#valancy stirling

[thesweetnessofspring]

The Blue Castle by frivolousdistinction on DeviantArt

#blue castle book club #the blue castle #lm montgomery #l.m. montgomery #valancy stirling #barney snaith #valarney #fanart #tbc fanart

[whenthegoldrays]

It's hilarious to me how a lot of The Blue Castle is spent hinting at a Big Plot Twist/Reveal, and as the reader you're excited to see whether your theory is correct and what Valancy's reaction to it will be, but once the reveal comes, so much insanity has happened to her in the last 24 hours that when she does find out she's just like "okay, this might as well happen I guess"

#it was just. so funny #the way lmm sets up this big juicy reveal and in the end it's like the least of valancy's worries #the blue castle #valancy stirling #lm montgomery #blue castle book club #elly's posts

[alwayschasingrainbows]

Valancy Stirling is the most relatable of L.M. Montgomery's heroines, I think.

Not many people can have Emily's talent, Pat's sensitivity, Anne's charm, Rilla's courage or Kilmeny's beauty.

But many people, just as Valancy:

have insecurities,

go through a time when they feel unloved and unwanted,

are afraid to offend someone,

find it difficult to voice their opinions,

rely on their sense of humour to survive,

have their own "blue castle",

hope for a "dustpile of their own".

Valancy is just a girl. A woman with insecurities, hopes and dreams.

She teaches us that there is a courage in each one of us, even though sometimes we cannot find it.

She teaches us it is possible to find friendship, love and happiness in every situation.

She shows us that something seemingly destroyed might yet blossom - just like her rosebush did - and turn out to be exquisite.

#lm montgomery #blue castle book club #blue castle #valancy stirling #my musings

[redplaidjacket]

So, I had a little fun on Canva creating John Foster's book covers.

It's by no means perfect but I like the look of them :)

Also the last one isn't a book mentioned in The Blue Castle but is inspired by this excerpt :

“Here’s a patch of dandelions,” said Valancy, unsubdued. “Dandelions shouldn’t grow in the woods, though. They haven’t any sense of the fitness of things at all. They are too cheerful and self-satisfied. They haven’t any of the mystery and reserve of the real wood-flowers.”

“In short, they’ve no secrets,” said Barney. “But wait a bit. The woods will have their own way even with those obvious dandelions. In a little while all that obtrusive yellowness and complacency will be gone and we’ll find here misty, phantom-like globes hovering over those long grasses in full harmony with the traditions of the forest.”

#the blue castle #lucy maud montgomery #john foster #barney snaith #valancy stirling

[daily-rayless]

All the Blue Castle posts across my dash lately made me want to do some art. I like how this came out -- very much like the flimsy old paper jackets on books from the 1920s and 30s. Most haven't survived all the decades, but sometimes, if you go to the right sort of used book store, you'll find them intact.

The paper I used was almost 6 x 9.5, very close to book size, so part of the challenge was figuring out how to incorporate the elements in a small space.

#valancy stirling #the blue castle #lm montgomery #fake book cover #1920s lit #2023 #100+

[everythinglucymaudmontgomery]

DEEP BREATH and POST!

Edited to add: I don’t think I said it before but a HUGE thank you to @dustpileofherown for her encouragement to share.

#lucy maud montgomery #l.m. montgomery #the blue castle #lm montgomery #tbc #blue castle fan art #blue castle book club #valancy stirling #valancy snaith #barney snaith

[kehlana-wolhamonao3]

I'm very happy to share another chapter of my Barney POV fic, this one covering that awful storm he got caught in :) I hope you'll enjoy it!

#the blue castle fanfic #the blue castle fanfiction #the blue castle #blue castle book club #the blue castle book club #barney x valancy #valarney #valancy stirling #barney snaith

[dustpileofherown]

Coming this September…

Artwork thanks to @professionalfangrrl 💕

#the blue castle #valancy stirling #barney snaith #tbc #the blue castle fanart #the blue castle fanfic #the blue castle fanfiction #blue castle book club #the blue castle book club

[thesweetnessofspring]

Valancy, an "old maid" who never had a man want her, who followed the "proper" way for so long, is associated with red roses, both in her red rosebush that bloom after her marriage and the crimson rose in her hat that matches her green dress. Red that is often associated with passion and romance but also with sin, especially sex.

And Cissy, the "fallen woman" who had an intimate relationship with a man who she loved, who refused to marry the father when she learned he didn't love her, who became a social outcast, is associated with the white rose, as her father describes as a girl she would run to meet him "with a little white rose stuck in her hair." White that is symbolic of purity and innocence and goodness.

I love how these associations are flipped. Neither woman is what she appears to be from town gossip. They are both more human, more genuine, more full, than what society thinks of them.

#blue castle book club #the blue castle #cissy gay #valancy stirling #l.m. montgomery

[batrachised]

Valancy dropped Thistle Harvest like a hot coal and fled downstairs to her patches; but she felt the strange exhilaration of spirit that always came momentarily to her when she dipped into one of John Foster’s books. Valancy did not know much about woods—except the haunted groves of oak and pine around her Blue Castle. But she had always secretly hankered after them and a Foster book about woods was the next best thing to the woods themselves.

what woman amongst us has not had a secret hankering for the woods

#blue castle book club #valancy stirling

[alwayschasingrainbows]

Valancy Stirling (The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery)

Source: Pinterest (link under the cut)

#valancy stirling #blue castle #blue castle book club #she's lovely

[discoevsky]

Barney anytime he gets emotional

#the blue castle #valancy stirling #lucy maud montgomery #blue castle book club

[autumnrose11]

Thinking about how absolutely crushing it must have been for Valancy to live with a mother like Mrs Frederick.

All the examples L.M. Montgomery gives us point clearly to emotional abuse. From the time she was little to when she’s a grown adult, 29 years old. Making her feel anything and everything that’s wrong with her is her own fault. Falling ill? Being “plain”? Relatives taking cruel jabs at her? It’s her own fault. (the dust pile incident!)

On the very, very rare occasions she dares protest, even in the mildest possible way, she punishes her by giving her the silent treatment. Basically.... if you have the nerve to defy me, I am going to isolate you until I see fit, because the way I treat you is also due to YOUR defiance.

She even says at one point that she would have preferred Valancy to be dead rather than run off with Barney Snaith. A friend of mine has a mother who said something along the same lines to her, and it reminded me forcefully of that experience of hers and how absolutely hellish it must have been to live through. (She’s doing much better now, thankfully, after moving away).

The worst part of these things in the book is that all of this - the silent treatment, the emotional withdrawal, the gaslighting... are so incredibly realistic.

I’ve read TBC twice, but the sheer scale of the cruelty and narcissism of this woman stuns me every time. In Jane of Lantern Hill, at least Robin loves her Jane. Mrs Frederick doesn’t. Valancy is always, always her scapegoat. Not the tiniest bit of concern or consciousness that that’s her DAUGHTER. She’s a monster. It’s sad that mothers like this do exist in the world, and all I can say is no one should have to live through that, much less 29 years of it :(( Hugs to Valancy.

#The Blue Castle #The Blue Castle book club #Mrs Frederick #Valancy Stirling #LM Montgomery #I loathe her with a passion

[everythinglucymaudmontgomery]

A little Blue Castle love.

#lucy maud montgomery #l.m. montgomery #lm montgomery #the blue castle #the blue castle fanart #valancy stirling #barney snaith #john foster #book quotes #book quote

[kehlana-wolhamonao3]

Cissy's sister!

This one is quite an AU of Blue Castle!

Basically, I wanted to explore how different would Valancy be if she was born as Roaring Abel's daughter and how it would influence her relationship with Barney. I like her involvement with the Stirlings too much though to give it up, so I made up a Roberta Stirling who eloped with Abel, had a short, tempestuous marriage with him and died giving birth to Valancy. He hires a wet nurse for her, married her soon after and she in turn gives birth to Cissy, so while they are half-sisters, only Valancy is related to the Stirlings.

Here is a very rough draft of the beginning:

The fact whether Valancy herself should be accepted as part of the Stirling clan had remained a hotly debated issue since the day she was born and her mother, Roberta Gay nee Stirling, died in childbirth. Roberta, ever a rebel among the staid and utterly respectable Stirlings, fell passionately and disastrously for the handsome, wild Abel Gay, a carpenter, blasphemer and a shameless town drunk, and eloped with him to the horror of her family. Their marriage, filled with volatile quarrels mixed with passionate reconciliations, lasted little above a year before it met its tragic end. During that time, Roberta had been considered dead by her relations, but her actual death while leaving behind a baby complicated the matter. Should the Stirlings recognise little Valancy?

“She’s a daughter of that sinner Abel Gay,” pointed Isobel Wallace nee Stirling distastefully. “Can it be expected that she’ll grow up into anybody we want to have associated with our family?”

“It’s extremely doubtful,” agreed gravely James Stirling who, at thirty, was already reputed to be very clever and was therefore the clan oracle—brains being none too plentiful in the Stirling connection. “Especially considering how easily her mother abandoned all decency in marrying him.”

“Roberta made her own bed,” Benjamin threw in his own agreement. “She should have expected that no child of such union could ever be recognised by us as kin. Roaring Abel’s daughter!”

“But Roberta is dead,” interceded Frederick, always the most soft hearted of the siblings, as was well known. Amelia, his bride of not yet a year, sent him an exasperated look. She had no pity for Roberta, whose scandalous elopement completely overshadowed her own marriage into the Stirling family which took place two weeks later. Nobody talked about a boring union between Amelia Wansbarra, determinedly respectable in face of her own father’s eccentricities, and the second youngest son of Jacob Stirling, when they could gossip about the elopement of the groom’s sister instead. Amelia didn’t forgive Roberta for it yet and she didn’t think she ever would. “The child is blameless, whatever her parents are guilty of. And as for her upbringing, do we really intend to leave the poor newborn baby to be brought up by Abel Gay? Surely people would talk about that.”

That hit a string with his family, as he predicted. The Stirlings feared and hated nothing more than a scandal – the main reason for their immediate cutting off Roberta – and the thought of being talked about as heartless and neglectful for refusing to take care of Roberta’s orphaned child didn’t sit well with them.

“She is our niece, whoever her father is,” acknowledged Herbert reluctantly. While he wasn’t as soft as Frederick, he was known for his abhorrence of conflict, a rare trait in the connection. “And Abel hardly has the means to take care of her properly.”

“The baby probably won’t last long anyway,” sniffled Mary, Wellington’s new wife. “I’ve heard she looks sickly.”

“Poor little lamb,” said Cousin Georgiana softly. Widely considered a hopeless old maid at thirty four, her opinions never carried much weight within the clan, but everyone was used to having her around. “Motherless from the day she was born!”

The Stirlings shifted uncomfortably. It was all well and proper to cut off the fruit of sin, but it was a bit harder when reminded that this fruit was at present a days old baby.

“We can’t ignore the child’s existence,” announced Jacob Stirling, the patriarch of the clan, ending the discussion. “It would be different if Roberta was alive – she made her own bed, as Benjamin rightly said – but her death changed things. This baby is half Stirling and she will be regarded as such. We can’t allow her to grow up in poverty and squalor unbecoming of the family. We would fail in our Christian duty.”

“But who is going to take her in?” asked Isobel with a frown. “I can’t – I have my boys to think of.”

“Well, it can’t be me,” said Herbert matter-of-factly. “I’m a bachelor.”

He had his sights set on Alberta Monroe, the most beautiful girl in the province, but since he was still working on climbing the ladder in the timber company he’d started to work for recently and his chosen bride was just sixteen, he did not expect to marry any time soon.

“Of course nobody considers you,” said his mother with an eyeroll. She was a thin, strong woman, with a long wrinkled face and sharp grey eyes which were still able to scare any of her seven remaining children into submission, even self-important James and vicious Isabel. Roberta was the only one who dared to rebel against her, but Roberta was dead now. “It’s obvious that the care of the child should go to a married couple.”

The married among her children – James, Benjamin, Isabel, Wellington and Frederick – looked at her in apprehension of hearing her verdict.

“I and your father can’t be expected to take such a responsibility so late in life,” stated Ruth Stirling firmly. “Especially since Mildred is still under our care. Isabel, as she just said, has two young children of her own; it would be hardly kind to burden her with another baby, especially a sickly one as this one is rumoured to be. I don’t think Benjamin’s father-in-law would welcome Roaring Abel’s child under his roof and we don’t want to spoil your relationship with him, Benjamin.”

Benjamin, who was a clerk in Mr Frost’s general store and, after marrying his boss’s only daughter, had reasonable expectations of buying into the business and inheriting it in its entirety one day, nodded sagely at that.

“Neither would it be wise to upset dear Mary’s father or indeed dear Mary herself mere weeks after her wedding,” continued Mrs Stirling. Marrying Mary Elliot was undoubtedly Wellington’s biggest achievement – Mary’s family was the richest this side of Port Lawrence – and making things difficult in his marriage was the last thing anybody in the Stirling clan intended to do. “Which leaves us with James or Frederick.”

James grimaced. The thought of taking in a baby – an offspring of his wild sister and the notorious Abel Gay no less! – didn’t sit well with him. He might have caved in for the reputation of generosity and benevolence it would give him though if his wife, a timid, pretty little thing, didn’t interject on the matter.

“Oh, let us take her, James!” she pleaded, her blue eyes imploring. “I’d love nothing more than to take care of a baby and since God hasn’t blessed us with one yet…”

She trailed off, seeing the clear refusal in her husband’s face even before he spoke.

“We can’t possibly do that, my dear,” said James condescendingly. “You have to think about your health first. It’s too delicate – much too delicate – to handle such a huge burden as a baby.”

Alice looked like she wanted to protest, but she didn’t, of course. He trained her better than that. James barely restrained a pleased smile at her deferring to his wisdom.

Nobody tried to quarrel with James or defend Alice; this was not how things were done in the Stirling clan. All eyes turned to Frederick and Amelia instead. They’ve been married for a year already, but didn’t have children of their own yet. Amelia was the only daughter of Amos Wansbarra who was neither rich nor completely respectable; there was no need to take into account neither her own nor her family’s opinions. And everybody knew that soft hearted Frederick could be talked into it.

As it turned out, they didn’t even have to talk him into it – to the horror of his wife, he volunteered.

“Of course Amelia and I will take her,” he announced cheerfully. “We have enough space and I dare say that Amelia would welcome something to do while I’m at work.”

Amelia stiffened at the implication that she didn’t have enough to keep her busy even without taking in the baby of a woman she disliked and a man whom she abhorred, but she didn’t dare to quarrel in the presence of the whole clan. Her position in it was still too tentative for her to risk it. She forced herself to smile.

“Of course,” she said with much less convincing enthusiasm. “We’ll do our best to bring up this girl as a good, obedient Christian.”

Everything agreed upon, the only thing which remained was to communicate the matter to Abel Gay, which they promptly did after Roberta’s funeral.

Abel laughed in their faces.

#the blue castle fanfic #the blue castle fanfiction #the blue castle #the blue castle book club #valancy stirling