? They were totally doing it.
Such a wonderful, perfect book! I keep hoping for a movie adaptation, I think it’d be such fun.
Love and adore it. I have the copy you show, where Barney looks like a preppy fifties frat boy, which always confused me. But I thought this was hte most romantic ever. Although I did think sex was alluded to when she talks about someting to do with lying on his chest or against his cheek at night…for sure.
@failie, yes, but Missalonghi has some hard core jackhole rapey guy in Barney’s place. I give him the finger.
I finally read this for the first time this past fall and was blown away by what a gem it was! I have no idea how I missed it when I was growing up because I was a huge LM Montgomery junkie.
This book is the shiiiiiit. 12 year old fat, shy, socially awkward me wanted Valancy’s courage so bad.
OK, ErinM, you owe your high school library! Assuming you still have a library in your high school (so many have been phased out), you might consider sending them a check for a nice sum (YEARS OF LATE FINES ADD UP) to buy books for their collection.
Great review!
Thanks for the guest squee. I think. I mean, do I really need one more must read on my TBR pile? Since I have apparently been missing out all these years, yes, I guess I do. And look at that, the GBPL is going to help me fill the gap.
LM Montgomery is my jam. I have all of her books, but I have not read them all. They are all in a special bookcase because I just think she is awesome. I even have The Blue Castle with this exact cover. Time to bust it out this summer! Thanks for the review!
This is one of my all-time favorite books–one of the few I have read multiple times and continue to re-read (I’m not usually one for re-reading books after the joy of first discovery). I was a young Anne of Green Gables fan, so I found this book when I was working my way through all of L.M. Montgomery’s fiction, and I think it was one of the first purely romance novels that I read.
I’m glad to hear that somebody else has wondered about the sex situation with Valancy and Barney, which I also never thought of until my third read or so. I always thought it made sense that it wasn’t mentioned because of the time period, but considering that they have a sort of marriage of convenience (maybe marriage of pity is more apt), it seems pretty up in the air whether they had a physical relationship.
I never thought much about how irregular Valancy and their relationship are when placed against the heroines and romances we see all of the time, but I love the characterization of her story as liberating. It is a sweet, hopeful, well-written story, and this review captures that well.
I’m someone else who found this book much later in life. It’s just beautiful, sigh. Wish I’d had it to escape into a long time ago!
I loved this review!! Definitely being added to the TBR list. I just re-read Anne of Green Gables this past year, and I feel like a have a whole new appreciation for the book, after reading it as an adult.
The confession at the end made me laugh-I will admit there have been times when I wanted to steal a book from the library, usually an out of print book I loved. I would pay for it, and that would be that. But then I thought, what if there is someone like me, who loves the book and can’t read it? So, I never did take up my life of crime. In hindsight, I kind of wish I had purloined some of the D.E. Stevenson titles, I checked them out every year, hoping that would keep them from being pulled off the shelves. I was devastated the day I went to the shelf, and they were all gone. Luckily many of her titles are coming back into print.
LOVE The Blue Castle, by far my favourite L.M. Montgomery book. I grew up in a pretty conservative family similar to the Stirlings, so Valancy was my hero. As for the “behind the scenes” stuff, Barney always seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn’t have a marriage of convenience.
Great review. It was the first book I read in 2017 and I loved it.
This is one of my all-time favourite books! Read it multiple times as a teenager and still drag it out to revisit every now and then on a wet and rainy day.
Squeeeeeee!!
Confession: When I find an enthusiastic description of an older book, my first reaction is to race to my favorite directory and see whether it’s already online, because if not, I may want to put it online myself.
The shattering disappointment is that The Blue Castle came out in 1926, and since the U.S. doesn’t follow the Rule of the Shorter Term, it won’t fall into the public domain for another five years.
:: sob ::
Option B: Interlibrary Loan.
Option C: Pore through used-book listings.
Amazon tells me there are worse covers than the one with Robert Redford. (Dibs on the 1936 hardcover edition!)
I liked Anne of Green Gables OK when I was growing up, but didn’t love it, and got bored pretty quickly with the books once Anne grew up. So I wasn’t all that interested in checking out an “adult” LM Montgomery novel until I came across a rave review a couple years ago. Holy Hannah, what a charming book. Loved Valancy, loved Barney, loved the family Valancy stays with after she moves out of her family home…I admit the long nature descriptions were not my favorite part but that is a pretty minor complaint!
This and Rilla of Ingleside are so great. Rilla is about Anne’s youngest daughter, but it really stands alone and is set during WWII. For those of you who can’t get into Anne, consider giving Rilla a try.
@ faellie- my mind went straight to Ladies of Missalonghi too but I still have questions: did she rip off the story beat by beat or what?
How have I not read this??
My personal fave LM Montgomery is A Tagled Web which is great old feuding families with dramatic love stories. There’s also a short story collection (that I can’t remember the name of) that has a really great short with a cat loving misandrist old lady and a dog loving misogynist old man who manage to get over themselves and it’s pretty great.
Yiss thank you for reminding me that this was one of my favorite books, ever.
By the way, this book is available on Project Gutenberg Australia, in case anyone is looking for it <3
@Sunshine – I loved A Tangled Web too, and read it several times back in my teens when I read all the LM Montgomery books. That book and The Blue Castle were my favourites.
I remember even as a teenager being struck by a strong sense of the past in Montgomery’s books, even though I spent those years devouring Golden Age detective stories. I suppose the crime fiction writers focussed on the plot, while LM Montgomery was wonderful at creating a sense of place for her characters to inhabit.
Well, since I went and looked it up myself, here is the link!
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200951.txt
I love this book and so glad to see it getting all the love! Might be my favorite L.M. Montgomery, but it’s hard to say.
I had decided a while ago if someone didn’t do a “squee” for it, I was going to. Also, I know long description passages like she wrote are discouraged today, but I love how she wrote them. I was rereading Blue Castle last year and I said to my husband “this is nature porn.”
One of my all time favorites and my ultimate comfort read. I had a miscarriage a few weeks ago and this was the very first book I picked up after it happened. Agree with the shot out to A Tangled Web and Rilla of Ingleside too. I was a huge (ok, obsessive) fan of all the Anne books but Rilla was always my favorite.
Just chiming in with some squee of my own! Several years back I spent an entire summer plowing through all of L. M. Montgomery’s catalogue and “The Blue Castle” was definitely my favorite, even over the Emily trilogy.
Does anyone here listen to the History Chicks podcast? They did an episode on L. M. Montgomery a few weeks ago.
Squee, indeed! This is my favorite L.M. Montgomery other than the Emily trilogy. It’s also refreshing to have one her heroines be of the shy, insecure type, unlike Anne or Emily.
I am so glad to see this Squee post! This has been one of my favorite comfort reads since I was in jr high. And as a bonus, it has FINALLY been recorded as an audiobook and is available on Audible! I have been waiting for an audiobook of this one for years.
I read this just last month.
And I really liked it, I didn’t at first but I kept coming back to it over and over – pretty much re read it about a week after I first finished it.
I really liked Valancy as a character, just that the ending felt a little rushed. But it WAS in character which was great.
Valancy kind of breaks your heart but gives you hope at the same time.
Is it possible your library sold the book, and you picked it up used? I have freaked out a couple of times finding “library books” in my collection, before figuring out that I must have gotten them at a library book sale. At least I hope so!
I read the squee this morning, tried to get the book on kindle (there is some problem with the formatting). Then I checked the local Barnes and Noble. No copies in my area. It wasn’t on open library. When trying to interlibrary loan it, I discovered Hoopla! Yay. I just finished the book, and I wish I had read it when younger. But now, I will find a used copy and keep it for future re-reads. Thank you for this. It gives me the same kind of pleasure I get from reading “Eight Cousins”, and “Rose in Bloom”. A kind of honest, sweet, and very satisfying read.
I read this one back when I was too young even to wonder if they were having sex. I don’t remember how young, definitely pre-teen. I’d read the Anne books and went looking in my local public library for anything else by Montgomery.
I don’t think I’ve ever read it a second time, but I’m surprised how much I remember about it some 50 years later. How hateful and detestable her family was, how I loved it when she stood up to them, what a nice guy Barney was, how satisfying the ending was.
@Erin M and Kris Bock : Any library I ever worked in would mark books before they put them up for sale. Usually something like a stamp that said Withdrawn, and the removal of things like bar code labels and other indications of library ownership.
PS: Amazon.ca has a kindle edition of the Blue Castle, listed at C$0.73. Also a couple of annotated editions at less than C$2.00. There are also several versions of Montgomery’s “collected works”
Wow, that sound like my catnip! Thanks so much for the review!
I’m with Joy at #13.
(I need to pay my school library for its copy of Hawkmistress!….)