The Blue Castle

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Jan 2007 · Voyageur Classics Book 2 · Dundurn

About this ebook

Valancy lives a drab life with her overbearing mother and prying aunt. Then a shocking diagnosis from Dr. Trent prompts her to make a fresh start. For the first time, she does and says exactly what she feels. As she expands her limited horizons, Valancy undergoes a transformation, discovering a new world of love and happiness. One of Lucy Maud Montgomery's only novels intended for an adult audience, The Blue Castle is filled with humour and romance.

Ratings and reviews

As amorbidly imaginative, bookish 12 year-old I spotted a copy of The Blue Castle on an aunt's bookshelf and asked permission to read it. I had never heard of Anne of Green Gables! Entranced by the story, I revisited the book as an old friend for the next forty years through many levels of education and more critically-acclaimed literature but was disappointed not to be able to locate a new copy, even in bookstores with an almost cult-like LMM following. I also learned that experts deemed The Blue Castle to be inferior to other Montgomery novels . Nevertheless, as my own tastes became more sophisticated, I returned again and again to the castle , internalizing more meaning with each reading. How wonderful to learn that I was not alone! The Blue Castle still speaks----- of a person, place, society,and era with understanding far beyond the imaginings of a romantically-minded adolescent.

I have always loved reading Lucy Maud Montgomery. In this book she writes about a twenty-nine year old woman who finally breaks free to become herself. It is full of beautiful landscapes and nature loving. It makes me want to move to Canada forever.

Very enjoyable read. I have had many wonderful hours with Lucy Maud Montgomery! Would recommend all of her books.

About the author

Dr. Collett Tracey teaches Canadian literature at Carleton University. She brings her interest in Canadian modernism and women's writing to her introduction.

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. Raised by her maternal grandparents, she attended Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown and obtained her teaching certificate. She later studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She eventually married Ewan Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, and had 3 sons with him. She published 12 books in total and died in Toronto in 1942.