The Blue Castle

L M Montgomery

L. M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle is a warm, witty and deeply moving novel about courage, independence and the unexpected possibility of beginning again.
At twenty-nine, Valancy Stirling has spent her life doing exactly what is expected of her. Surrounded by a domineering family and trapped in a narrow, joyless existence, she escapes only in her imagination-to a beautiful place she calls the Blue Castle.

Then a devastating medical diagnosis changes everything.

Believing she has only a short time left to live, Valancy decides to stop being afraid. She speaks her mind, leaves her family home, befriends the people society has rejected-and makes a decision that shocks everyone who thought they knew her.

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What follows is a charming and quietly rebellious story of freedom, self-discovery and unexpected love.

First published in 1926, The Blue Castle is one of L. M. Montgomery’s rare novels written for an adult audience and remains one of her most distinctive works.
L. M. Montgomery. The Blue Castle. First published as: The Blue Castle. McClelland and Stewart, Canada; Frederick A. Stokes, United States, 1926. The original spelling has been retained; obvious typographical errors have been corrected. New edition, Göttingen, 2026.

EAN: 9783753805092
A Classic Romance of Freedom, Love and New Beginnings. 22,0 cm / 15,5 cm / 1,2 cm ( B/H/T )
LIWI Literatur- und Wissenschaftsverlag
August 2026 – 164 Seiten

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The Blue Castle – Overview: Key Facts at a Glance

Author: L. M. Montgomery
Genre: Romance novel
Publication: 1926
Literary period: Early 20th-century Canadian literature
Setting: The fictional town of Deerwood in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada, in the early 1900s
Major characters: Valancy Jane Stirling, Barney Snaith, Cissy Gay, Roaring Abel Gay, Mrs. Frederick Stirling, Cousin Olive and Dr. Trent
Central themes: Self-determination, freedom from social expectations, love, family pressure, personal fulfilment, social convention and the courage to change one’s life
Plot in one sentence: After mistakenly being told that she has only a short time to live, the repressed Valancy Stirling breaks with her controlling family, begins to live on her own terms and unexpectedly finds love and independence.

Famous Quotes

“Fear is the original sin. Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that someone is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading.”

Chapter V, p. 23 of the LIWI edition

“If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you’ll never be and you need not waste time in trying.”

Chapter XXI, p. 85

“Isn’t it better to have your heart broken than to have it wither up? Before it could be broken it must have felt something splendid. That would be worth the pain.”

Chapter XXVII, p. 109

“It was three o’clock in the morning—the wisest and most accursed hour of the clock. But sometimes it sets us free.”

Chapter VIII, p. 37

“I’ve been keeping up appearances all my life. Now I’m going in for realities. Appearances can go hang!”

Chapter XV, p. 63

“What a spineless thing I must be not to have even one enemy!”

Chapter VIII, p. 33

“She brushed the old years and habits and inhibitions away from her like dead leaves. She would not be littered with them.”

Chapter XVI, p. 65

“You see—I’ve never had any real life. I’ve just—breathed. Every door has always been shut to me.”

Chapter XXI, p. 86

“There is no such thing as freedom on earth. Only different kinds of bondages. And comparative bondages.”

Chapter XXIX, p. 116

“That’s all the freedom we can hope for—the freedom to choose our prison.”

Chapter XXIX, p. 116

“The only thing you can be sure of in this world is the multiplication table.”

Chapter XII, p. 54

“I’d rather be miserable in heaven remembering him than happy forgetting him.”

Chapter XXXIV, p. 131

“Thirty seconds can be very long sometimes. Long enough to work a miracle or a revolution.”

Chapter XXXV, p. 131

“Love you! Girl, you’re in the very core of my heart. I hold you there like a jewel. Didn’t I promise you I’d never tell you a lie? Love you! I love you with all there is of me to love. Heart, soul, brain. Every fibre of body and spirit thrilling to the sweetness of you. There’s nobody in the world for me but you, Valancy.”

Chapter XLIII, p. 160