Valancy Stirling has a year to live, if she is lucky. If she isn’t she could die of heart failure at any moment. If she is to live for a full year it will only be through careful moderation in her diet and exercise patterns, and of course much rest has been recommended by her doctor. L.M. Montgomery, author of the popular Anne of Green Gables series, gives the reader a brilliantly touching woman on the brink of one of the biggest decisions of her life in her novel The Blue Castle.

At age twenty-nine Valancy has yet to truly begin to live when she receives the news of her impending death in a letter from her doctor. Her family has long since determined that she is to be an old maid and indeed during this time period (earlyish twentieth century) the age of twenty-nine would qualify a woman for this status. Valancy is ruled by her family and their strict scheduling that even dictates the exact moment Valancy will be woken by her Cousin Stickles in the morning to when she is to be expected for meals. To cope with her family and her rather dull life Valancy escaped into the novels of John Foster who writes books on the natural world (nonfiction books of course as Valancy’s mother does not allow her to read novels). She also constructs a place for herself called the Blue Castle where lords and ladies reign, men show their devotion by doing daring deeds, and where a hero falls in love with Valancy.

Faced with her impending death Valancy realizes that she can not continue to live her life like this. She cannot continue living her life in fear of breaking rules or disappointing her family. She happily decides not to live her life in moderation anymore despite the doctor’s advice that doing so will lengthen her life expectancy. When Valancy opens herself up to the possibilities of life she finds the most amazing and genuine friends she couldn’t even had imagined. These include Roaring Abel, the town drunk, and his daughter Cecilia Gay. Not of course to forget Barney Snaith, a handsome man with an air of mystery about him.

This of course is all I can say about the plot and I hope it is enough to encourage those who have never read The Blue Castle to pick it up. For those who are already L.M. Montgomery fans it is important to note that the topics dealt with in this novel are a little more mature than in say Anne of Green Gables or Emily of New Moon. This book deals with issues of death, love, and life in a much more adult tone than either Emily or Anne did. This of course has to do a lot with the fact that our heroine is older at the beginning of the novel than either Emily or Anne who were children at the beginning of those books.

This book is relatively short, covering only a bit more than two-hundred pages. For this reason and because of Montgomery’s pacing, this book is a really quick read. Although the first several chapters begin at a slower pace as the reader discovers what Valancy’s life is like, even this portion of the book is easy to get through as you’ll want to find out just how horrid Valancy’s family is. From there the pace picks up as Valancy continues to try to find a place for herself and a purpose before she dies.

The language, in typical Montgomery style, is beautiful. Although the descriptive passages are not as long as a reader may expect from either Montgomery or early twentieth century writing, she does take the time to clearly establish the setting. Her passages about Mistawis are particularly engaging. One example of this come at the top of chapter thirty-three:

Spring. Mistawis black and sullen for a week or two, then flaming in sapphire and turquoise, lilac and rose again, laughing through the oriel, caressing its amethyst islands, rippling under the winds soft as silk..

With passages as beautiful as this you’ll start to wish that more authors paid this much attention to the language used in their descriptions.

This novel is highly recommended for Montgomery fans as well as those new to her works. This is one of those novels that you won’t mind revisiting again and again. The characters are engaging and the story pulls you in. The only real fault may be that it borders on a bit too “feel good” but that’s not always necessarily a bad thing.

L. M. Montgomery was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada. She is most known for Anne of Green Gables but during her life she penned twenty novels. There are also collections of her short stories available and some of these include the characters from the Anne series.


Recommended: Yes