The Blue Castle, Part 1

Please enjoy this reading of Chapter 1 of "The Blue Castle", a delightful 1926 Canadian novel from author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her 1908 book "Anne of Green Gables".

Follow along as we hear how Valancy Stirling's dull life as a 29-year-old "old maid" is transformed by a life-changing medical diagnosis and subsequent foray into the world of romance, in search of the man and "Blue Castle" of her dreams!

Transcript

Hello there,

Thank you so much for joining me for this reading of The Blue Castle which is a novel from 1926 by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery Who's best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables So Let's take a moment here to Take a nice exhale We can relax Let go of the day now,

Let go of any baggage any thoughts we're bringing with us This is a time now for us to find ourselves feeling comfortable,

Relaxing,

And getting ready to enjoy the beautiful story of The Blue Castle Chapter one If it had not rained on a certain May morning Valancy Stirling's whole life would have been entirely different She would have gone with the rest of her clan to Aunt Wellington's engagement picnic and Dr.

Trent would have gone to Montreal but it did rain and You shall hear what happened to her because of it Valancy wakened early in the lifeless hopeless hour just preceding dawn She had not slept very well one does not sleep well sometimes when one is 29 on the morrow and Unmarried in a community and connection where the unmarried are Simply those who have failed to get a man Dearwood and the Stirlings had long since relegated Valancy to hopeless old maidenhood but Valancy herself had never quite relinquished a certain pitiful shamed little hope that Romance would come her way yet never until this wet horrible morning when she wakened to the fact that she was 29 and Unsought by any man Aye there lay the sting Valancy did not mind so much being an old maid After all she thought being an old maid couldn't possibly be as dreadful as being married to an Uncle Wellington or an Uncle Benjamin or even an Uncle Herbert What hurt her was that she had never had a chance That she had never had a chance to be anything but an old maid No man had ever desired her The tears came into her eyes As she lay there alone in the faintly graying darkness She dared not let herself cry as hard as she wanted to for two reasons She was afraid that crying might bring on another attack of that pain around the heart She had had a spell of it after she had got into bed Rather worse than any she had had yet And she was afraid her mother would notice her red eyes at breakfast and keep at her with minute persistent mosquito-like questions regarding the cause thereof Suppose thought Valancy with a ghastly grin I answered with the plain truth I am crying because I cannot get married How horrified mother would be Though she is ashamed every day of her life of her old maid daughter But of course appearances should be kept up It is not Valancy could hear her mother's prim dictatorial voice asserting It is not maidenly to think about men The thought of her mother's expression made Valancy laugh For she had a sense of humor Nobody in her clan suspected For that matter there were a good many things about Valancy that nobody suspected But her laughter was very superficial and Presently she lay there a huddled futile little figure Listening to the rain pouring down outside Pouring down outside and watching with a sick distaste the chill merciless light creeping into her ugly sordid room She knew the ugliness of that room by heart Knew it and hated it The yellow painted floor with one hideous hooked rug by the bed with a grotesque hooked dog on it Always grinning at her when she awoke The faded dark red paper The ceiling discolored by old leaks and crossed by cracks the narrow pinched little washstand the brown paper Lambroquin with purple roses on it The spotted old looking-glass with the crack across it propped up on the inadequate dressing table The jar of ancient potpourri made by her mother in her mythical honeymoon the shell-covered box with one burst corner which cousin Stickles had made in her equally mythical girlhood The beaded pincushion with half its bead fringe gone the one stiff yellow chair the faded old motto Gone,

But not forgotten Worked in colored yarns about great-grandmother Stirling's grim old face The old photographs of ancient relatives long banished from the rooms below There were only two pictures that were not of relatives One an old chromo of a puppy sitting on a rainy doorstep That picture always made Valancy happy That forlorn little dog crouched on the doorstep in the driving rain Why didn't someone open the door and let him in?

The other picture Was a faded pasper-tude engraving of Queen Louise coming down a stairway Which Aunt Wellington had lavishly given her on her 10th birthday For 19 years she had looked at it and hated it Beautiful,

Smug,

Self-satisfied Queen Louise But she never dared destroy it or remove it Mother and cousin Stickles would have been aghast Or as Valancy irreverently expressed it in her thoughts,

Would have had a fit Every room in the house was ugly,

Of course,

But downstairs But downstairs appearances were kept up somewhat There was no money for rooms nobody ever saw Valancy sometimes felt that she could have done something for her room herself even without money if she were permitted But her mother had negatived every timid suggestion And Valancy did not persist Valancy never persisted She was afraid to Her mother could not brook opposition Mrs.

Stirling would sulk for days if offended with the airs of an insulted Duchess The one thing Valancy liked about her room was that She could be alone there at night to cry if she wanted to But after all What did it matter?

If a room which you used for nothing except sleeping and dressing in were ugly Valancy was never permitted Valancy was never permitted to stay alone in her room for any other purpose People who wanted to be alone So Mrs.

Frederick Stirling and Cousin Stickles believed could only want to be alone for some sinister purpose But her room in the blue castle Was everything a room should be Valancy So cowed and subdued And overridden and snubbed in real life Was want to let herself go rather splendidly in her daydreams Nobody in the Stirling clan or its ramifications suspected this least of all her mother and Cousin Stickles They never knew that Valancy had two homes the ugly red brick box of a home on elm street and the blue castle in Spain 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 won 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 For one thing,

She had quite a few lovers in it Oh,

Only one at a time One who wooed her with all the romantic ardue of the age of chivalry And won her after long devotion and many deeds of daring do And was wedded to her with pomp and circumstance in the grandest of ways great banner hung chapel of the blue castle At 12 This lover was a fair lad with golden curls and heavenly blue eyes At 15,

He was tall and dark and pale but still necessarily handsome At 20,

He was ascetic,

Dreamy,

Spiritual At 25,

He had a clean-cut jaw Slightly grim and a face strong and rugged rather than handsome Valancy never grew older than 25 in her blue castle But recently Very recently her hero had had reddish tawny hair a twisted smile and a mysterious past I don't say Valancy deliberately murdered these lovers as she outgrew them One simply faded away as another came Things are very convenient in this respect in blue castles But On this morning of her day of fate Valancy could not find the key of her blue castle Reality pressed on her too hardly barking at her heels like a maddening little dog She was 29 Lonely undesired ill-favored The only homely girl in a handsome clan With no past and no future As far as she could look back Life was drab and colorless With not one single crimson or purple spot anywhere As far as she could look forward it seemed certain to be just the same Until she was nothing but a solitary little withered leaf Clinging to a wintry bough The moment when a woman realizes That she has nothing to live for neither love duty purpose Purpose nor hope Holds for her the bitterness of death And I just have to go on living because I can't stop I may have to live 80 years I thought Valancy in a kind of panic We're all horribly long lived It sickens me to think of it She was glad it was raining or Rather,

She was drearily satisfied that it was raining There would be no picnic that day This annual picnic whereby aunt and uncle wellington One always thought of them in that succession Inevitably celebrated their engagement at a picnic 30 years before Had been of late years a veritable nightmare to Valancy By an impish coincidence It was the same day as her birthday And after she had passed 25 Nobody let her forget it Much as she hated going to the picnic It would never have occurred to her to rebel against it there Seemed to be nothing of the revolutionary in her nature And she knew exactly what everyone would say to her at the picnic uncle wellington whom she disliked and despised even though he Had fulfilled the highest sterling aspiration marrying money Would say to her in a pig's whisper Not thinking of getting married yet,

My dear And then go off Into the bellow of laughter with which he invariably concluded his dull remarks Aunt wellington of whom Valancy stood in abject awe Would tell her about olive's new chiffon dress and Cecil's last devoted letter Valancy would have to look as pleased and interested as if the dress and letter had been hers Or else aunt wellington would be offended And Valancy had long ago decided that she would rather offend god than aunt wellington Because god might forgive her but aunt wellington never would Aunt alberta Enormously fat With an amiable habit of always referring to her husband as he As if he were the only male creature in the world Who could never forget that she had been a great beauty in her youth Would condole with valancy on her sallow skin I don't know why all the girls of today are so sunburnt When I was a girl my skin was roses and cream I was counted the prettiest girl in canada,

My dear Perhaps Uncle herbert wouldn't say anything or Perhaps he would remark jocularly How fat you're getting dos and then everybody would laugh over the Excessively humorous idea of poor scrawny little dos getting fat Handsome solemn uncle james whom valancy disliked but Respected because he was reputed to be very clever And was therefore the clan oracle Brains being none too plentiful in the sterling connection Would probably remark with the owl-like sarcasm that had won him his reputation I suppose you're busy with your hope chest these days And uncle benjamin would ask some of his abominable conundrums between wheezy chuckles And answer them himself What is the difference between dos and a mouse The mouse wishes to harm the cheese and dos wishes to charm the he's Valancy had heard him ask that riddle 50 times And every time she wanted to throw something at him But she never did In the first place the sterlings simply did not throw things in the second place uncle benjamin was a wealthy and childless old widower And valancy had been brought up in the fear and admonition of his money If she offended him He would cut her out of his will Supposing she were in it Valancy did not want to be cut out of uncle benjamin's will She had been poor all her life and knew the galling bitterness of it So she endured his riddles And even smiled tortured little smiles over them Aunt isabel downright and disagreeable as an east wind would Criticize her in some way Valancy could not predict just how For aunt isabel never repeated a criticism She found something new with which to jab you every time Aunt isabel prided herself on saying what she thought But didn't like it so well when other people said what they thought to her Valancy never said what she thought Cousin georgiana named after her great great grandmother who had been named after george the fourth would recount Deliriously the names of all relatives and friends who had died since the last picnic And wonder which of us will be the first to go next Oppressively competent Oppressively competent Aunt mildred would talk endlessly of her husband and her odious prodigies of babies to valancy because Valancy would be the only one she could find to put up with it For the same reason cousin gladys Really first cousin gladys once removed according to the strict way in which the sterling's tabulated relationship a tall thin lady who admitted she had a sensitive disposition would describe minutely the tortures of her neuritis And olive The wonder girl of the whole sterling clan Who had everything valancy had not beauty popularity love would show off her beauty and presume on her popularity and flaunt her diamond insignia of love in valancy's dazzled envious eyes There would be none of all this today And there would be no packing up of teaspoons The packing up was always left for valancy and cousin's stickles and once Six years ago a silver teaspoon from aunt wellington's wedding set Had been lost Valancy never heard the last of that silver teaspoon Its ghost appeared banquo-like at every subsequent family feast Oh,

Yes Valancy knew exactly what the picnic would be like And she blessed the rain that had saved her from it There would be no picnic this year If aunt wellington could not celebrate on the sacred day itself She would have no celebration at all Thank whatever gods there were for that Since there would be no picnic Valancy made up her mind that if the rain held up in the afternoon She would go up to the library and get another of john foster's books Valancy was never allowed to read novels But john foster's books were not novels they were nature books So the librarian told mrs.

Frederick sterling all about the woods and birds and bugs and things like that You know So valancy was allowed to read them Under protest for it was only too evident that she enjoyed them too much It was permissible Even laudable to read to improve your mind and your religion But a book that was enjoyable Was dangerous Valancy did not know whether her mind was being improved or not,

But She felt vaguely That if she had come across john foster's books years ago Life might have been a different thing for her They seemed to her to yield glimpses of a world into which She might once have entered Though the door was forever barred to her now It was only within the last year that john foster's books had been in the dearwood library Though the librarian told valancy that he had been a well-known writer for several years Where does he live valancy had asked nobody knows From his books.

He must be a canadian but No more information can be had His publishers won't say a word Quite likely john foster is a non-diplom His books are so popular.

We can't keep them in at all though I really can't see what people find in them to rave over I think they're wonderful said valancy timidly.

Oh Well Miss clarkson smiled in a patronizing fashion that relegated valancy's opinions to limbo I can't say I care much for bugs myself But certainly foster seems to know all there is to know about them Valancy didn't know whether she cared much for bugs either It was not john foster's uncanny knowledge of wild creatures and insect life that enthralled her She could Hardly say what it was some tantalizing lure Of a mystery never revealed Some hint of a great secret just a little further on Some faint elusive echo of lovely forgotten things John foster's magic was indefinable Yes,

She would get a new foster book It was a month since she had thistle harvest.

So surely mother could not object Surely mother could not object Valancy had read it four times She knew whole passages off by heart and She almost thought She would go and see dr.

Trent About that queer pain around the heart It had come rather often lately And the palpitations were becoming annoying Not to speak of an occasional dizzy moment and a queer shortness of breath But could she go to see him without telling anyone It was a most daring thought None of the stirlings ever consulted a doctor without holding a family council Getting uncle james's approval then They went to dr.

Ambrose marsh of port lawrence who had married second cousin adelaide sterling But valancy disliked dr.

Ambrose marsh and besides She could not get to port lawrence 15 miles away without being taken there She did not want anyone to know about her heart There would be such a fuss made And every member of the family would come down and talk it over and advise her and caution her and warn her and tell her horrible tales of great aunts and cousins 40 times removed who had been just like that and dropped dead without a moment's warning my dear Aunt isabelle would remember that she had always said Doss looked like a girl who would have heart trouble so pinched and piqued always And uncle wellington would take it as a personal insult When no sterling ever had heart disease before And georgiana would forebode And georgiana would forebode imperfectly audible asides that Poor dear little doss isn't long for this world.

I'm afraid And cousin gladys would say Why my heart has been like that for years?

In a tone that implied no one else had any business even to have a heart And olive Olive would merely look beautiful and superior and disgustingly healthy as if to say Why all this fuss over a faded superfluity like doss?

When you have me Valancy felt Valancy felt That she couldn't tell anybody unless she had to She felt quite sure There was nothing at all seriously wrong with her heart And no need of all the bother that would ensue if she mentioned it She would just slip up quietly and See dr.

Trent That very day As for his bill She had the two hundred dollars that her father had put in the bank for her the day she was born She was never allowed to use even the interest of this but She would secretly take out enough to pay dr.

Trent Dr.

Trent was a gruff outspoken absent-minded old fellow but He was a recognized authority on heart disease Even if he were only a general practitioner in out of the world deerwood Dr.

Trent was over 70 and there had been rumors that he meant to retire soon None of the sterling clan had ever gone to him since he had told cousin gladys 10 years before that her neuritis was all imaginary and that she enjoyed it You couldn't patronize a doctor who insulted your first cousin once removed like that Not to mention that he was a presbyterian Presbyterian when all the sterlings went to the anglican church But Valancy between the devil of disloyalty to clan and the deep sea of fuss and clatter and advice Thought she would take a chance With the devil

Reviews

Absolutely delighted to discover you and your expressive storytelling! Sleep stories are my go to when I’m restless and all of these chapters will provide support for quite awhile! Especially as I’ll likely have to relisten when I fall asleep before the end. ☺️🙏😴

I’ve heard someone else read this, but excited to hear yours— you give all the characters such…character 😂 thank you ❤️🙏🏼

Looking forward to listening to more chapters of The Blue Castle thank you Namaste