Blue Castle

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Gladys (Cousin Gladys, Aunt Gladys) - Valancy's aunt who is a neurotic hypochondriac. Gladys is "really First Cousin

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 Trent, Dr. - an elderly, absent-minded doctor who specializes in heart disease. He is over seventy years old Valancy is, at twenty-nine, the old maid of the Stirling clan. Her entire life has been spent with her nagging mother, aunt, and gossipy extended family: Victorian and middle class, they actively discourage happiness and treat Valancy like a child, constantly comparing her with her beautiful cousin, Olive, putting her down, and calling her by the baby name "Doss." Her only respites come from daydreaming of her "Blue Castle," and reading the nature books of John Foster. 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. 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 Castlea rather stupid little village tin-god" (Chapter 19; 97). Following Valancy's marriage to Barney Snaith, Uncle James cruelly tells her, "you are a shameless 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. Fortunate Isles - several small islets located to the west in Lake Mistawis. They looked like a group of emeralds at sunrise and like a group of amethysts at sunset (Chapter 29; 151-152).

The freedom and life that Valancy experiences after the big turning point in her life warmed my heart. And it made me laugh to read how Valancy's relatives thought she had gone mad because of course free-thinking women have clearly lost it. Wood, Chris; Grenard, Philip; MacAndrew, Barbara (15 February 1988). "A Tale of Twin Spinsters". Maclean's. p.59. (subscription required) Warning- This novel is endearing and filled with ardour to a dangerous level, that one can risk into crooning and canoodling with the novel throughout! 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.Abel (Roaring Abel) - a seventy-year-old, alcoholic, carpenter and fiddler; father of Cissy Gay. He is known as "Roaring Abel" because he is so colorful and is "never anything her because Markley built Jennie such a pretty house, and Valancy dreams of having a house of her own (Chapter 4; 20). Rob - a man who seemed attracted to Valancy at Uncle Herbert's cottage, but did not notice her at Margaret Blunt's party Redfern), Dr. Redfern and Barney moved to Montreal where he began to invent his cure-alls and became rich (Chapter

Benjamin (Uncle Benjamin) - Valancy's wealthy, childless, widower uncle who owns a grocery store. Valancy has been brought up to never offend on Valancy's birthday, her mother tells her to "'Sit up straight, Doss,'" without any kind wishes (Chapter 3).Isn't it better to have your heart broken than to have it wither up?" queried Valancy. "Before it could be broken it must have felt something splendid. That would be worth the pain." and showered on her everything she didn't want. He had killed her—quite legally. She had been smothered and starved" (Chapter 10; Understandably she's grumpy but powerless, until one day she has enough. Her doctor says she has a terminal heart disease and under a year to live, and she finally rebels, becomes independent and falls in love with an outsider in the process.