The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery’s fifteenth book, was published in September 1926 by McClelland & Stewart and Frederick A. Stokes Company.
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Contents
About The Blue Castle Dedication Chapters Editions of The Blue Castle Reviews of The Blue Castle
About The Blue Castle
The Blue Castle focuses on twenty-nine-year-old Valancy Stirling, who breaks away from her oppressive family when she receives a letter that changes her life. It was preceded by Emily Climbs (1925) and followed by Emily’s Quest (1927).
This book is also noteworthy for being the only one of L.M. Montgomery’s books that does not have a Prince Edward Island setting. Instead, the book is set in the Muskoka region of Ontario, where Montgomery and her family vacationed for a few weeks during the summer of 1922.
Dedication
To
Mr. Ephraim Weber, M.A.
who understands the architecture of
blue castles
Montgomery’s dedication to her longtime correspondent Ephraim Weber does not appear in the initial McClelland & Stewart or Stokes editions, but it does appear in an early reprint edition by A.L. Burt Company (New York). Most reprint editions published since Montgomery’s death likewise omit the dedication.
Chapters
The book consists of forty-five untitled chapters.
Editions of The Blue Castle
McClelland and Stewart (Toronto) published the first Canadian edition of The Blue Castle in 1926. Later McClelland and Stewart editions included a Cavendish Library edition in 1947, a Canadian Favourites edition in 1972, and a new edition in 1989.
Frederick A. Stokes Company (New York) published the first U.S. edition of The Blue Castle in 1926. It is identical to the first Canadian edition. Stokes licensed reprint editions to A.L. Burt Company (New York) and Grosset and Dunlap (New York).
Hodder and Stoughton (London) published the first UK edition of The Blue Castle in 1926. George G. Harrap and Company (London) published a new edition in 1935.
Angus and Robertson (Sydney) published the first Australian edition of The Blue Castle in 1926, through its Cornstalk Publishing Company imprint. It published subsequent editions throughout the twentieth century.
Nimbus Publishing (Halifax) published The Blue Castle: The Original Manuscript, edited by Carolyn Strom Collins, in 2024.
Reviews of The Blue Castle
Reviews of The Blue Castle that have been located so far appeared in periodicals from Australia, Canada, Cuba, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Volume 3 of The L.M. Montgomery Reader includes the full text of twenty reviews of The Blue Castle.
“Admirers of [Anne of Green Gables] have followed [Montgomery] loyally and patiently in the hope that one day she would give them a story which would equal or surpass Anne in theme and reader interest. That day has arrived, and The Blue Castle is the story.”
—The Calgary Herald
“Unmistakably from first page to last an L.M. Montgomery novel, compact of sentiment, rosily trimmed with romance, peopled with beings drawn solely out of the imagination, but telling a well-made story with humor and pathos.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Written in Miss Montgomery’s usual easy style, with sly bits of humor here and there and some really fine descriptions of the Muskoka woods and our Canadian seasons. Many of these descriptions verge almost on poetry.”
—Bernice Clark, The Border Cities Star (Windsor, ON)
“A book that any daughter might allow her mother to read without fear of shocking her sensibilities.”
—The Australasian (Melbourne)
“As delightfully fresh and spontaneous a story as one can hope to look for and still less expect to find.”
—The Havana Post (Cuba)