Classics Challenge: The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery

This is pretty much what my copy of The Blue Castle looks like. Or would, if I could find it.

Originally, I had said I would read Anne of Green Gables, and I probably still will, but this is another L.M. Montgomery book that I just love. I wish I could give this book 20 stars on Goodreads instead of five. It's different from Montgomery's more well-known books because it starts with a grown, unloved woman, not a precocious child, and it's not set on Prince Edward Island at all. It still feels familiar though because it has Montgomery's trademarks - the clannish family and small Canadian town peopled with interesting and comical characters, the incorporation of biblical imagery and poetry--not for religious emphasis, but used in such a way that you can tell Montgomery knew and loved the Bible for its language. And most of all, because this book, as much or more than Montgomery's others, seems to be a love hymn to the Canadian landscape.

Of course, there is also the human story, if you care about that, and it's a nice one. ;) Valancy's love story is deeply romantic, and the book is sweet, charming, and uplifting - good things happen to the good people, and nothing terribly bad happens to the bad people, because you see that either they're not really all that bad, underneath, or that having to be who they are is quite punishment enough.

I never close this book without a happy sigh and a heart full to bursting. One of my forever favorites, since childhood.

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The Classics Challenge is explained here. There are more Classics Challenge reviews here and here.