The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle, by L. M. Montgomery (better known for the Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon series), is the story of Valancy Stirling, a 29-year-old Old Maid whose overbearing family makes her life miserable. Her only escape is through her daydreams as the chatelaine of a beautiful blue castle. When she finds out she has a terminal form of heart disease and only a year to live, she decides to leave home and at least have some adventures before she dies. She makes friends with the town pariahs: Roaring Abel Gay, an alcoholic; his daughter Cecily, an unmarried mother dying of tuberculosis, and Barney Snaith, a rumored criminal living on an island cottage, soon to become Valancy's love interest. Rather dark by Montgomery's standards, this book is a significant exception to her usual style of light teen romance, and consequently sadly underrated.

"Aunt Isabel: "Doss, you are horribly thin. You are all corners. Don't you ever try to fatten up?" Valancy: "No. But I can tell you where to find a beauty parlor in St. Lawrence where they can reduce the number of your chins.""
 * The Alcoholic: Roaring Abel, who earned his nickname because of his habit of driving around town drunk, roaring bawdy songs and swear words. Sometimes played for laughs, as he has a different "stage" of behavior according to how drunk he is.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Valancy is fascinated by Barney's outlaw status.
 * All of the Other Reindeer: Valancy's entire life up to where the story begins.
 * Alpha Bitch: Valancy's cousin Olive.
 * The Alleged Car: Barney's Grey Slosson, "Lady Jane".
 * Amazingly Embarrassing Parents:
 * Anguished Declaration of Love:
 * Anxiety Dreams: After she learns that she
 * Audio Erotica: Barney's voice "might become caressing or wooing with little provocation".
 * Badass Grandpa: Roaring Abel. At one point he throws one of Valancy's pompous relatives into an asparagus bed for insulting him.
 * Based on a Dream: Dr. Redfern apparently dreamt the formulae for his inventions.
 * Beautiful All Along: Valancy, like many Montgomery heroines, is unconventional-looking, and only attractive in certain moments to certain people.
 * Black Sheep: To the Stirlings, Valancy would certainly qualify, but Valancy is really more of a White Sheep to everyone else.
 * Broken Bird: Oh, Cecily. First she winds up pregnant by a boy who only saw her as a summer fling, then the baby dies, and by the time of the novel she herself is dying.
 * Canada, Eh?: talks like this.
 * Celeb Crush: Valancy on her favorite writer, John Foster.
 * Changeling Fantasy
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Roaring Abel.
 * Christmas Cake: Poor Valancy suffers a lot from this at the beginning of the novel.
 * The Clan: The Stirlings.
 * The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Roaring Abel is a carpenter, but his own house is falling apart.
 * Damsel in Distress: Valancy foolishly goes to a dance where some drunken men harrass her. Fortunately, Barney arrives in time.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Valancy blossoms into one after the news from the doctor, much to her family's dismay.

"Benjamin: "You - you pup!" Barney: "Why be so unoriginal?""
 * Barney has his moments, too:

"Benjamin: "What is the difference between a young girl and an old maid?" Valancy: "One is happy and careless, the other is cappy and hairless. You have asked that riddle at least 50 times in my recollection, Uncle Ben. Why don't you hunt up some new riddles if riddle you must? It is such a fatal mistake to try to be funny when you don't succeed.""
 * Disappeared Dad: Valancy's father died of pneumonia when she was a baby, possibly because of his neurotic wife's rule about not lighting fires before October 21st.
 * Defiled Forever: Subverted. The entire town sees Cecily as this, but Valancy refuses to buy into it, especially since Cecily is a sweet, shy girl who was previously well respected. Later when telling her story, Cecily admits that she didn't even know having sex would lead to pregnancy, and that she refused her boyfriend's dutiful proposal because she could tell he'd fallen out of love with her. She thought trapping him into a loveless marriage would be worse than dealing with the pregnancy by herself. Note that this book was written in the 1920s.
 * Don't Fear the Reaper: Valancy is not afraid to die, just angry that she's never really lived.
 * Cute Kitten: Barney's cats, Good Luck and Banjo.
 * The First Cut Is the Deepest: Of course, he had had to go through a lot before that incident, and it was the last straw.
 * Fourth Date Marriage: A slightly unusual case.
 * Friendless Background: Valancy.
 * Gold Digger:
 * Good Shepherd: Mr. Towers.
 * Gossipy Hens: The Stirling family.
 * Grande Dame: Mrs. Frederick Stirling, Aunt Wellington, Aunt Isabel, quite a few in the Stirling family.
 * Happy Place: The Blue Castle.
 * Hypochondriac: Cousin Gladys with her "neuritis".
 * Impoverished Patrician:
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Cissy Gay refuses the proposal by her baby's father because she didn't want to trap him in a loveless marriage.
 * I Was Quite a Looker: Aunt Alberta. Also Roaring Abel, who was a real Casanova in his youth.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Uncle Benjamin just loves these.
 * Infant Immortality: Sadly averted with the death of Cissy's baby son.
 * In Harmony with Nature: Barney, and eventually Valancy
 * Kids Are Cruel: As experienced by Barney.
 * Lack of Empathy: All the Stirlings, with the possible exception of Cousin Georgiana.
 * Like You Were Dying
 * Lonely Rich Kid:
 * Love Epiphany:
 * The Makeover: Valancy, whose mother has been dressing her in thick layers of brown, gray and black, spends her first housekeeping wages from Roaring Abel on a short-sleeved, drop-waisted, collarless green dress and a lacy nightgown.
 * Make Up Is Evil: Everyone knows Valancy is dull so thoroughly that a rumor that she wore rouge is not enough to sink her reputation, which it would have done for any other girl.
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Her mother sulks after a quarrel, which means she does not discover the letter that said she was dying. Valancy regards it as providential.
 * Missing Mom: Cissy's mother died young as well.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Part of Valancy's rebellion is to refuse her family nickname, "Doss".
 * My Own Private I Do:
 * Mysterious Past: Barney
 * Neat Freak: Valancy, in spite of herself, due to her upbringing. Her mother takes it to an extreme.
 * Never Live It Down: An In-Universe example. The Stirlings never let Valancy forget that she stole some raspberry jam when she was eight and lost one of her aunt's silver teaspoons.
 * Not with Them for the Money: . Her family, not so much.
 * Placebo Effect: Dr Redfern's medicines work using this effect, according to Barney.
 * Precision F-Strike:
 * Pungeon Master: Uncle Benjamin, who often uses this trait to tease Valancy about her lack of a love life.
 * Pungeon Master: Uncle Benjamin, who often uses this trait to tease Valancy about her lack of a love life.

"Valancy: "But who wants water to be thick? We want it to be thin - sparkling - crystal-clear.""
 * Purple Eyes: Barney.
 * Pygmalion Snapback:
 * Railroad Tracks of Doom: Valancy's shoe is caught in the tracks once.
 * Reclusive Artist: John Foster.
 * The Reveal: Quite a lot of them are piled up on top of each other in a space of a few chapters:
 * Scenery Porn: What else would you expect from L.M. Montgomery? Except this time it's set in Muskoka, Ontario, instead of Prince Edward Island.
 * Secret Test of Character:
 * Self-Made Man: Dr. Redfern.
 * Silent Treatment: Valancy's mother's preferred method of punishment.
 * Sinister Minister: Dr. Stalling, but only in Valancy's eyes. Roaring Abel (and the reader) sees him as simply pompous, narrow-minded and rather stupid.
 * Suddenly-Suitable Suitor: To the Stirlings, Barney becomes a perfect suitor for Valancy when they discover his real last name.
 * Terms of Endearment: Barney calls Valancy "Moonlight".
 * Thicker Than Water: Cousin Stickles admonishes Valancy with this.

""The greatest happiness is to sneeze when you want to.""
 * Through His Stomach: Barney is much taken with her cooking.
 * The Unfavorite: Valancy, which is made all the more remarkable by the fact that she's an only child.
 * Victorian Novel Disease: Played tragically straight with Cecily.
 * Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Mrs. Stirling is disappointed in Valancy for being female (she wanted a boy) and unattractive.
 * The Wonka: Valancy has shades of this, causing her family to think she's going crazy.


 * Your Days Are Numbered: Interestingly played with Valancy, who actually finds the prospect much easier to bear than a long, dull life of spinsterdom and social pressure with her family.
 * Cissy is another example.
 * You Need to Get Laid: The Stirlings, not knowing about the heart disease, blame this trope for Valancy's rebellion: "Old maids are apt to fly off on a tangent like that. If she had been married when she should have been, none of this would have happened."