Customer Reviews

The Blue Castle (Voyageur Classics)

5 star:		(131)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone who thinks L.M. Montgomery is just a children's author should read this book. Although it's appropriate for younger ages and its reading level may not be very demanding, I think adults would appreciate the wit and insights in this novel more than younger readers might. I discovered The Blue Castle at 25, at a time when I wasn't all that interested in adolescent literature. Reading it felt like discovering a long-lost friend. Montgomery's keen sense of human nature shapes characters so real that I'd swear I've met them. I've read this book so many times that I've worn out two copies of it. This is my favorite book by this author and one of my all-time favorites, period. As much as I like Anne of Green Gables, it pales in comparison to The Blue Castle. The story is so much better than the synopsis sounds, but it's hard to say much about the plot without giving away the best of it. This is also the only book Montgomery wrote which is *not* set in Prince Edward Island.

L.M. Montgomery's works interested me at an early age. I first saw the Anne of Green Gables movies and years later read "Anne of Avonlea". I loved the atmosphere and the characters and wanted to know more of Anne. After reading the series, I knew I had to read more by this author. "The Blue Castle" caught my eye one day just because of the name. I read it right away and as soon as I was done I HAD to read it over again! I was completely enchanted, as I am DELIGHTED to see that others are too.

Valancy's mother and aunt really got on my nerves and the entrance of Barney Snaith just driving by intrigued me to no end. Valancy in one of those enlighted spirits who is weighted down by her stodgy, judgemental relatives. She feels she is just doomed to waste away into old-maidenhood or maybe fall over dead. She has no hope of being married and considers herself plain with a "too-small nose". She dares not dress or do her hair as she wishes and can't even speak out of turn when twitted even though she is 29 years old! She hates the house, she hates her room, she hates her life, she hates the strict schedule she forced into as if she is still a child. She even is still called "Doss", her hated childhood nickname. A trip to an "unapproved" doctor turns all this around and she rebels against her family's oppression. After finding that a childhood schoolmate is dying, Valancy goes to nurse her where she becomes friends with the aforementioned Barney. Barney drives a beat-up rattle trap car "Lady Jane Grey" and mostly keeps to himself on his own little island, leading Valancy's nasty family to refer to him as "jailbird", criminal, drunk, etcetera. Valancy feels just the opposite. She buys a bright, stylish dress, takes trips "about the town" with Barney and is rescued by him from the rowdy Chidley Corners dance. Not wanting to go home after her friend dies and not wanting herself to die as an old maid, Valancy makes another wild decision. This decision will lead to a life better than her imaginings and the ending will surprise you completely! You don't see it coming so DO NOT spoil the surprise by reading ahead!!! It is delightful, heartwarming and creates a splitting smile across your face when the entire plot is revealed. I CANNOT reccommend this highly enough!!! It is TOPS on my list of single books.

This is a book that teaches you to live for yourself and to try whatever you feel you are called to do. Be yourself, live your life to the fullest and don't let anyone tell you who to be or how to act! It is for a bit older audience though, late teens and up. It's a book you will read over and over again and NEVER be tired of! The Blue Castle is just proof of why L.M. Montgomery's books have been popular and celebrated for so long. They never go out of date or style, the stories are a timeless kind! You'll find, to use an "Anne" term, that you are "kindred spirits" with Montgomery and all her characters!

I have read this book many, many times. In fact, I have three paperback copies as well as a hard cover that my beloved husband searched and searched for. This book spoke to both myself and my husband. I read it for the first time when I was just a homely kid. I 'made' my husband read it and he fell for the poetry and beauty of the novel just as I had. We called each other Barney and Valancy after the characters and we called our home 'Our Blue Castle' because of how the novel affected us. My beloved husband died on April 28, 2002 of cancer. In his hands, in his casket, he carries a copy of The Blue Castle in honour of our love for each other and the love that L.M. Montgomery expresses without becoming 'harlequinesque' or vulgar. I am 38 and I plan to read it many, many more times before I give a copy to my 11 year old daughter! Love, true love, is not common but can happen at any age.

Ever since I was eleven, when I first discovered Anne of Green Gables, I have always loved L.M. Montgomery. I've read all of the Anne books, I have all three Emily books, and have read most of her others-- but The Blue Castle is my favorite.

Valancy is the most convincing heroine Montgomery ever created. Only 29, she sees the rest of her life stretching out in front of her, and doesn't believe she can change it anymore-- until a doctor tells her she has a short time left to live.

Valancy no longer cares about her oppressive family, or her own reputation. She leaves them and starts to live for herself.

This is not a children's book. Not to say there is any crudity, just that Valancy is very much a woman, leaving her girlhood behind. Her relationship with Barney Snaith is far more memorable than any conventional romance. This is an astoundingly good book.

I have found very few perfect books in my life, but this is one of them. "The Blue Castle" is not only L.M. Montgomery's best novel, it may be one of the most charming books ever written by anyone.

As a long-time fan of the "Anne of Green Gables" series, I am always eager to read anything by Montgomery, but this one far exceeded my expectations. Never have I read anything like this sweet fairy tale of a novel. Valancy Stirling is an "old maid" who lives with an extremely oppressive mother, as part of a very prim-and-proper family. She's never done anything special or worthwhile, and she feels as though her spirit is stifled.

So when she receives a letter from her doctor informing her that she has a fatal disease and will only live another year, she decides to throw caution to the winds and do what SHE wants to do for the first time in her life.

She leaves her family, deciding to move in with Abel Gay --- not for his sake, but for the sake of Cecilia Gay, who is dying. As if that wasn't bad enough, in the process, she gets to know the notorious Barney Snaith, and she falls in love with him. When Cissy Gay dies, Valancy proposes marriage to this supposed criminal, and is denounced and shunned by her appalled family.

The story of Valancy's marriage is calm and sweet, full of the nicest kind of romance. Hopeless romantics everywhere will adore this novel. It's clean, it's charming, and it has such a perfect brew of comedy and drama.

This delightful tale made me laugh and cry numerous times. It's so brilliantly told, and so sweet in its romantic content. It's a story that immediately captured my heart and has since become a part of my soul. If you love classic romance, this is one you will enjoy. I rate this right up there with such brilliant works as "Pride and Prejudice."

You know those books you read at least once a year to cheer yourself up or to remind yourself of how great the author or the story is? This is one of them. At least once a year I pick up this book and giggle over the pomposity of her annoying family, the wonderfully funny dinner party and her uncle's awful riddles.

Valancy is 29 years old and 'undesired by a man', cajoled and cowed by her dominating mother and warty aunt, she finds solace in John Foster's 'nature' books. After discovering she has only a year to live she throws caution to the wind, and goes to nurse her consumptive schoolmate. Her parents promptly think her mad and continue to think so when she is seen about town with the 'jailbird' Barney Snaith.

Valancy's journey through the Mistawis has wonderful touches of humour: the dinner party and the mesmerising finger of the minister always stand out for me. So do the characters: Barney's secretive yet charming manner, Olive is the kind of person that you really hated at High School, and Valancy's aunts and uncles are a joy.

A book for adults or older teenagers rather than Montgomery's usual audience, this has the more mature touches of "A Tangled Web (Aunt Becky Began It)" or her short story collections.

L.M. Montgomery is well-known for the magic she spins in her childrens books, such as Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon. She is less well known as an adult writer, but "Blue Castle" is very definitely an adult book, and the magic that is evident in her children's books is very much there in "Blue Castle" as well.

Valancy, the heroine of our story, wakes up on the morning of her 29th birthday, aware that she is still single and will be likely to remain so until the end of her days, being that she never had even one beau. She has absolutely no-one who loves her, or even likes her, as her mother, who she lives with, barely tolerates her, and she doesn't like her mother too much either! And her relatives are even worse! She is ugly, her life is ugly, her bedroom is ugly, everything in her life is ugly and now, she wakes up to reality that her life will never change. On the morning of her 29th birthday, she realizes that she has woken up to what is easily the worst day of her life.

Well, they say that you have to hit rock-bottom before things better, and for poor Valancy, things get even worse before it gets better, but of course, her life does change, in the magical way that L.M.Montgomery did best.

If you are a romance reader, and have never read "Blue Castle" you are missing an experience. Yes, Blue Castle has every cliche possible, but this book was written in the 1920's, long before they became cliches, and I marvel at how L.M.Montgomery has managed to include so many of the elements of a good romance novel. We have the unpretty, old-maid heroine, the world against her, the local colorful characters, a real and truly rake - with an unhappy and tortured past, family and town disapproval, and of course, the happy ending - in this case a VERY happy ending. Yet with all these elements, nothing is contrived - every part of this book makes psychological sense - and even the happy ending, which might be a little unbelievable in another writers pen, fits into the story like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

My favorite line? "I don't care how many dead wives you have in that room, dear, as long as they are really and truly dead." (Valancy is talking about a room that her husband keeps locked and she may not enter).

Some books written seventy years ago feel dated when read by today's standards, yet "Blue Castle" feels surprisingly contemporary. It has simply withstood the test of time very well, and anybody today can identify with, and enjoy, Valancy's beautiful love story.

Many reviewers have written that this book has simply changed their lives, and I can believe it. This is the kind of book that has the magic to touch you in a way that no other book can.

If you are a romance reader and you are looking for a book that is quite simply, the most beautiful romance book ever, you owe it to yourself to try "The Blue Castle". Very, very definitely not a children's book, but still magic - a magical books for adults.

I wonder if this was one of Montgomery's later works, since ithas a decided polish about it. It also has an unusual hero andheroine, and none of the slightly condescending attitude in the "Anne" series and "Story Girl."

Valancy, having reached the decrepit age of 29 without even having had a boyfriend, is under the tyrannical thumbs of her despicable extended family. They're not cruel or unusually mean, but they have annoying emotional traditions that are slowly driving Valancy into deep depression.

Suddenly she receives the news that she is fatally ill, and throws out all restraint. She chooses to nurse a dishonored invalid friend of hers, living and cooking for the girl's alcoholic father (one of the best characters in the book-the man is a riot) Soon afterwards she marries one of the most disreputable men around because she likes him-to the great dismay of her family, because she's going to die anyhow. But soon she discovers that her new life is not as simple as it seems....

I want to marry a man like Barney. He is completely believable, the most casual man in current fiction. He and Valancy compliment each other perfectly, and though some things about his past can be guessed halfway through the book, others will shock you.

This is a story about a woman of the early 1900s being true to herself, "The Awakening" without the adultery and suicide. The reader rejoices when Valancy rejects the gangrenous traditions of her family and lives her own life, as she sees fit; it's enjoyable to see every new step she takes toward total freedom, such as buying a revealing dress, and cutting her hair.

Every girl and woman should read "The Blue Castle"-being free and true to yourself has never been so well-represented.

More often than not, I am more sense than sensibility (think Austen's S&S). I abhorr 'Sleepless in Seattle', and thought that 'An Affair to Remember' was hogwash, but I simply wept over 'The Blue Castle'. I just sobbed and sobbed because it was just exquisite; the structural elements are surprisingly strong for a romance novel. The prose and wild beauty penned by Montgomery is absolutely amazing. It transcends the stereotypical pulp fiction romance trash that Harlequin pumps out relentlessly; the only flaw is that a proper synopsis has yet to be written. I confess, the story seems completely idiotic and stupid but, according to a modern definition of classical literature (that a classic leaves a lasting impression that impacts your life), 'The Blue Castle' deserves to be labelled as a classic. It honestly struck a chord with me and even as I became more absorbed in the more sundry details of life, I still felt compelled to return to the book two years later only to cry my eyes out again.

n.b. Uncle Benjamin is hilarious

Never in my life has a book had such a profound influence on my life in such a short time. And, I came upon this novel by chance. As a lover of the classics, and a Canadian, I always browse through LM Montgomery's titles. When I found the Blue Castle, I picked it up without hinderance, and threw it in my cart. I did not even know that she wrote it. I cracked back the binding later that evening and found, as Valancy felt, that it had a certain sorcery to it. It definitely breaks away from the typical conventional and traditional romances of that era. Valancy is a charming role model, although I feel that this is an adult book. Barney, to me, is still an enigma, though I have read this book a dozen times and am still unravelling it. This book is one that you get something new out of every time. It is not typical. It is meticulously written with precision and spark. You will have to read some descriptive paragraphs aloud merely to feel the magic of them. The Blue Castle is truly a classic!