was just thinking today that part of the beauty of "the blue castle" is the fact that the fairy tale ending comes on the tail of an excessively realist novel. like where else in montgomery's canon do we see a main side character have a baby out of wedlock and have a heroine address the social hypocrisy with which she's treated? where else do we have an important family like the stirlings that aren't wealthy, to the point where valancy has to worry about saving money and buying cheap beans for dinner? where else is the idea of the xenophobia in a small town--which has become romanticized in her other works--so bitterly mocked in the person of barney snaith? where else do we have a scene like the chidley corners dance, where physical and sexual violence simmer just under the surface?
it's easy to laugh gently at valancy's fairy tale happily ever after, but the book itself refuses to yield to "coziness" or a cottagecore fantasy because the things that valancy works through and experiences do have a dark and brutal edge. she's saved, in some ways through the power of narrative--but remember, maud seems to tell us, it is not so lucky for everyone.
