The Blue Castle is one of L. M. Montgomery's many novels, first published in 1926. It's been adapted into two musicals, but remains one of her more obscure books.
I didn't know this book existed until I saw it in a charity shop. When I saw the name "L. M. Montgomery" I decided to buy it. Surely, I thought, it would be another heartwarming story like Anne of Green Gables. Boy, was I in for a surprise.
A quick plot summary: Our heroine, Valancy Stirling, has just turned twenty-nine and is still living with her controlling mother and aunt. The doctor tells her she's dying of heart disease. Faced with her imminent death, she decides it's time she took charge of her own life. So she moves out of her mother's home -- under very unpleasant circumstances -- and tries to live in the short time she has left. Of course, things don't turn out quite as she expected.
From the beginning I was amazed at how depressing the novel is. At the start Valancy is abused, hopeless, and trapped in a dysfunctional family -- a grimly relatable situation nowadays just as much as it was almost a century ago. Even when she rebels and leaves them, she has a death sentence hanging over her head. Nor are side characters exempt from the misery: poor Cissie's death made me sob and give up hope of this story having a happy ending.
But it wouldn't be an L. M. Montgomery novel without a happy ending. I suspected Valancy wouldn't die; it's not Montgomery's style to write a tragedy. (SPOILER!) So the discovery of the doctor's mistake is easy to see coming.
In many ways this novel is pure wish fulfillment. Valancy escapes her family, marries the man she loves, and gets everything she wanted. But that's why I like it. True, it's no Anne of Green Gables, and its first half is thoroughly depressing, but towards the end it becomes a surprisingly uplifting book in its own way.
Is it available online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.
Rating: 8/10.
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