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The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Jul. 4th, 2022 11:59 amYes, it was time for yet another reread of The Blue Castle! I can never stay away for too long. This time I actually listened to a fan-made audiobook of it! It was delightful to experience it that way for a change, and the reader had a lovely rural ontario accent that's perfect for the book too. Though the files are unedited -- I think I need to take a pass through it all in audacity to even out some of the understandable stumbles in her reading, for when I inevitably listen to it again.
Each time I read The Blue Castle there's something new to pay attention to. Some of the things I thought about this time:
- Barney's friendship with Abel! It seems they have quite a habit of spending down-time together. What did Abel do with himself in the years before Barney came into town, or after Barney married Valancy and spent all his time with her instead? Abel must be real lonely, after Cissy dies and Barney disappears into wedded bliss.
( this one point is mild spoilers )
- Listening to the book instead of reading it meant I had more patience for the nature-descriptions part of the narrative, which was nice to discover, since there's rather a lot of that!
- And the last thing is.....back in January I went into a deep dive on investigating birth control availability in 1920's ontario because of this book. I read an entire master's thesis on the topic, as you do! Because I feel relatively confident that Barney and Valancy engaged in sexual activity, given the mentions of kisses and caresses and enjoying being held by your husband. But Valancy can't risk a pregnancy, given her health. So what did they do to prevent pregnancy?
Contraceptives were only legalized in Canada in 1969, which is kind of alarmingly recent, though the illegality allowed space for "when the public good required" which gave some doctors some leeway in providing contraception (and gave some doctors leeway into engaging in eugenics with their patients......).
Given what we see of Valancy and doctors, I feel confident Valancy would not have gone to a doctor to be fitted for a pessary, which was the main form of doctor-provided birth control available at the time. And although there's a chance Barney knows about condoms and knows where to find them, I also think it would be pretty unlikely they'd be able to get their hands on any in the rural Muskokas where they live during this year. Vaginal douching with lysol was a popular method of birth control in the 1920's-30's, but it was a) ineffective and b) dangerous, which is an unfortunate combination! Thankfully I don't think Valancy would have been susceptible to the kinds of advertising that lysol engaged in.
So my conclusion is that Valancy and Barney would be most likely to use natural birth control methods like pulling out, the rhythm method, or non-penetrative sex.
Now you know!!
Each time I read The Blue Castle there's something new to pay attention to. Some of the things I thought about this time:
- Barney's friendship with Abel! It seems they have quite a habit of spending down-time together. What did Abel do with himself in the years before Barney came into town, or after Barney married Valancy and spent all his time with her instead? Abel must be real lonely, after Cissy dies and Barney disappears into wedded bliss.
( this one point is mild spoilers )
- Listening to the book instead of reading it meant I had more patience for the nature-descriptions part of the narrative, which was nice to discover, since there's rather a lot of that!
- And the last thing is.....back in January I went into a deep dive on investigating birth control availability in 1920's ontario because of this book. I read an entire master's thesis on the topic, as you do! Because I feel relatively confident that Barney and Valancy engaged in sexual activity, given the mentions of kisses and caresses and enjoying being held by your husband. But Valancy can't risk a pregnancy, given her health. So what did they do to prevent pregnancy?
Contraceptives were only legalized in Canada in 1969, which is kind of alarmingly recent, though the illegality allowed space for "when the public good required" which gave some doctors some leeway in providing contraception (and gave some doctors leeway into engaging in eugenics with their patients......).
Given what we see of Valancy and doctors, I feel confident Valancy would not have gone to a doctor to be fitted for a pessary, which was the main form of doctor-provided birth control available at the time. And although there's a chance Barney knows about condoms and knows where to find them, I also think it would be pretty unlikely they'd be able to get their hands on any in the rural Muskokas where they live during this year. Vaginal douching with lysol was a popular method of birth control in the 1920's-30's, but it was a) ineffective and b) dangerous, which is an unfortunate combination! Thankfully I don't think Valancy would have been susceptible to the kinds of advertising that lysol engaged in.
So my conclusion is that Valancy and Barney would be most likely to use natural birth control methods like pulling out, the rhythm method, or non-penetrative sex.
Now you know!!
