Commentary on Chapter 28 of The Blue Castle
The first days of the Valarney marriage aren’t told in detail. Why? Because of sex.
We are entering the phase where I read a sexual subtext into everything.
“The Stirling clan—with the insignificant exception of Cousin Georgiana”
Aww. Why “insignificant”?
“Valancy, bareheaded, with stars in her eyes. Barney, bareheaded, smoking his pipe. But shaved. Always shaved now, if any of them had noticed it.”
Barney is shaving because otherwise his beard tickles Valancy.
“I’m really quite a middle-aged dog. Thirty-five, if you’re interested in knowing.”
So we learn Barney’s age in a somewhat clumsy exposition. But I am glad to know.
“Valancy was happy—gloriously and entirely so. She seemed to be living in a wonderful house of life and every day opened a new, mysterious room.”
I love the second sentence. Another Bluebeard allusion?
“It was in a world which had nothing in common with the one she had left behind—a world where time was not—which was young with immortal youth—where there was neither past nor future but only the present. She surrendered herself utterly to the charm of it.
The absolute freedom of it all was unbelievable. They could do exactly as they liked. No Mrs. Grundy. No traditions. No relatives. Or in-laws.”
Part of the wish-fulfillment comes from the total lack of responsibility permitted by her impending death. That’s why the book’s ending is a tiny bit more ambivalent than you might think.
“Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away,” as Barney quoted shamelessly.”
The quote is from a hymn from 1875. I love how it applies to Barney’s background as well as Valancy’s, as we will learn.
“But it’s a lovely spread,” said Valancy, with a kiss”
Did Valancy just kiss Cousin Georgiana? That’s sweet.
“Valancy thought she was almost pretty in that mirror. But that may have been because she had shingled her hair.”
“This was before the day of bobs and was regarded as a wild, unheard-of proceeding—unless you had typhoid. When Mrs. Frederick heard of it she almost decided to erase Valancy’s name from the family Bible.”
When does this book take place? I still think it is the 1920s and Deerwood simply did not catch up to the fashion.
“Barney cut the hair, square off at the back of Valancy’s neck, bringing it down in a short black fringe over her forehead. It gave a meaning and a purpose to her little, three-cornered face that it never had possessed before. Even her nose ceased to irritate her.”
I like how she becomes prettier with a different hair-style that suits her. There is a lesson in this that I can’t articulate just now.
“Her eyes were bright, and her sallow skin had cleared to the hue of creamy ivory. The old family joke had come true—she was really fat at last—anyway, no longer skinny. Valancy might never be beautiful, but she was of the type that looks its best in the woods—elfin—mocking—alluring.”
I like this. Her sallow skin and thin frame were caused by being indoors and inadequate nourishment.
I also like that Valancy is “not conventionally attractive but charismatic”. There are not many young female protagonists who are that.
prguitarman
gummygunk
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
ellievsbear
kaledo-art
baratheonpilled
