Blue Castle

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that ridiculed Dr. Redfern's remedies (Chapter 42). Later, Barney got honors at McGill University (Chapter 38). He fell in love with Ethel Traverse and Valancy, the heroine (with that name, you just know that she thinks she's homely but she'll turn out to be secretly beautiful--to those with the right eyes to see her. Like the hero), lives under the thumb of as obnoxious a set of relatives as LMM ever invented. Oh boy is she downtrodden. There is not the tiniest detail of her miserable life that some relative or other isn't minding for her own good, and lecturing her endlessly about from the pinnacle of Mt. Moral Superiority. One of the first things that Valancy does upon arriving is to land a job as a caretaker of one of her former schoolmates who is dying of consumption. Valancy goes to live with the town drunk to care for his daughter, Cissey. While she is living there, Valancy also becomes close with one of Roaring Abel's friends, Barney Snaith. minister who once tried to reform Roaring Abel (Chapter 14). Probably the same Presbyterian minister that L.M. Montgomery calls Rev. Bradly in Chapter 24.

Ned - Dr. Trent's son. He was injured in a terrible automobile accident in Montreal during Valancy's first appointment When Valancy begins to feel some heart pains, she finally has the courage to go a doctor on the sly and find out why she is having these difficulties. His answer via letter causes her to have the courage to decide she will no longer be the passive, dull dog she has been in the past. When she finds out a childhood friend is suffering from TB and has nobody to care for her but her rough, often drunk alcoholic father - Roaring Abel, Valancy decides she will take up the post.The romance was lovely in this book. I liked how Valancy and Barney's relationship started and would always be built on their friendship. There was a deep, romantic love there, no doubt. But, the person that one chooses as their life partner needs to be one that they can be happy to be around, and comfortable enough to not feel the need to fill the silences, but to cherish them. They found a connection as soulmates through the doorway of respect for each other and friendship. A great way to start a great lifetime love, in my opinion.

Woods, water, pure air, a lovely cabin, no demands from society or from tiresome family members., experiencing the change of seasons on your doorstep, BLISS, right? Everything that Valancy was not." Although Olive is a year younger than Valancy, "nobody had ever dreaded old-maidenhood What I also adored about this book was Montgomery's veneration of nature. Although the book is set near Muskoka, Ontario, Montgomery got her nature-writing muse from PEI which is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful places in Canada. Montgomery's descriptions of nature makes you want to be in it:

L. M. MONTGOMERY

Oddly enough, this death sentence frees Valancy from her miserable existence. With nothing to lose, she starts sassing her ice-cold mother and relatives, begins wearing "unsuitable" clothing, moves out of the family home, and generally starts doing what she wants to without a thought for propriety. It's lovely to see her bloom and gain confidence, and begin to seek out happiness and love on her own terms. And eventually (I won't spoil the story by going into the hows and whys) she finds a home in a cottage by the lake that reminds her of her beloved Blue Castle. My fav part is the conversation between Barney and Valancy, which encapsulates the essence of the novel (with teary and smiling eyes 😊)- Sarah (Second Cousin) - Sarah "never said anything worth listening to" because she was so "afraid of saying something indiscreet" (Chapter 10). She had "great, pale, expressionless

Trent, Dr. - an elderly, absent-minded doctor who specializes in heart disease. He is over seventy years olda rather stupid little village tin-god" (Chapter 19; 97). Following Valancy's marriage to Barney Snaith, Uncle James cruelly tells her, "you are a shameless The idea of the blue castle as a place, the dust pile and the books of John Foster were elements that engaged me throughout this read. I knew there was something in this writer that would develop and even though I suspected the truth, it didn’t quell the enjoyment any. Valancy’s life on the little island filled me with such joy, I adored seeing her reach her potential as a person and as a woman.

Warning- This novel is endearing and filled with ardour to a dangerous level, that one can risk into crooning and canoodling with the novel throughout!Montgomery had two strengths in my readerly view: a wonderful sensitivity to nature, which makes her descriptions of gardens, forests, etc, utterly delightful, and she came from a small town on an island, born of very strong-minded people. Quirky strong-minded people, as one discovers in her published diaries. So her creation of characters, especially distinctive, oddball relatives, is sheer delight. We know a lot of those relatives, like the cousin everyone holds up as a paragon of virtue, but who is a meanie when the adults aren't looking. And the uncle whose threadbare jokes were never funny the first 182 times he told them, especially when you're the target. Hello one of my favourite books of all time, recently re-read to get me through what was a fairly stressful week, even for someone an ocean-away from the stress epicentre. Clayton - a man engaged to Jennie Lloyd, who built a house for her and furnished it in readiness for their marriage (Chapter From a stifling life to a vibrant life with her dream guy in her dream house, “The Blue castle” propounds about finding life and living it! 😊