The Blue Castle and Simplicity

Yesterday I finished reading The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I love Montgomery's work and this one is by far my absolute favourite. I read this book for the first time three years ago when I first began my simplicity journey. I didn't realize it then but the reason why I love this book so much is because it's a representation of the life I would like to live.



Looking over the lake at a large mansion Barney and Valancy have this conversation...

"Would you like a large house like that, Moonlight?" Barney asked once, waving his hand at it. He had taken to calling Valancy Moonlight and she loved it.
"No," said Valacny, 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 m 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. Just like ours here. I don't envy Hamilton Gossard 'the finest summer residence in Canada.' It is magnificent but it isn't my Blue Castle.

And so Valancy is right. The burdens of a big house and a big life to match are plentiful. A grand house requires money, time and energy. A life oozing possessions is a life of servitude to clean and care for them. A minimalist life is one of freedom to pursue your passions.

If you know a bit about L.M. Montgomery you know that she loved her Prince Edward Island above any other place in the entire world. After she married and left the Island she never did return. While living in Ontario she discovered Muskoka, around here known as Cottage Country where people come up from Southern Ontario and Toronto to spend the summer. She found this section of the world strikingly beautiful as well. So enamored was she that she ventured to set one book outside of PEI and that book was the Blue Castle. Obviously she held the region in very high regard.

This book is a venture in homesteading and self sufficiency. Montgomery's character Valancy retreats from the town and her oppressive clan to find a life of peace and tranquility in the forest she loved. While living "Up Back" Valancy found her Blue Castle living amongst nature; the water, the trees, the rocks and wildlife. She ventured into town when need arose but for the most part she stayed at home with her books, her companion, her cats and the life purposely and deliberately chosen.

I wonder if L.M. Montgomery ever dreamed of such a life. My guess is she probably did, and it is from her own desires to turn her back on modern society (and the burdens she bore from it) that the story "The Blue Castle" was born.