The Blue Castle characters

Valancy Stirling

Also known as Doss, Moonlight, Valancy Jane

The plain, timid twenty-nine-year-old spinster of the Stirling clan who, told she has only a year to live, casts off her family's tyranny to live for herself and find love. She has long escaped into a private daydream she calls her Blue Castle.

As drawn: A small, insignificant-looking woman of twenty-nine with straight, thin, lustreless black hair worn short, fine straight black brows, and distinctive queer, slanted elfin eyes set in a little three-cornered face; sallow-skinned and very thin ("scrawny") at first, later filling out with a short black fringe and skin cleared to creamy ivory.

Bonds:AmeliaMother and daughterCousinCousinsBenjaminUncle and nieceJamesUncle and niece

Barney Snaith

Also known as Bernard Redfern, John Foster

The notorious, gossiped-about outlaw living on an island in Lake Mistawis whom Valancy asks to marry her; rumored a jail-bird and criminal, he is secretly the nature-writer John Foster and the estranged son of a patent-medicine magnate.

As drawn: A raffish, disreputable-looking man of thirty-five with overlong tawny hair dashed with red, dark-brown eyes, ears that stick out just enough to look alert, a single straight eyebrow, and something a little grim about the jaw; often unshaven and grease-stained in muddy overalls, clean-shaven after marrying.

Bonds:AbelCompanions

Amelia Stirling

Also known as Mrs. Frederick, Mrs. Frederick Stirling, Mrs. Stirling

Valancy's cold, controlling widowed mother, who keeps up appearances, brooks no opposition, and sulks for days when offended.

As drawn: An elderly matron with the airs of an insulted duchess; a prim, dictatorial manner.

Bonds:ValancyMother and daughterCousinHousehold relatives

Cousin Stickles

The elderly poor relation who lives with Valancy and her mother, sharing the housework and echoing Mrs. Frederick's disapproval of Valancy.

As drawn: An old, dependent household relation of dour, fault-finding disposition.

Bonds:ValancyCousinsAmeliaHousehold relativesJamesCousinsCousinCousins

Olive Stirling

Valancy's cousin, the acknowledged beauty and paragon of the whole Stirling clan, engaged and endlessly admired, held up to Valancy her whole life as everything she is not.

As drawn: A stunning young woman with rich golden-brown hair elaborately dressed under a sparkling bandeau, large brilliant blue eyes with thick silken lashes, a rose-and-snow complexion, fine white regular teeth, and a dimple; a slightly heavy mouth.

Bonds:ValancyFamily contrasts

Abel Gay

Also known as Roaring Abel, A. Gay

A hard-drinking, blaspheming old carpenter living "up back" near Mistawis whose household Valancy joins to nurse his dying daughter; loud, gallant, and fiercely protective of Valancy against the Stirlings.

As drawn: A big, powerful old man, strong enough to hurl a grown man over a garden fence; a pipe-smoker, often a little drunk.

Bonds:CeciliaFather and daughterBarneyCompanionsCousinSocial acquaintancesJamesLuggage courier

Cecilia Gay

Also known as Cissy

Roaring Abel's frail, dying daughter, disgraced and abandoned, whom Valancy comes to nurse and befriend in her final months.

As drawn: Once a pretty, slight, blossom-like girl with soft golden hair, clear waxen features, and large beautiful blue eyes; now wasted and broken, with hollow cheeks marked by little scarlet spots and enormous eyes wept nearly of their beauty.

Bonds:AbelFather and daughter

Benjamin Stirling

Valancy's wealthy, childless widower uncle, fond of tiresome riddles, whose money and will keep the family deferential; quick to declare Valancy "dippy" when she rebels.

As drawn: A wheezy, pussy-mouthed old man with great pouches under his eyes.

Bonds:ValancyUncle and nieceWellingtonStirling relativesCousinFamily relatives

James Stirling

Also known as Jim

The clan's reputedly clever oracle, sarcastic and self-important, who writes controversial letters attacking Modernism and appoints himself Valancy's stern would-be rescuer.

As drawn: A handsome, solemn, black-haired man with a sarcastic, trap-like mouth and iron-grey side-burns.

Bonds:ValancyUncle and nieceCousinCousinsWellingtonStirling relativesCousinFamily relatives

Wellington Stirling

Valancy's uncle who fulfilled the clan ideal by "marrying money," given to a pig's-whisper teasing and to branding Barney a criminal.

As drawn: A man with a long, pallid face and thin, pale-yellow hair.

Aunt Wellington

Wellington's imperious wife, of whom Valancy stands in abject awe; a stickler for long, solemn graces who first decides something is "wrong" with Valancy.

As drawn: A stern, easily offended matron of exacting propriety.

Bonds:ValancyAunt and nieceJamesStirling relativesBenjaminStirling relativesCousinFamily relatives

Cousin Georgiana

A meek, dreary little Stirling cousin preoccupied with deaths and funerals, yet the one relative who does not wholly cast Valancy off, gifting her a candlewick spread.

As drawn: A small, timid woman who always looks as if she had just been starched and ironed.

Bonds:ValancyCousinsJamesFamily relativesBenjaminFamily relativesCousinCousins

Dr. Trent

The gruff, blunt, absent-minded Deerwood doctor and recognized heart specialist whose mistaken letter tells Valancy she has only a year to live, setting the whole story in motion.

As drawn: A gruff, outspoken old general practitioner over seventy years of age.

Dr. Stalling

The Presbyterian minister and Valancy's dreaded former spiritual guide, sent by the clan to command her home; a lifelong celibate who is routed by Roaring Abel.

As drawn: A stern clergyman with a long, bony, admonishing forefinger.

Bonds:ValancyDoctor-patient