After Cissy dies, Valancy asks Barney to marry her. She confesses that she's dying and Barney agrees to marry her. He takes her to live with him on his island up in the woods, which Valancy refers to as their Blue Castle. Valancy and Barney live over a year together and Valancy's heart problems seem to be decreasing until the point that the condition disappears.

Valancy had lived spiritually in the Blue Castle ever since she could remember. She had been a very tiny child when she found herself possessed of it. Always, when she shut her eyes, she could see it plainly, with its turrets and banners on the pine-clad mountain height, wrapped in its faint, blue loveliness, against the sunset skies of a fair and unknown land. Everything wonderful and beautiful was in that castle. Jewels that queens might have worn; robes of moonlight and fire; couches of roses and gold; long flights of shallow marble steps, with great, white urns, and with slender, mist-clad maidens going up and down them; courts, marble-pillared, where shimmering fountains fell and nightingales sang among the myrtles; halls of mirrors that reflected only handsome knights and lovely women--herself the loveliest of all, for whose glance men died. All that supported her through the boredom of her days was the hope of going on a dream spree at night. Most, if not all, of the Stirlings would have died of horror if they had known half the things Valancy did in her Blue Castle."- Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Blue Castle was Cecil Price, to whom she has been engaged for three years. Valancy sums her up thinking, "she's like This really is an old-fashioned, romantic "wish fulfillment" type of tale, and you have to just appreciate it for what it is. A few things kind of bothered me: You have to wade through a fair amount of misery in the beginning of the book before Valancy decides to grow a spine (I recommended this book to my mother, and she texted me for two days whining about the first part and asking me if I was certain she was going to like this book). The plot is also pretty transparent: there are a couple of . . . developments (I can't really call them twists) that I could see coming from almost the very beginning of the book. But the lyrical, loving descriptions of the beauties of nature, a sweet romance and the witty humor touched my heart and won me over. Forget whatever shortcomings there are and just enjoy the ride.

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After the meal was over they would sit there and talk for hours--or sit and say nothing, in all the languages of the world, Barney pulling away at his pipe, Valancy dreaming idly and deliciously, gazing at the far-off hills beyond… Gladys once removed" according to the strict Stirling calculations. She is a "tall, thin lady who admitted she had a sensitive disposition." She medicine of the Stirling clan." Valancy is skeptical about whether they really work (Chapter 5; 25).

Having spent over a year, her heart health improves, and finally the disease vanishes. In course of events, they realise that the diagnosis was erroneous, and she never had any heart problem. Finally, the family re-unites, and all live happily ever after! 😊 that ridiculed Dr. Redfern's remedies (Chapter 42). Later, Barney got honors at McGill University (Chapter 38). He fell in love with Ethel Traverse andGay's funeral (Chapter 24). Probably the same Presbyterian minister that L.M. Montgomery calls Rev. Bentley in Chapter 14. Redfern and John Foster) - a reclusive 35-year-old man who lives on an island in Muskoka. Valancy proposes marriage to him, and he accepts and takes her to his island home and her " Blue 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: The heroine, Valancy Stirling (my stars, what a name), is unmarried and twenty-something at a time when being unmarried twenty-something means your life is a total waste. Her family are repressive and awful beyond belief. Then she receives the news that she has a fatal heart condition and will die within a year. Benjamin says, "He talked all his life exactly as Valancy did today...And he believed he was his own great-grandfather born again. I heard him say it. Don't tell me that a man who believes a thing like that was ever in his right senses" (Chapter 11; 68). When Uncle Benjamin says that Valancy is acting like her Grandfather, she takes it as a compliment because, "He was one of the few human beings I have known—almost the only one" (Chapter 13; 72).

Valancy’s inspiring story is a beautiful reminder of how there is no such thing as wasted time — that no matter how ‘old’ or ‘late’ we may be, we can always start taking ownership of our own lives and live the one we’ve always desired or dreamed of having,” Scott Aharoni said in a statement. I've felt the need for lighter fare these days. I'll leave reading War and Peace for other times. The Blue Castle sounded rather like a fairy tale and is deemed a "modern classic." That seemed like a good choice. However, I forgot something: Fairy tales are usually filled with sorrowful events. Remember Red Riding Hood's grandmother? Or a witch holding Hansel and Gretel captive to eat them?The character building was impressive. Montgomery managed to get the grating relatives just right, and I knew this because as I was reading their sections, I felt quite irritated! I also thought that Barney was portrayed well. He was a decent person, not some guy who waltzed in thinking he was some irresistible casanova. It was refreshing. 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

Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds, evidently used The Blue Castle as the basis of her novel The Ladies of Missalonghi—subconsciously, as she alleged—to the point of provoking accusations of plagiarism. [2] Plot summary [ edit ]Valancy got up, though she hated getting up more this morning than ever she had before. What was there to get up for? Another dreary day like all the days that had preceded it, full of meaningless little tasks, joyless and unimportant, that benefited nobody." I arrived late to the L.M. Montgomery party, not having grown up with her stories as a young girl, but rather read them for the first time in my late 20's. Knowing what I know now about the beauty and magic of her books, I realize I missed out of some major reading adventures with Anne, Emily, Pat and gang, and will consequently never be able to wax nostalgic about how those books effected my life (which is probably for the best, as I tend to go into sappy, melodramatic overdrive when I really love a book - you know it's true, my GR friends) :P I guess there's hardly anyone who doesn't entertain a wishful thinking of "Just-Getting-Away-From-It-All" time and again especially during this time of crisis and quarantine!