As a longtime lover of the Anne of Green Gables stories, I can't believe I had never heard of this novel. I finally read about it in the lovely booklovers' catalog Bas Bleu and immediately requested it from the library (sorry, lovely catalog--I promise to buy it soon!).
Montgomery's only novel for adults (though at my library, it's cataloged as YA), The Blue Castle is about Valancy, a 29-year-old mousy spinster living with her overbearing, unkind family and dreaming of life in her beautiful, imaginary Blue Castle. When Valancy learns that she has a fatal illness, she decides to stand up for herself
with her family and do what she wants to do--including getting a
job, asking a man to marry her and finding her Blue Castle in real life.
I utterly loved this novel, and would put it right up there with my favorite romances of the early 20th century, such as Daddy Long-Legs and I Capture the Castle.
I always love a quote about houses:
"Would you like a house like that, Moonight?" Barney asked … "No," said Valency, who had once dreamed of a mountain castle ten times the size of the rich man's 'cottage' and now pitied the poor inhabitants of palaces. "No. It's too elegant. I would have to carry it with me everywhere I went. On my back like a snail. It would own me -- possess me, body and soul. I like a house I can love and cuddle and boss."Me too!