#the blue castle

[gogandmagog]

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Hut in a Wintry Forest by Alexei Savrasov

[thenotcanadian]

In the L.M. Montgomery canon, there is a single book not set in some way on Prince Edward Island, and this is The Blue Castle, which is set entirely in Ontario (of all places).

For utterly unrelated reasons, The Blue Castle is also my favorite of her works, primarily because Valancy Sterling has led an utterly unremarkable life of being squished into a corner and then receives terrible news and decides "wow, fuck this" and goes INSANE (per her family, who do not deserve her and gave her a stupid nickname).

And I just think there's something lovely about a woman (deemed ugly and unwanted and undesirable and old) going out and claiming the life she's always wanted but been too scared to try and have.

And she has an absolutely marvellous time doing it, let me tell you.

[petaltexturedskies]

L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle

[blekitnyzamek]

Illustrations from "Blue Castle"

In Poland we have 5 translations of "Blue Castle" (and in the 1st one Valancy is not named Valancy but Joanna (Joanne); and I think it's funny enough to dedicate separate post about that in the future) and one of them has such a magical illustrations, that I need to share them <3

All of them are from this edition of "The Blue Castle"/"Błękitny zamek" (which was translated by Jolanta Bartosik) and were drawn by Katarzyna Karina Chmiel. Cover too, just look at it! I love this artstyle.

I will add quotes adjacent to the illustrations above them. That one is on title-page, gorgeous<3

Valancy went home by the short-cut of Lover’s Lane. She did not often go through Lover’s Lane—but it was getting near supper-time and it would never do to be late. Lover’s Lane wound back of the village, under great elms and maples, and deserved its name. It was hard to go there at any time and not find some canoodling couple—or young girls in pairs, arms intertwined, earnestly talking over their little secrets. Valancy didn’t know which made her feel more self-conscious and uncomfortable.

She [Valancy] had flatly refused to take either Purple Pills or Redfern’s Bitters. She had announced coolly that she did not intend to answer to the name of “Doss” any longer. She had told Cousin Stickles that she wished she would give up wearing that brooch with Cousin Artemas Stickles’ hair in it. She had moved her bed in her room to the opposite corner. She had read Magic of Wings Sunday afternoon. When Cousin Stickles had rebuked her Valancy had said indifferently, “Oh, I forgot it was Sunday”—and had gone on reading it.

Cousin Stickles had seen a terrible thing—she had caught Valancy sliding down the bannister. Cousin Stickles did not tell Mrs. Frederick this—poor Amelia was worried enough as it was.

Valancy had walked out to Roaring Abel’s house on the Mistawis road under a sky of purple and amber, with a queer exhilaration and expectancy in her heart. Back there, behind her, her mother and Cousin Stickles were crying—over themselves, not over her. But here the wind was in her face, soft, dew-wet, cool, blowing along the grassy roads. Oh, she loved the wind! The robins were whistling sleepily in the firs along the way and the moist air was fragrant with the tang of balsam. Big cars went purring past in the violet dusk—the stream of summer tourists to Muskoka had already begun—but Valancy did not envy any of their occupants. Muskoka cottages might be charming, but beyond, in the sunset skies, among the spires of the firs, her Blue Castle towered. She brushed the old years and habits and inhibitions away from her like dead leaves. She would not be littered with them.

“We’ll just sit here,” said Barney, “and if we think of anything worth while saying we’ll say it. Otherwise, not. Don’t imagine you’re bound to talk to me.”

“John Foster says,” quoted Valancy, “‘If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you’ll never be and you need not waste time in trying.’”

“Evidently John Foster says a sensible thing once in a while,” conceded Barney.

“There’s our island,” he said gloatingly.

Valancy looked—and looked—and looked again. There was a diaphanous, lilac mist on the lake, shrouding the island. Through it the two enormous pine-trees that clasped hands over Barney’s shack loomed out like dark turrets. Behind them was a sky still rose-hued in the afterlight, and a pale young moon.

Valancy shivered like a tree the wind stirs suddenly. Something seemed to sweep over her soul.

“My Blue Castle!” she said. “Oh, my Blue Castle!”

Valancy and Barney turned under the mainland pines in the cool dusk of the September night for a farewell look at the Blue Castle. Mistawis was drowned in sunset lilac light, incredibly delicate and elusive. Nip and Tuck were cawing lazily in the old pines. Good Luck and Banjo were mewed and mewing in separate baskets in Barney’s new, dark-green car en route to Cousin Georgiana’s.

[the-moral-of-the-rose]

Victorian and Edwardian Hairstyles:

The picture is from this site (please visit it - there is so much more about hairstyles there!):

What kind of hairstyle do you think Montgomery's heroines wore?

I think Valancy wanted to put her hair in the Greek Hairstyle, but had to wear it in Everyday Pompadour. Later, she had it cut and that was HER best hairstyle.

Emily was said to "wear her hair low" when most women wore it up, so maybe "Madonna coiffure" or "with covered ears" or "Dip Pompadour" (I don't really like "Low Pompadour" picture, though, but it seems to suit "a low" hairstyle).

And I can definitely see Anne in "Madonna Coiffure", "Coronet Hairstyle", "Soft Pompadour".

[eatingfiction]

- The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

My new hobby is writing out quotes from favourite books as if they are poems ✨️

[gogandmagog]

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery, feat: photos from Polish-Brit television drama ‘Dzwony Wojny’ (or ‘The Passing Bells’)

[mollywog]

Anne was so worried that she didn't sleep until nearly morning, and then she dreamed that the trustees had put a fence around the school and painted "Try Purple Pills" all over it.

[nerianasims]

“Don’t worry, Mother,” said Valancy, lightly but quite respectfully. “It isn’t likely I’ll do anything very terrible. But I mean to have a little fun.”

“Fun!” Mrs. Frederick uttered the word as if Valancy had said she was going to have a little tuberculosis.

-- The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

[thesweetnessofspring]

Found more Blue Castle fanart! By polarbales on Twitter

[lmmontgomerypolls]

submitted by 👤anonymous

[the-lily-blooms-late]

I think The Blue Castle might be LMM’s funniest book. I reread it last night instead of sleeping like a normal person and here are the highlights.

“An outrageous thing!” said Uncle Benjamin violently. “An outrageous thing!” Which relieved his feelings but didn’t help anyone else. (Chapter XV)

‘And she was so tired, she wished she could borrow a pair of legs from the cat.’ (Chapter XXIV)

‘He did not know Valancy was one of the Deerwood Stirlings— he did not even know there were Deerwood Stirlings. He did not know Barney was a fugitive from justice. Really, he was an incredibly ignorant old man.’ (Chapter XXVI, about Mr. Towers)

‘The thermometer went miles below zero and stayed there. But, as Barney and Valancy pointed out to each other, there were no mosquitoes.’ (Chapter XXXVIII, I LOVE THEM I LOVE THEM I LOVE THEM)

‘Mrs. Frederick, returning to her comfortable belief in an overruling Providence, got out the family Bible and made an entry under “Marriages.”’ (Chapter XLII)

[no-where-new-hero]

*This is your opinion of the characters as romantic heroes/love interests

[petaltexturedskies]

days full of a fine, pale sunshine that sifted through the late, leafless gold of the juniper-trees and glimmered among the grey beeches, lighting up evergreen banks of moss and washing the colonnades of the pines.

L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle

[blekitnyzamek]

I started analyzing the Blue Castle for my bachelor's thesis and oh boi, just look at it: first translator just deleted half of the description of Valancies room x.x

I lose my sanity with every deleted/mistranslated word.

But here-- here he only delete thing. In the next part, description of Blue Castle, he changes them and adds new X.X

It is not "she had been a very tiny child" but "when she was a little elf".

No "turrets and banners", just "towers and turrets" (why repeat youself??)

Castle was not on "the pine-clad mountain height" but "the top of a steep hill"

No "robes of moonlight and fire" but "crimson and moonlight"

On it goes on and on and on.

He added also the bolded frazes, like "The wonderful games and feasts she experienced at night in her imagination..."

KAROL

WHEN I CATCH YOU KAROL

[whenthegoldrays]

It's hilarious to me how a lot of The Blue Castle is spent hinting at a Big Plot Twist/Reveal, and as the reader you're excited to see whether your theory is correct and what Valancy's reaction to it will be, but once the reveal comes, so much insanity has happened to her in the last 24 hours that when she does find out she's just like "okay, this might as well happen I guess"