Week Two, Chapters 9-15: The Blue Castle CBBC

Past discussions:
Week One, Chapters 1-8

Welcome to Week Two of Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) for The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. This week we'll be discussing chapters 9-15.

From Lisa. 

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What happened in these chapters?

Valancy has "gone dippy" after Dr. Trent told her that her death is near. 

She had flatly refused to take either Purple Pills or Redfern’s Bitters. She had announced coolly that she did not intend to answer to the name of “Doss” any longer. She had told Cousin Stickles that she wished she would give up wearing that brooch with Cousin Artemas Stickles’ hair in it. She had moved her bed in her room to the opposite corner. She had read Magic of Wings Sunday afternoon. When Cousin Stickles had rebuked her Valancy had said indifferently, “Oh, I forgot it was Sunday”—and had gone on reading it. (page 66-67)

Cousin Stickles saw Valancy sliding down the bannister!!

There's a family dinner where all the family members are predictably terrible, but Valancy has a great time baiting everyone. They slag on Barney Snaith and hint that he might be the father of Cecily Gay's child. 

The family thinks something is wrong with Valancy, but she refuses to see a doctor. 

They hire Roaring Abel to fix up the porch and Valancy sits on the steps and chats with him. 

Four years previously Cissy Gay had gone up to a Muskoka hotel as a summer waitress. And when she had come back in the fall she was a changed creature. She hid herself away and went nowhere. The reason soon leaked out and scandal raged. That winter Cissy’s baby was born. (page 109)

Cissy's baby died and Cissy is in failing health. The only person who visits Cissy is Barney. Women wouldn't go to the Gay house, so Abel and Cissy are getting by without a housekeeper. Valancy is horrified to learn Cissy is all alone and she volunteers to be their housekeeper. 

From Elisabeth. 

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Hat mentions (why hats?):

Mrs. Frederick took off her hat in Aunt Alberta’s spare-room with trembling hands. (page 71)

From Suz

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Lines of note:

A house that always looked like a stupid, prosperous, self-satisfied man with warts on his face. (page 71)

There's a house behind ours that looks like it's always smiling. It's funny how houses have pesonalities.

Second Cousin Sarah Taylor, with her great, pale, expressionless eyes, who was noted for the variety of her pickle recipes and for nothing else. (page 75)

Poor Second Cousin Sarah.

“The greatest happiness,” said Valancy suddenly and distinctly, “is to sneeze when you want to.” (page 82)

If you didn't laugh at this line, you and I are different people. 

“Oh, but you know we’re all dead,” said Valancy, “the whole Stirling clan. Some of us are buried and some aren’t—yet. That is the only difference.” (page 85)

Harsh.

"...Of course Doss has made a terrible exhibition of herself today, but she’s not responsible. Old maids are apt to fly off at a tangent like that. If she had been married when she should have been she wouldn’t have got like this.” (page 95)

Yes, old maids are opt to fly off the handle, aren't they?

“I wish,” she said whimsically, “that I may have | one little dust-pile before I die.” (page 100)

Here's the dust pile line everyone was talking about last week!

“The worst of this"—Mrs. Frederick hunted for a dry spot on her handkerchief—‘“is that every one will know now that she is deranged. We can’t keep it a secret any longer. Oh, I cannot bear it!” (page 117)

Yes, that's the worst part, Valancy's mom. Not that something might be wrong with Valancy, but that people will know. *heavy sigh* 

From CCR.

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Things I looked up:

dilatory (page 70) - slow to act (I should know this word, shouldn't I?)

excrescent (page 71) - forming an abnormal, excessive, or useless outgrowth

Havergal College (page 78) - Established in 1894, Havergal College is a private day and boarding school for girls from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

“Doss,” said Uncle James heavily, “the Ten Commandments are fairly up to date still—especially the fifth. Have you forgotten that?” “No,” said Valancy, “but I thought you had—especially the ninth. Have you ever thought, Uncle James, how dull life would be without the Ten Commandments? It is only when things are forbidden that they become fascinating.” (page 92)

Let me help out the other heathens in the room. The Ten Commandments are:

The lombardies in Mrs. Tredgold’s lawn, off to the left—Valancy could just see them between the stable and the old _carriage-shop—were in dark purple silhouette... (page 99)

I assume lombardies are a flower, but Google is letting me down. It's either about the Lombardi Trophy or flower shops? 

fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah (page 107)

For the other heathens, I looked this up in my husband's Catholic Bible. 

An Invitation to Abundant Life

"Ho, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
....
Behold, you shall call nations that you know now,
and nations that knew you nost shall run to you,
because the LORD your God, and of the Holy
One of Israel,
for he has glorified you
...

I truly enjoyed Valancy and Abel sassing folks with Bible quotes. Use the tools you've got, you know?

From Melissa.

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How many times did the Blue Castle get name checked in these chapters?

Four!! (page 71, 73, 80, 114)

From Kyria.

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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) What line made you laugh the most in these chapters? For me, it was:

"Don’t worry, Mother,” said Valancy, lightly but quite respectfully. “It isn’t likely I'll do anything very terrible. But I mean to have a little fun.”
“Fun!” Mrs. Frederick uttered the word as if Valancy had said she was going to have a little tuberculosis. (page 102) 

But second place goes to:

Life cannot stop because tragedy enters it. Meals must be made ready though a son dies and porches must be repaired even if your only daughter is going out of her mind. (page 105)

2) What do you think Valancy is going to find when she gets to the Gay house?

3) If you had to have dinner with someone in Valancy's family, who would it be?

4) Why do you think Valancy agreed to be the Gay's housekeeper? It seems like a spur of the moment decision? To help neighbors? To just take a job (any job) that is available to women?  What could the consequences of this be if the job doesn't work out? Would her family take her back in?

From J. 

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Homework for you:

Scavenger hunt! I want you all to pick a word that you're going to look for in next week's reading. I do this with the word "hat." Pick a common word and see how often it appears in the text - e.g., horse, lunch, tree, rug, etc. - and then report back next week. Bonus points if you tell us in the comments this week what your word will be. I, obviously, will be looking for the word hat.

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Jacquie's book has quite a lot to offer. Here's what she has told us in her comments and an email she sent to me. Her library's only copy of the book is the original manuscript of The Blue Castle, complete with additions, deletions and scribbled notes and other pre-publication changes.  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:

1.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.

The first photo is where I sit and enjoy my morning read.

The other photos are examples of what my copy of the book looks like.  At the beginning of each chapter is a copy of Lucy Maud's handwritten manuscript.  I've attached two photos as examples

The other two photos are examples of how the editor, Carolyn Stom Collins transcribed Lucy Maud's manuscript, including keeping the additional notes as close to where Lucy Maud indicated they should go, and adding annotations that explain some of the vocabulary.

At first I thought it might be hard to read with items crossed out and having to watch out for the notes, but it hasn't been.  I just skip over the crossed out bits, and move my eyes either to the side or bottom of the page to read the note that has replaced the previous words.

[Back to NGS] Thanks for sending that along, Jacquie. It's so interesting. I think I would have such a hard time following all that, but you make it sound easy!

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Upcoming CBBC schedule:

February 17: Chapters 16 - 24
February 24: Chapters 25-32
March 3: Chapters 33-45
March 10: Wrap-up