#barney snaith

[thesweetnessofspring]

Barney: I could be a murderer!

Barney:

And I have a demure little tame owl. Name, Leander. I brought him up from a baby and he lives over on the mainland and chuckles to himself o’ nights.

Yeah bro you're cold blooded for sure.

[thedogbard]

blue castle book notes

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Valancy, who had spent so many happy wakeful hours of night lying by that window, now paid the price of them all in this one night of misery.

VALANCY, JUST ROLL OVER AND TALK TO HIM FOR. GOD’S. SAKE.

One of them was of Barney taunting her with having tricked him. In her dream she lost her temper and struck him violently on the head with her rolling-pin. He proved to be made of glass and shivered into splinters all over the floor. She woke with a cry of horror - a gasp of relief - a short laugh over the absurdity of her dream - a miserable sickening recollection of what had happened.

Very realistic. And tragically funny. And also - ‘shivered into splinters’ rather than ‘shattered’? 10/10 excellent writing.

Valancy knew, as people sometimes know things - inescapably, without being told - that he was not in the house or Bluebeard’s Chamber. There was a curious silence in the living room. A silence with something uncanny about it. The old clock had stopped. Barney must have forgotten to wind it up, something he had never done before.

OH THIS PARAGRAPH. IT HAS LAYERS.

So, knowing Barney’s gone is an intuitive thing - which, in itself, is possible and believable. Then it is revealed that it is also a literal physical thing - not just that it’s ‘too quiet’, but that it literally is too quiet. Because the clock has stopped. Because Barney was too distraught to wind it up.

On the metaphorical level?

BECAUSE HE’S TRYING TO STOP TIME. TRYING TO PREVENT THE YEAR FROM PASSING. TRYING TO STOP VALANCY DYING. HE DOESN’T WANT TIME TO CONTINUE. HE TRIED TO STOP IT. UNCONSCIOUSLY. OR CONSCIOUSLY. WHICHEVER. THEY’RE BOTH FINE.

*screams*

Yet the curious numbness that pervaded her being was in a way worse than pain. It was as if something in her had died.

This very very accurately describes how I feel when I’m dealing with shock or grief (or both).

She must know.

Great chapter ending.

[wildhoneyvalancy]

Most happy endings are a concession to conformity, unfortunately.

[pureanonofficial]

L.M. Montgomery + "amused gnome"

"I'll never get as good a wife as you, Aunt Catherine," said Roger with a little whimsical smile that gave him the look of an amused gnome.

The Tryst of the White Lady (1922) describing Roger Temple.

He had been crawling out from under his car then, too, and he had given her a cheerful grin as she went by—a little, whimsical grin that gave him the look of an amused gnome.

The Blue Castle, Chapter VI (1926) describing Barney Snaith.

"Your old Great-aunt Nancy over there at Priest Pond detests me," he said, with the little whimsical smile that sometimes gave him the look of an amused gnome.

Emily's Quest, Chapter IV (1927) describing Dean Priest.

[deemoyza]

OMG y'all, it's THEM! 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

by BookishPalette, available on Etsy!

Here's the artist's Instagram, send them lots of love for this! 💙💙💙💙

[ariadnethedragon]

THE BLUE CASTLE by L.M MONTGOMERY

“You're in the very core of my heart. I hold you there like a jewel. Didn't I promise you I'd never tell you a lie? Love you! I love you with all there is of me to love. Heart, soul, brain. Every fibre of body and spirit thrilling to the sweetness of you. There's nobody in the world for me but you, Valancy."

[taciturn-nerd]

Valancy: [Quotes John Foster yet again] B: If you love him so much why don't you marry him? Valancy: Well, maybe if I met him before I met you I would have! B: [Laughing and very conflicted]

[jomiddlemarch]

So, I finally read The Blue Castle and I didn't find myself as moved by it as I would have expected, given the adulation it receives on Tumblr from mutuals. It's not a book I would have resonated with more as a child or teenager (as I did with the whole Anne series, minus Windy Poplars) but as a very adult adult (middle-aged mom), I also am not finding that it grabs me.

I think it's partly Valancy's arc-- when she gets out and starts taking care of Cissy, I was getting engrossed, but the switchover to the marriage to Barney left me kind of flat and I think that might be because compared to some other LMM heroines, when Valancy comes into her own, she is relatively storyless-- she derives intense pleasure and meaning from being, from experiencing the woods/nature, which is great but not something I get engrossed with. Barney, who is the storyteller of the two, is hidden away in his Bluebeard's writing room and even his work is more descriptive than plotty. Neither Valancy nor Barney seem especially interested in other people, which again, fine, just not characters who make me want to think about them for a long time

I also think the juxtaposition of the melodrama (the mixed up letters, nearly getting hit by a train, secret millionaire) and the nature encomiums doesn't work for me or at least, it doesn't feel as weirdly intriguing as Mistress Pat's obsession with Silver Bush.

Valancy and Barney don't feel as earned to me as Anne and Gilbert of Pat and Hilary, which maybe just speaks to my preference for slow burn, friends/frenemies-to-lovers, and they aren't as arresting as the Emily-Dean-Teddy love triangle.

This isn't a persuasive essay trying to convince anyone not to love this book. I'm just enjoying exploring why it didn't get me in the feels in the same way as many of LMM's other works. I'm glad I read it and I'm really enjoying reading other people's insights/takes.