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    The Blue Castle
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    The Blue Castle
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    The Blue Castle
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Blue Castle

    Written by Lucy Maud Montgomery

    Narrated by Barbara Barnes

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    All her life, Valancy Stirling lived on a quiet little street in an ugly little house and never dared to contradict her domineering mother and her unforgiving aunt. At 29, she's never been in love, and her only consolation has been the forbidden books of John Foster and her daydreams of the Blue Castle.

    Then, one day, she gets a letter and decides that things need to change. For the first time in her life, she does exactly what she wants to and says exactly what she feels. At first, her family thinks she's gone around the bend, but soon, she discovers a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams.

    ©2011 Heirs of L.M. Montgomery, 1926 by Frederick A. Stokes Company (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateMay 23, 2017
    ISBN9781520074764
    Author

    Lucy Maud Montgomery

    L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery (1874-1942) was a Canadian author who published 20 novels and hundreds of short stories, poems, and essays. She is best known for the Anne of Green Gables series. Montgomery was born in Clifton (now New London) on Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. Raised by her maternal grandparents, she grew up in relative isolation and loneliness, developing her creativity with imaginary friends and dreaming of becoming a published writer. Her first book, Anne of Green Gables, was published in 1908 and was an immediate success, establishing Montgomery's career as a writer, which she continued for the remainder of her life.

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    Reviews for The Blue Castle

    4.5/5

    102 ratings55 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Back to the Classics Reading Challenge 2017
      Category: Romance Classic

      L. M. Montgomery wrote mostly children's books, but this book is geared toward adults. It is a hidden gem; a light read, but one with substance. The plotline of the movie, Last Holiday is very similar to this. Valancy Stirling lives with her mother and cousin, who are highly dysfunctional. Her extended family is just as dysfunctional, and they all live in the same town in Canada during the 1920's. At 30, she has been relegated to the status of "old maid". She is told by the Doctor that she has a year to live, tops. Upon hearing this news, she feels free to live and speak as she wants, which shocks her family. She moves out, and eventually, gets married. I won't give the rest away. The beginning of the book was a bit tedious, but it picks up after that. I actually laughed out loud several times!
    • 4/5
      Valancy is turning 29 years old and is constantly reminded by her family that she is an old maid. She has always been a good, obedient daughter, but hates pretty much everything about her life with her family. She even wears only clothes her mother approves of and an old-fashioned hairstyle approved by her mother. When she receives some news, she finally stands up to her family and does things that she wants to do, just for herself. I really liked this. I liked Valency, though I hated her awful family. I liked some of the other characters, as Valency gets to know them after her rebellion from her family. It’s frustrating, the lack of options for an unmarried woman during this time (the 1920s). It’s slow-moving, but I really enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery; (3 1/2*)Valency is 29, plain, (so her family says), single and leading a miserable life at home with her mother and a second cousin. She hates her life, her house, her room and the way her family makes her every decision for her. Her mother and cousin dictate every detail of her life and all of the members of her extended family criticize her every move. Then on day she is diagnosed with a terminal heart condition and finds out that she has one year to live. Suddenly she doesn't care what anyone else thinks. She refuses to conform, makes shocking choices, and finds a new life for herself, possibly even including love.I enjoyed this book a great deal once I got about a third of the way through. The first part was an effort for me but I was so glad I stuck it out as the book was well worth that small effort.
    • 5/5
      I received this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery was originally published in 1926 and has been reprinted several different times with many different covers. The covers, for the most part, could be divided into two categories - either the portrait of a solitary young woman or a dreamy image of a castle. The latest, published by Tundra Books in 2019, is neither. Rather, it is more metaphoric: a lone bird flying above its reflection in the water that stretches between two distant pieces of distinctly Canadian land. The new cover was designed by Kelly Hill and illustrated by Elly MacKay, a Canadian artist from Ontario. Instead of painting or drawing alone, MacKay works with paper and light to bring her images to life. She creates the illustrations and backgrounds, cuts them out and sets them up in a light theatre to be photographed with special filters and lighting to create a whimsical 3D effect. In the case of The Blue Castle, the cover reached right off of the paper and lured me in to the book (well, had I not been a lifelong L. M. Montgomery devotee). I suspect I'll be looking for more reprints of Montgomery's books as interpreted by MacKay. The story, if you haven't read it, its is a deftly told story from the perspective of the black sheep of a not-quite-rich-enough family. The main character is Valancy, a 29 year old 'spinster' who is fed up with the restricted, meaningless life she lives trapped beneath her mother's thumb. The story follows her as she finds the motivation to escape and live the life she wants, consequences be damned! As a 30 something, nearly 100 years after the books publication, I found it incredibly relatable; the rules are slightly different, but we are still playing the same games.Tundra's fresh reprint combined with MacKay's beautiful cover art breathe yet more life into L. M. Montgomery's books. The story of the Blue Castle is from simpler time, and provides a welcome escape from the fast moving world we live in now. Like many of her stories, it brings unexpected perspective to the daily grind and what constitutes a meaningful, well lived life.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book, it's quite different from Anne of Green Gables which L.M. Montgomery is most notably known for but it's still excellent in it's own right. Especially if you're looking for something more adult compared to Anne of Green Gables.
    • 4/5
      OK - I preface by saying I have loved L.M. Montgomery since my pre-teens. I read all the Anne books (not just the 1st 3) over and over. I read The Blue Castle a little later as a teen. I know it's old-fashioned, and you pretty well know what's going to happen but I still enjoyed it again now. I will say though that I think the stories in The Chronicles of Avonlea, and Further Chronicles of Avonlea are better - but again it has been years since I read these books. I do appreciate Tundra Books re-issuing this - great! How about the Chronicles?
    • 4/5
      I was so pleased about winning this book in Early Reviewers. The Blue Castle is my favorite stand-alone L.M.Montgomery book (the Emily books are my favorite series).Unlike most of Montgomery's books this is not aimed at young readers - the protagonist is 29 years old. Valancy, known to her family as Doss, is a plain, repressed and disregarded spinster who, in a moment of rebellion born of a stunning diagnosis, takes control of her existence for the first time in her life. The family dinner party where she asserts her liberation and stuns the entire conventional clan is a lovely comic scene.The rest of the book continues her growth, and, most importantly, her relationship with an enimatic hero.The ending is way too coincidental to be even remotely believable yet somehow satisfying in a Cinderella way.
    • 4/5
      Valancy Stirling has spent her entire twenty-nine years letting her fear of what her family would do determine her every action. However, when Valancy goes to see the doctor about some chest pain and is informed she has only a year to live, she realizes that she wants to truly live in the time she has left. Suddenly she's saying exactly what she thinks and doing precisely what she wants, which turns her whole world upside down in the best of ways.As one would expect of Montgomery, this is an utterly charming tale of finding yourself, your place in the world, and love all at the same time. I had a fair idea of exactly where the plot was going but it reduced none of the charm and Valancy is a lovely heroine once she gets past the self-pity phase. I did find it fascinating that this is the first of Montgomery's works that isn't set in PEI, although her descriptions of the woods in the Muskoka region of Ontario is just as beautiful as any of her prose about wildlife on the island.
    • 4/5
      A coming-of-age story that is a bit naive in this day and age but insightful for young adults reaching independence. Charmingly witten although dated.
    • 5/5
      Probably my favorite L.M. Montgomery book. It feels to me like a fairy tale for adults.
    • 4/5
      Valancy Stirling has been emotionally abused all her life, she is worn down into a shadow of a human, dependant on others (as many women were at the time), dealing with her wants and needs being neglected, she escapes in the works of John Foster, who writes about nature. She sometimes escapes to an imaginary place that is a blue castle.Her life changes when she hears that she has a deadly heart condition and now she only has a short time to live and she decides that she's not going to live her life as it was, she's going to live her life as she wants. This leads her on an adventure that will change her life forever.I really enjoyed it, found it uplifting and hopeful.
    • 5/5
      I still love Emily, but the hopelessly romantic, yet stubbornly practical Valancy Stirling is now close in the running for my most favorite L.M. Montgomery protagonist. The "twists" in this are predictable, but I adore the lush description and the sharp observation, the quirky characters, and the small-town charm of Montgomery's books and this was no exception. I enjoyed every bit of this sweet story and read almost perpetually with a smile on my face.
    • 5/5
      At 29, Valancy takes a chance. And another. Leaving her stifling "life" behind wasn't that hard once she got around to doing it. But when two misunderstandings compound into her returning to it, her new(ish) husband must hurry and rescue her before it's too late.
    • 4/5
      Valancy leads a miserable life, scorned and bullied by her unloving extended family. On her 29th birthday she secretly visits a doctor about her heart and learns that she has only a year to live. She decides to spend that year doing nothing she doesn't want to, moves out of her home, gets a job and asks Barney Snaith to marry her.The first half of this book was stronger than the second. I very much enjoyed the chapters where Valancy begins to speak her mind to her family, but once she and Barney got married there were chapters of them living blissfully in communion with nature and I started to skim. Things perked up again at the end though.
    • 5/5
      I guess it has been a long time since I read this one. I loved it the first time I read it, Valancy speaks to the heart of my inner rebel who, like her, had no past to speak of on that first reading. Even as I get older, I find it is the things I didn't do, the people I didn't tell to go f*ck themselves, that I regret; not the things I've done and the scars I've gained in the doing, those are a lighter burden.

      The book opens to Valancy on her 29th birthday as she considers the blandness of her existence. She slips away from her socially draconian relatives to see a doctor about heart pain, and is told she has a year to live. Despite the somewhat cliched premise, this book manages to be matter of fact, endearing, inspirational and heart rending by turns. It argues that a life lived in fear isn't a life worth living, particularly where obedience to social conventions are concerned.

      Valancy is a delightful heroine, and her good-hearted social irreverence continue to comfort me in my anxiety over asserting myself and my needs in a world that would be happier with my submission.
    • 5/5
      Another great book by L. M. Montgomery that is more grown up than her books set on Prince Edward Island. Years after this book was written Colleen McCullough wrote a book with a similar storyline, The Ladies of Missalonghi.
    • 4/5
      Read in Sept 2013One of Canadian author, LM Montgomery's adult novels, Blue Castle is uncharacteristically set in Ontario rather than her usual Prince Edward Island. Ms Montgomery's ability to create descriptive settings doesn't suffer for the change. Muskoka sunsets, rises, weather, and woods, all come to life for the reader. As do the characters.We're introduced to the gossiping family of our MC, Valancy, who at 29 is living in the shadow of her mother, cousins, aunts and uncles, who take delight in teasing and tormenting her. As a reader, I was just waiting for her to rise up and defend herself. It happens in a most unusual way with a most clever ingenuity of our author.The book offered interesting info on the 1920's era. Viewpoints, attitudes, clothing styles, speech, vehicles, culture - all well represented - having been published in 1926, within the very time of the book's setting.Another outstanding accomplishment of a favourite Canadian author.
    • 5/5
      2011 Re-read: Still love this so much! Quite a different mood than Anne, but one of my favorites. I adore the descriptions of the Muskoka woods, and Valancy's development from fearful, meek, downtrodden young woman to strong, passionate, confident woman.
    • 5/5
      I guess it has been a long time since I read this one. I loved it the first time I read it, Valancy speaks to the heart of my inner rebel who, like her, had no past to speak of on that first reading. Even as I get older, I find it is the things I didn't do, the people I didn't tell to go f*ck themselves, that I regret; not the things I've done and the scars I've gained in the doing, those are a lighter burden.

      The book opens to Valancy on her 29th birthday as she considers the blandness of her existence. She slips away from her socially draconian relatives to see a doctor about heart pain, and is told she has a year to live. Despite the somewhat cliched premise, this book manages to be matter of fact, endearing, inspirational and heart rending by turns. It argues that a life lived in fear isn't a life worth living, particularly where obedience to social conventions are concerned.

      Valancy is a delightful heroine, and her good-hearted social irreverence continue to comfort me in my anxiety over asserting myself and my needs in a world that would be happier with my submission.
    • 3/5
      This was a lovely and heartwarming read. The romance was clean, and I liked how the story was executed. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      What a fabulous read! I hadn't realized that L.M. Montgomery wrote for an adult audience until one my fellow book clubbers suggested this as our March read. I enjoyed the character development, the outlandish fantasy elements, and the critique on turn-of-the-century society. Well done!
    • 5/5
      powerful, life changing
    • 5/5
      Fully as wonderful as Anne of Green Gables. Fun, joyful, serious and ridiculous, in short, satisfying. Great depiction of the absurdities of human nature. Lovely descriptions of natural beauty. Contagious imagination. Thought provoking philosophy. Well written, as is most of L. M. Montgomery's work. In the top ten books making my life richer and happier.
    • 5/5
      I keep coming back to this book again and again. I reread it at least once a year. When I'm feeling down and depressed I can pick it up, read it cover to cover, and actually feel happy again. It has that power! This is probably my favourite book of all time. A young woman has lived her entire life her a certain way, catering to the opinions of others. Upon finding out she has a year to live, she decides to change her life. The writing is great, very vivid descriptions etc. It's Canadian which I also like. The main character, Valancy, becomes like a friend to the reader. Read this book!!! I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
    • 4/5
      This was a nice departure for me. The romance was heart-warming without any suggestion of sex. Valancy is 29, homely and her family doesn't expect anything from her except complete submission to their will. When Valancy makes a move for independence by visiting a doctor for her heart troubles, she finds out she will die soon and tosses caution to the wind. Valancy moves out of her mother's home, keeps house for a man and his disgraced daughter and marries the worst man in town, only to have all of her dreams come true. This book is in our young adult section, but Valancy is 29, so I don't know if it belongs there (or if teens would really read it).
    • 4/5
      Good good good, just like every other book of hers I've ever read. But as much as I loved this one, and as much I identified with Valancy, I think I'm done with her books for awhile.
    • 3/5
      I waited till I was forty-five to read Anne of Green Gables; I wish I'd met Anne when I was ten, Anne that great mix of passion for life and knowledge about the harshness and inevitability of disappointment. So when I heard an online bookgroup member say The Blue Castle was her favorite book, I couldn't wait to read it. Valancy Stirling is and isn't Anne. Valancy, at twenty-nine, has had a non-lifelife. Bound by the restrictions of her controlling family, Valancy feels ugly and unloved and superfluous. All that keeps her alive are her dreams of a mythical Blue Castle. Fear keeps her in check until she learns she is dying. That death sentence, paradoxically, frees her, and changes the course of her life.
    • 5/5
      A childhood favorite of mine about a girl who has been repressed all her life but suddenly finds herself after being told she has a serious, terminal illness. One of L.M Montgomery's lesser-known books, too often overlooked.
    • 5/5
      This was my second of l.m Montgomery's books and I loved it.I really liked the part where Valancy's shoe got stuck in the railway track and Barney helped her by saving her life.
    • 3/5
      All I can say is that this was an enjoyable little romance. We read it for book club along with "The Ladies of Missalonghi" which has a story that is so similar that we discussed plagiarism. This would be the original version