The Blue Castle (Encore) | Part 1 of 16

Send Me To Sleep

This episode features host Andrew reading the first installment of Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1926 novel The Blue Castle as part of a sleep-focu

Key takeaways

• Valancy Stirling turns 29 unmarried and feels socially isolated within her demanding Sterling family clan in Deerwood.
• A persistent rainstorm cancels the annual engagement picnic hosted by Aunt Wellington, sparing Valancy from expected familial scrutiny.
• Valancy maintains a rich inner life through daydreams of a
• in Spain where she imagines herself as a cherished heroine with romantic suitors.
• She experiences unexplained heart pain and palpitations but plans to secretly consult Dr. Trent rather than face family drama or medical bills.
• The Sterling household enforces rigid, frugal rules, including strict meal times and a ban on indoor fires after May 24th.

Main topics

• Sleep-inducing audiobook narration
• Early 20th-century domestic fiction
• Family dynamics and social isolation

Notable quotes

"She would have gone with the rest of her clan to Aunt Wellington's engagement picnic, and Dr. Trent would have gone to Montreal."

Conclusion

Listeners seeking gentle, atmospheric storytelling will find this epis

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Tired of annoying ads like this one? Listen to Send Me To Sleep ad-free by signing up to a 7-day free trial in the description. As well as ad-free episodes, you'll get exclusive stories such as Sherlock and Mycroft, Winnie the Pooh, The Metamorphosis, and many more. Sign up today and cancel any time. Thanks for your support. Speaker 1 (0:22) And now for Speaker 2 (0:23) tonight's story. Hey, it's Andrew here, and I'm excited to share with you the newest show from Slumber Studios. It's called Sleepy History, and it's exactly what it sounds like. Intriguing stories, people, mysteries, and events from history, delivered in a supremely calming atmosphere. Explore the legend of Eldorado. See what life was like for Roman gladiators. Uncover the myths and mysteries of Stonehenge. You'll find interesting but relaxing episodes like these on Sleepy History, and the same great production quality you've come to know and love from Send Me to Sleep. So give it a listen, and perhaps you'll have another way to get a good night's rest. Just search Sleepy History in your preferred podcast player. Speaker 1 (1:20) Hey, it's Thomas here. I'm the host of Get Sleepy, another sleep-inducing podcast from the Slumber Studios Network. On Get Sleepy, you'll find hundreds of original bedtime stories and meditations to fall asleep to. Some of our listener favourites are our trips to the Rainy Day Bakery, our Sleepy History series, and our adaptations of classic tales like Beauty and the Beast. Everything is designed with your sleep in mind, so if you're looking for another great way to ease into a restful night's slumber, then just search for Get Sleepy on your favourite podcast player. I'll see you there my friends. Speaker 1 (2:06) Hey, it's Thomas here. I'm the host of Deep Sleep Sounds, another sleep-inducing podcast from the Slumber Studios Network. On the Deep Sleep Sounds podcast, you'll find hundreds of episodes featuring relaxing nature soundscapes, sleep music, calming white noise, and much more. Everything is designed with your sleep in mind. So, if you're looking for another great way to ease into a restful night's slumber, then just search Deep Sleep Sounds on your favourite podcast player. I'll see you there, my friends. Speaker 2 (2:49) Welcome to Send Me To Sleep. The place to find relaxing stories for a good night's rest. Speaker 2 (2:59) My name's Andrew. Thanks for joining me. Speaker 2 (3:04) Tonight, I'll be starting a new story. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Speaker 2 (3:14) First published in 1926, this story tells the tale of Valancy Stirling, a timid and submissive young woman living a life that is stifled by her overbearing family, who one day receives some shocking news that would alter the course of her life forever. Speaker 2 (3:38) A deeply emotional and philosophical story, The Blue Castle explores the true nature of what it means to be alive, whilst being filled with the charm, wit and humour we know to expect from Montgomery's work. Speaker 2 (3:57) This story contains themes of illness and death, though some of the language has been lightly edited to make it more suitable for sleep. Speaker 2 (4:10) Before we begin tonight's story, let's take a moment to get ourselves ready for sleep. Speaker 2 (4:17) Start by taking a deep relaxing breath. Speaker 2 (4:23) and settle your body in whatever way feels most comfortable. Speaker 2 (4:30) Now let any thoughts of the day drift away from your mind. Speaker 2 (4:37) and simply follow the sound of my voice. Speaker 2 (4:43) So let your eyes fall heavy Speaker 2 (4:47) and your breath soften. Speaker 2 (4:51) As we settle in. for a peaceful night's sleep. Speaker 2 (5:17) Chapter 1 Speaker 2 (5:21) If it had not rained on a certain May morning, Valencia Stirling's whole life would have been entirely different. Speaker 2 (5:32) She would have gone with the rest of her clan to Aunt Wellington's engagement picnic, and Dr. Trent would have gone to Montreal. Speaker 2 (5:45) But it did rain. And you shall hear what happened to her because of it. Speaker 2 (5:54) Valencia wakened early in the lifeless, hopeless hour just preceding dawn. Speaker 2 (6:03) She had not slept very well. Speaker 1 (6:07) One does not Speaker 2 (6:08) sleep well, sometimes, when one is 29 on the morrow and unmarried, in a community and connection where the unmarried are simply those who have failed to get a man. Speaker 2 (6:26) Deerwood and the Stirlings had long since relegated Valancy to hopeless old maidenhood. Speaker 2 (6:37) Valancy herself had never quite relinquished a certain pitiful, shamed, little hope that romance would come her way yet. Speaker 2 (6:49) Never until this wet, horrible morning when she wakened to the fact that she was 29 and unsought by any man. Speaker 2 (7:03) They... There lay the sting. Speaker 2 (7:08) Vancy did not mind so much being an old maiden. After all, she thought, being an old maiden couldn't possibly be as dreadful as being married to an Uncle Wellington, or an Uncle Benjamin, or even an Uncle Herbert. Speaker 2 (7:30) What hurt her was that she had never had a chance to be anything but an old maiden. Speaker 2 (7:38) No man had ever desired her. Speaker 2 (7:44) The tears came into her eyes as she lay there alone in the faintly graying darkness. Speaker 2 (7:53) She dared not let herself cry as hard as she wanted to, for two reasons. Speaker 2 (8:01) She was afraid that crying might bring on another attack of that pain around her heart. Speaker 2 (8:09) She had had a spell of it after she had got into bed, rather worse than any she had had yet. Speaker 2 (8:17) and she was afraid her mother would notice her red eyes at breakfast and keep at her with minute persistent mosquito-like questions regarding the cause thereof Speaker 2 (8:34) Suppose, thought Valancy with a ghastly grin. I answer with the plain truth. Speaker 2 (8:43) I am crying because I cannot get married. Speaker 2 (8:48) How horrified mother would be. though she is ashamed every day of her life, of her old maid daughter. Speaker 2 (8:59) But, of course, appearances should be kept up. Speaker 2 (9:05) It is not. Valancy could hear her mother's prim, dictatorial voice asserting. It is not maidenly to think about men. Speaker 2 (9:21) The thought of her mother's expression made Valancy laugh, for she had a sense of humor nobody in her clan suspected. Speaker 2 (9:32) For that matter, there was a good many things about Valancy that nobody suspected. Speaker 2 (9:40) But her laughter was very superficial. And presently, she lay there. But her laughter was very superficial. Speaker 2 (9:50) And presently, she lay there. A huddled, futile little figure, listening to the rain pouring down outside. and watching, with a sick distaste, the chill, merciless light creeping into her ugly, sordid room. Speaker 2 (10:15) She knew the ugliness of that room by heart. She knew it and hated it. The yellow painted floor, with one hideous hooked rug by the bed, with a grotesque hooked dog on it. always grinning at her when she awoke. The faded dark red paper. The ceiling discoloured by old leaks and crossed by cracks. The narrow, pinched little washstand. The brown paper lambrokin with purple roses on it. The spotted old looking glass with the crack across it, propped up on the inadequate dressing table. The jar of an ancient potpourri made by her mother in her mythical honeymoon. Speaker 2 (11:17) The shell-covered box, with one burst corner, which Cousin Stickles had made in her equally mythical girlhood. Speaker 2 (11:29) The beaded pincushion with half its bead fringe gone. The one stiff, yellow chair. The faded old motto, gone but not forgotten, worked in coloured yarn about great-grandmother Sterling's grim old face. The old photographs of ancient relatives long banished from the rooms below. Speaker 2 (12:01) There were only two pictures that were not of relatives. Speaker 1 (12:06) One, an Speaker 2 (12:08) old chromo of a puppy sitting on a rainy doorstep. Speaker 2 (12:14) That picture always made Valencia unhappy. Speaker 2 (12:19) That forlorn little dog crouched on the doorstep in the driving rain. Why didn't someone open the door and let him in? Speaker 2 (12:31) The other picture was a faded, past-perchured engraving