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Welcome to the first week of the Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) where we will be discussing The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery! CBBC makes it sound like this is some exclusive club, but anyone can join, blogger or not, cool or not. I'm happy you are here and making this journey with all of us. As always, the ground rules for CBBC are:
1) Don't apologize. Don't apologize for having a lot or a little to say in the comments. Don't apologize because you're not an expert on something. Don't apologize because you don't have a doctorate in English literature. Don't apologize if you fall behind or can't keep up. Have fun and say what you have to say. You and your thoughts are important.
2) Feel free to come back and respond to comments more than once! I love it when there's a dialogue in the comments.
3) Have fun reading, thinking about the book, and discussing it! Don't feel limited to my discussion prompts - talk about whatever you feel like talking about.
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Who is L.M. Montgomery?
Lucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author best known for a series of books about a character named Anne Shirley, beginning with Anne of Green Gables. But she wrote short stories, poems, essays, and novels other than Anne books, including The Blue Castle, Magic for Marigold, A Tangled Web, and what I remember as the amazing Emily trilogy (Do those books hold up? I don't know, but I assume so.)
Montgomery was raised by her grandparents in Prince Edward Island (PEI) in Canada after her mother died when she was young and her father went to buy cigarettes and never came back (okay, fine, he went to work in what was the Northwest Territories, what now is Saskatchewan). She had a lonely, somewhat isolated upbringing and she created stories and imaginary friends. She was a teacher and it sounds like she didn't love it, but she started writing short stories and published over 100 between 1897 and 1907.
She had some youthful flings and settled down to marry soon after her grandmother died. The decision was clearly made for pragmatic, rather than sentimental, reasons. “This is a practical world and marriage must share in its practicalities,” Montgomery wrote. Her husband suffered from mental health issues throughout his life. They had three sons, although one was stillborn. She battled with her own depression and faced many lawsuits with a publishing house that she eventually prevailed in. She died at age sixty-seven. The cause of death was listed as coronary thrombosis, but her granddaughter later revealed a note at the bedside and a possible overdose.
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What happened in these chapters?
Set in the early 1900s, The Blue Castle is the story of Valancy Stirling. At age twenty-nine, she is an old maid. Her extended family seems pretty terrible and they treat her like a child. They call her a nickname, Doss, that she does not care for, and constantly compare her to her perfect cousin Olive. She escapes from this life in the books of a wilderness author named John Foster and creating detailed daydreams about a place she calls The Blue Castle.
She goes in for a checkup with a doctor who tells her she is near death.
Dr. Trent told her that she had a very dangerous and fatal form of heart disease—angina pectoris—evidently complicated with an aneurism—whatever that was—and in the last stages. He said, without mincing matters, that nothing could be done for her. If she took great care of herself she might live a year—but she might also die at any moment—Dr. Trent never troubled himself about euphemisms. (page 49)
Valancy "felt a curious freedom" (page 53) and vows to not tell anyone in her family about her illness.
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All page numbers will be referencing this Archive version of the book.
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Hat mentions (why hats?):
Valancy was once more seething with rebellion as she walked along, a prim, dowdy little figure in her shabby raincoat and three-year-old hat, splashed occasionally by the mud of a passing motor with its insulting shrieks. (page 29)
Valancy took off her hat. She had a scrawny little pigtail hanging down her back, but Dr. Stalling was shortsighted and did not perceive it.
“Little boy, go back to your seat and always take off your hat in church. Remember!”
Valancy went back to her seat carrying her hat like an automaton. Presently her mother came in.
“Doss,” said Mrs. Stirling, “what do you mean by taking off your hat? Put it on instantly!” (page 34)
Lines of note:
If it had not rained on a certain May morning Valancy Stirling’s whole life would have been entirely different. (page 1)
First line! What did you think of this line? Did it draw you in to the story?
Valancy never persisted. She was afraid to. Her mother could not brook opposition. (page 4)
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. (page 15)
Oh, if I could only have a house of my own—ever so poor, so tiny—but my own! But then,” she added bitterly, “there is no use in yowling for the moon when you can’t even get a tallow candle.” (page 28)
“I’ve had nothing but a second-hand existence,” decided Valancy. “All the great emotions of life have passed me by. I’ve never even had a grief. And have I ever really loved anybody? Do I really love Mother? No, I don’t. That’s the truth, whether it is disgraceful or not. I don’t love her—I’ve never loved her. What’s worse, I don’t even like her. So I don’t know anything about any kind of love. My life has been empty—empty. Nothing is worse than emptiness. Nothing!” (page 64)
“After this I shall please myself. I shall never pretend anything again. I've breathed an atmosphere of fibs and pretences and evasions all my life. What a luxury it will be to tell the truth!" (page 64)
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Things I looked up:
lambrequin (page 3) - a short piece of decorative drapery hung over the top of a door or window or draped from a shelf or mantelpiece
passe-partouted engraving of Queen Louise (page 3) - passs-partout is a picture or photograph simply mounted between a piece of glass and a sheet of cardboard (or two pieces of glass) stuck together at the edges with adhesive tape; I do not know which Queen Louise it is - anyone else know?
Its ghost appeared Banquo-like at every subsequent family feast. (page 10) - Banquo is a murdered Scottish thane in Shakespeare's Macbeth whose ghost appears to Macbeth. Not understanding this reference clearly indicates my level of knowledge of historical literature.
Redfern’s Purple Pills (page 35) - Okay, I can't find if Redfern is a fictional company - I suspect it is - but this is such a great nod to quack medicine, peddlers, and cure-alls before governmental organizations started cracking down on them.
debouched (page 40) - emerge from a narrow or confined space into a wide, open area (this is very different from debauchery, which is what I had it confused with - I am obviously a woman with a limited vocabulary)
Grey Slosson (page 40) - This seems to be a made-up car model. I find myself constantly confused by what's real and what's not in historical fiction.
Muskoka (page 29, 40) - a regional municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. It extends from Georgian Bay in the west, to the northern tip of Lake Couchiching in the south. It is REAL.
Lake Mistawis (page 41) - NOT REAL, but apparently corresponds to the real Lake Muskoka in Ontario
jamfry (page 53) - chiefly Scottish: rabble, mob
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How many times did the Blue Castle get name checked in these chapters?
FIFTEEN!!!
(one on page 4, three on page 5, four on page 6, three on page 18, one each on pages 26, 30, 41, and 47)
Normally the actually title of the book gets zero or one mentions.
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Questions to ponder (as always, feel free to answer as many or few of these as you'd like - talk about what you want to talk about!):
1) Friends! Valancy is off leash now. What do you think she's going to do and why do you think it's going to have to do with Barney Snaith and his broken down car (when Valancy said she had never been in a car, I squealed in delight - surely she's getting in that car before the book ends)?
2) I've been assuming that Valancy's issues are related to depression. Do you agree with my very educated (/s) diagnosis? Do you think she really has a heart issue?
3) I feel like Montgomery is walking a fine line with Valancy's characterization here. The character could come off as whiny and complaining, but somehow I came out of these eight chapters with a real sympathy for her and I'm rooting for her to change her life around. Are you rooting for Valancy? What literary techniques is Montgomery using here to make us feel so much for her?
4) What do you think of the setting here? Montgomery tended to use Prince Edward Island as her settings, but this one is in Ontario. Do you think that the setting is an important character?
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Homework for you:
How are you reading this book? Paperback, ebook, audiobook? Where are you reading it? If you have a photo of your book (maybe in the cozy chair where you read!) you'd like to share with the rest of the group, send it in and I'll make a collage for next week. dominique100 @ hotmail dot com
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Upcoming CBBC schedule:
February 10: Chapters 9 - 15
February 17: Chapters 16 - 24
February 24: Chapters 25-32
March 3: Chapters 33-45
March 10: Wrap-up
*I don't know if Valency is depressed- repressed and verbally abused perhaps. If she was depressed, the news of her impending doom would have crushed her , not set fire to the rebellion in her heart.
ReplyDelete* I think the setting is important as you need the bigger city (for example many streets, stores, and multiple churches) show how Valency has choices around her she's never been able to explore. And as a contrast to the island.
*I think she doesn't come off as whiny because she rarely says much out loud. Anything she verbalizes, we, the audience, recognizes as a reasonable request. She just wants her own dust pile.
*My favorite quote comes at the end of the chapter. 'Despair Is a free man, hope is a slave.'
* I think it's Queen Louise of Prussia- early 1800s. The first Google hit matches exactly the picture described in the book. it looks exactly like the kind of picture Valency's family would have.
-mbmom11
Great point about the setting being symbolic--so many places to go, yet so many are closed to her. She couldn't even claim a simple dust pile at one point in her life. It also shows that she feels alone amidst the multitudes in the city; she's a singular figure simply because she's unmarried and without her own money or title.
DeleteFirst of all, I'd like to recommend to all the CBBCers a podcast called Story Girl, which is all about the life and times of LM Montgomery. It's brand new, so at the moment there are only three episodes. I am loving it, having been a fangirl my entire life. It's interesting you mention depression. Maud (I'm going to call her Maud as that was her preference) did suffer depression. She had a pretty rough life, to be honest, particularly her childhood, which is why her characters almost always suffer at the hands of adults.
ReplyDeleteI read this in 1988, and I probably haven't since, but when I was reading these first few chapters it all came back to me. What struck me back then - I was 13, so at a real age to feel resentment - was how so many seemingly minor things can really add up. Things like a dust pile, or a nickname, these things just grow exponentially over time. Or, they can. It also struck me, then and now, just how cruel adults can be to children, seemingly unwittingly. I have always thought that mockery is one of the meanest things that a person can do, particularly an adult to a child. Things that are said to us as children really last a long time. I still feel upset about stupid things said to me as a child, and I'm sure they weren't meant to be cruel. But meaning and result can be two different things. Also, a detail that stuck out to me that I really remembered was the button string. WHY COULDN'T THEY HAVE SPLIT THE BUTTONS FIFTY FIFTY?????The thing that struck me this time around, but didn't back in 1988, was the vulnerability of Valancy and her mother in terms of finances. Economic prospects for women were bleak and the thought that a person would have to rely on the generosity of their wealthier family members is abhorrent. But how many women over time have put up with shit just so as to not be put out on the street? Like I said it didn't occur to me then but it sure did now.I grew up in Calgary, a city, but I have a lot of relatives in small town Saskatchewan and I'd visit them for extended periods every summer. And the whole "everyone in your business" thing was true back then and is probably true now. If you had a reputation of any sort, you'd never escape it.
Setting is extremely important; Maud loved PEI so very much, and there is another book (Jane of Lantern Hill, CCR knows what I'm talking about) where the happy parts of the book are in PEI and the sad parts are in Toronto. Maud knows what she's doing here.
They couldn't split the buttons fifty-fifty because that would have marked Valancy as Olive's equal?
DeleteWell, yes.
DeleteI had never heard of The Blue Castle before you mentioned, Engie, and am truly loving the novel so far. Valancy is such a different character from Anne and yet...they both grow up in passivity and despair, both use escapism to survive (Anne has her reflection and dreams of being called Cordelia; Valancy has her blue castle), and they both ultimately embrace their inner fire and tell people what they think (Anne to Rachel Lynde and Gilbert; Valancy to her family).
ReplyDeleteI really liked the first line of the novel! It tells me right away that something is going to happen and, after the first few pages of hearing how terrible her life is, it seems to suggest that rain will move her life in a positive direction.
I think that Valancy is being emotionally abused, but she is also too depressed to stand up for herself which allows that cycle to continue on repeat. It seems she made a choice to be agreeable at one point in her life and has never once felt able to break out of that mold.
I’ve never heard that idiom. Nicole? Allison? I don’t think it’s a Canadian thing? Maybe a generational thing?
Like Nicole, the button thing felt so tragic. Having a teenage daughter I know how cruel these comparisons between people (especially girls) can be, and how deeply they need to feel equality. Poor Valancy :(
No, never. I would say generational, because tallow candle, but there are many idioms that we still use that have no relevance to modern times, so I don't know.
DeleteI don't think depression is the primary reason for her submission. Her station in life pretty much demands it, especially at her age. She's too old to be seen as merely temperamental and too young to be indulged as a cranky old matron whose earned her opinions. All she can really do is put up with it Like A Lady Of Good Breeding because she's living on someone else's dime. That's how repressive and restrictive things were in this era for women like her.
DeleteLove Nicole's mention of economic vulnerability. Valency is completely at the mercy of her family, and she has to take all their shit. I was also struck so much by how classist the family is throughout the book-- race and class structure the Anne books, too, but it is laid bare here I don;t think she;s whiny-- I think her old maid life is the pits. I also really like how Montgomery describes the natural world.
ReplyDelete1) I love the idea of Valancy gone wild and breaking out of that "second-hand existence" with all the books she wants piled into Barney's car... although, I'm afraid it will all come crashing down with the return of Dr. Trent after his travels.
ReplyDelete2) This is probably a "modern" take on Valancy's issues, but I wondered if it was some sort of trauma-induced anxiety vs. depression. Although there's probably a discussion somewhere about reliable and unreliable narrators, if she's been constantly been berated, disregarded, mocked, etc. for 29 years to the point she mentally hides in a dream castle, I feel like the heart symptoms Dr. Trent saw could have been fear/anxiety from breaking the rules to see him or panic attacks when her life seems too dreadful or hopeless.
3) I love Valancy in such a specific way. I don't know if it comes from being a late bloomer who had a strict-ish upbringing, but I entered my late 20's also thinking I would never have a life and adventures and juiciness... I can see where the whininess comes out, but I think it is purposeful to show how stunted Valancy's growth has been because of her circumstances. I am very much rooting for her excited to see what happens when she has agency (even if it is driven by her medical condition)!
4) I do not have enough Canadian knowledge to speak to the setting... but I will say that the town where everyone knows everything about you and your family from generations of living near each other resonates with me (who comes from a super small town where everyone knew everything about me, haha).
I love, love, love this book! Valancy's inner monologue and outer circumstances have such a dissonance and I'm super excited to see what happens as she's thrust into being more than others want/need her to be. (This is my way of waving at Roaring Abel, haha!)
Can I just say what a delight it was to pick up this book and start reading?
ReplyDelete1. All bets are off! I feel like she will somehow find a new living situation, tell her family to shove it, and meet John Foster.
2. Aw heck no, she doesn't have a heart issue. My prediction is that the doctor got her name mixed up with another patient.
3. I don't know *how* Montgomery is doing it, but I adore Valancy.
I'm reading on my Kindle, and I dropped a whopping 39 cents to get this book. Big Money Baby!!!
When Elisabeth mentioned this book on her blog I didn't put it together that this was the book y'all were reading together. Honestly, I'm getting goofier [as in inattentive] every month. Don't know why I'm telling you this other than to say I'm going to follow along here. Carry on 🙄
ReplyDeleteI don't think she comes off as whiny at all - I think she's depressed BECAUSE she's been abused. What kind of insufferable Pollyanna would be able to live this life and take this shit from all the people in it and NOT be depressed. As soon as she decides to live without regard for her bitchily repressed relatives and 'the will', she seems much lighter and happier.
ReplyDeleteI love the way that an entire paragraph can be nothing but descriptions of people, and yet this speaks volumes about Valancy's world.
I don't know if anyone here has watched The Big C, but it really resonates with this same storyline - Laury Linney's character finds out she has terminal skin cancer and before she tells anyone she spends a few weeks telling people what she thinks, acting on every impulse and generally appearing insane, which is what happens when someone lives without regard to societal strictures. "Live every day like it's your last" is really difficult to do when it's actually not.
-Uncle James is described as ‘Handsome, black, with his sarcastic, trap-like mouth’ - black doesn't really mean Black, surely?
-I do not think she is terminally ill. I think she has heartburn from repressing everything she'd like to say to her mother, or anxiety and panic attacks, or something else benign. The device of the doctor having to skip town suddenly is a deux ex machina, and I'm here for it. I am happily anticipating the mystery being resolved, and if she really does die I will be irate.
No matter how old I get, I am not immune to the breathless, incandescent rage prompted by a child (or woman, I guess) being treated with this kind of vicious unfairness. Screw Olive! Screw Valancy's Mom! Screw Olive's stupid button-stealing parents!
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-”’Fun!’ Mrs. Frederick uttered the word as if Valancy had said she was going to have a little tuberculosis.”
I think "black" is black hair and dark eyes- maybe like "black Irish" is a description of dark hair, dark eyes, and a non- ghostly skin tone. My dad and grandpa popped into my head when I read that description of James.
DeleteI'm reading this book simultaneously with George Gissing's Victorian novel "The Odd Women", which is about three sisters who are left almost penniless when their father dies before settling his affairs. It speaks to the cruelty of the patriarchal system of inheritance during that time, and how the only way women really had to break free of poverty was to marry. Needless to say, I really feel for Valancy.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I noticed was that her nickname is very telling: Doss is British slang for a makeshift and convenient place to sleep. It's also close to the word Dross, which means trash or rubbish. Imagine being called that, a constant reminder that you are imposing upon others for your room and board, and that you are a throwaway person of no real use.
I think Valancy gains our sympathy because she shows us her room, which isn't populated with anything she chose. Most of us see our bedroom as our haven, our private and secure space. Valancy's isn't; it's full of ugly things that she has nothing to do with, and she quietly acquiesces to it all because she knows her place in the hierarchy. Her escape is to invent an entire castle that no one else in her tiresome family can breach. It makes us sympathetic and happy for her.
After all, as mbmom11 said, she just wants her own dust pile, and she couldn't even have that. How pathetic and sad. Our modern sensibilities want her to stand up for herself and tell everyone off, but during these times, it was nearly impossible. Now, however, with this prognosis, Valancy thinks she has nothing to lose.
*I had to laugh about all the quack medicines. So many back then were either worthless, or if they were liquids, were alcohol or narcotic. Lots of people were Under The Influence, thanks to these "remedies."
Oh, you're right! Her room is decorated with hand me downs and nothing she would choose. She would never leave a dog out in the rain like that.
DeleteThe quackery! Ughhh...those damn purple pills and the stinky ointment.
ReplyDeleteThis family---they're horrible to Valancy, and I'm so happy to see her fight back and not take their shit and call them out on the nonsense. I had a giggle when they claimed she must be 'feverish' when she doesn't play along with their BS.
1)
I love that term Off Leash! I think she's going to find that ruffian Barney, take a ride in his car and perhaps kiss him in front of the general public. People will FAINT!
2)
I don't think she has a heart issue, she has a broken heart, broken spirit because of her family and of course, the negative self-talk. Depression for sure!
3) I'm rooting for her 100%. I don't think she sounds whiny at all.
4) I wish I knew more about Canadian areas, so this doesn't mean much to me.
I'm doing the audio version. Turns out there are many of those available, so it took me a minute to choose one.
Ok, fun fact: How many times did they use the word EJACULATE and I grimaced like a sixth grader? I don't know that I've ever heard the word used other than in a sexual manner. Am I still twelve? Yes, yes I am.
My copy of The Blue Castle is the original manuscript with annotations etc. The biggest change Montgomery made was to rename her main character. Valancy was originally called “Miranda.” Suggestions for why she changed the name from Miranda to Valancy are:
ReplyDelete1.Miranda is the name of the main character in Charles G.D. Roberts’s book The Heart of the Ancient Wood (1902), a book Montgomery owned and read.
2.She may have chosen the name Valancy as a nod to well-known poet Canadian poet Isabella Valancy Crawford.
Poor Valancy! No support from anyone in her family and no friends to turn to. Belittled, dismissed and always left out – how can she not be depressed? And add that she is a woman who is economically dependant on the rich uncle, so even with him can’t say a word. Not the best of times.
However, that (mis)diagnosis from the quack is just what our girl needs. I loved how she left Cousin Stickles “aghast” when making it clear she would not be rubbed with Redfern’s liniment. I am looking forward to more “aghast” moments from the rest of her family!
I'll have to catch up next week :/ . I had a lot of rec. letters to write for other people and didn't get around to this.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have time, take another look at Emily and see what you think about the creepy level! I found it off the charts as an adult (and a mom), but it didn't register for me as a teen.
ReplyDelete