I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dodie SmithEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-01
ISBN: 031231616X
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of I Capture the Castle
Book Review: Discovering oneself can be the most blissful and painful experience...yet.
Summary: 5 Stars
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain has asked for very few things in life: that her family would never reach that point known as abject starvation, that her father rouse himself enough to pick the pen up once again, and that no one turn them away from that tumbledown heap of ruins called the Castle (and more familiarly known as `home'). Even if they are practically *un*paying tenants.
Sensible, fiercely affectionate towards her beautiful (if slightly temperamental) elder sister, Rose, and aware of the infinite magnanimity of the world as compared to the transience of one person's existence, she takes each day as it comes and never lets herself become *too* jaded as another dusk unfurls into another dawn, their family's fortunes seemingly not ever showing signs of taking a turn for the good. There is simple joy to be had in finding a spot atop Belmotte Tower, with a view of the wheat field spread all around glinting drunkenly from the sun's rays, and jotting down into her journal both the curious and innocuous happenings in her and her family's life.
It is, however, with the somewhat surreal introduction of the brothers Simon and Neil Cotton that tumble Cassandra's relatively peaceful existence into disarray.
As coming-of-age novels go, I would admit to not immediately seeing "I Capture the Castle" as one. In some respects, I was more riveted with the bits of quirks inherent in the story. There is the paradox of the cold isolation and the elegant deterioration of the Castle itself. Half-standing walls vie for the same space as ivy creepers which lend the estate a sedate kind of beauty. Mists that come out of nowhere can enshroud the ruins like something out of a gothic tableau, while the next sunny day bathes those same walls with a warm, comfortable glow.
The characters themselves are a walking contradiction. The elder Mortmain sister, Rose, while blessed with looks, is filled more with bitterness for their dismal state of affairs. Their scrumptious stepmother, the glitteringly-named Topaz, has nocturnal forays atop the ramparts clad only in her nightgown, her `commune with nature' an oddity that is aptly fitting with *her* own nature. And yet she has managed to keep this family from totally unraveling.
Cassandra's father, who long-ago wrote a novel considered a masterpiece by the literary community (the contents of which are tantalizingly never fully disclosed), has now hit a wall and refuses to budge. He passes his days more like a hermit, his head up in the clouds, while his family is sunk deep in the ground with poverty. The only times there's a hint of animated life in his eyes is when he is quizzed by outsiders as to when they should expect his next novel.
His response is a snarl.
Simon Cotton is born in England but bred on the other side of the Atlantic, the resulting strange accent befuddling Cassandra at first. And if that were not enough, the jarringly peculiar and menacing dark beard he sports is at odds with someone his age, oftentimes preventing people from noticing how generous and kind he really is. His younger brother, Neil, is the full-blooded American. Jocular at one second, and brooding in the next. His American bent obvious in the sometimes faintly jeering attitude he has towards anything English. And yet he is quick to seek pardon if he thinks he has caused offense.
Cassandra's encounter with these Americans and their ways of thinking would almost always rattle her, compelling her to remark silently that "Americans do seem to say things which make the English notice England."
Then there's our young narrator. On the whole, content with her lot in life, yet she would not shirk from any opportunity that might just turn the fates in their favor. She is even-tempered and more tolerant than most, her vow to be a good writer (or, at least, a credible chronicler of the Mortmain family drama) making her an exceptional observer of events. On the outset, she knows her family more than, it seems, they know themselves. And yet, as the novel unfolds, she would find herself wondering just how much she might have misread the people around her.
And, perhaps, even herself.
Subtly engaging, unexpectedly poignant at times, and even witty with its bouts of one-liner maxims, Dodie Smith carves out a heroine worth adoring. Cassandra is on that ambiguous threshold of being a young girl who should have had so many teenage thrills as befits someone growing up, and being swayed headlong into full womanhood, as evidenced by the unnerving introspection she has had on occasion to indulge in. She can laugh and lark about just like any young, carefree kid, but she is also highly-sensitive of the feelings of others and is often crippled with annoyance with herself and with another person if they should cause her discomfort for being concerned over *them* in the first place.
Unquestionably proud of her family, she could also be thrown into pits of despair and mortification when one of them commits a faux pas in front of `sociable' company. More than once she has had to be the mature one among her relatives, while, at the same time, inwardly shaking with trepidation or embarrassment.
And it is with the unfurling of the first seeds of romantic love that she realizes the depths of her passion. She discovers a side of her nature that would cause her joy as well as grief. She may look unchanged on the outside but within there brews a turmoil the likes of which just might shake the very foundation of all that she has held eternal.
And what she fears most is the uncertainty of *who* might emerge by the time this havoc settles.
A tour de force, "I Capture the Castle" would ensnare one's attention with a quietly plucky heroine. There are no high-blazing action scenes or spine-tingling suspenseful moments in this novel, but the unhurried exploits and simply clever insights in life make this a veritable treasure.
Summary of I Capture the Castle
Now a major motion picture from the Academy Award-winning producer of Shakespeare in Love
I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has "captured the castle"--and the heart of the reader--in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.
I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has "captured the castle"--and the heart of the reader--in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain wants to become a writer. Trouble is, she's the daughter of a once-famous author with a severe case of writer's block. Her family--beautiful sister Rose, brooding father James, ethereal stepmother Topaz--is barely scraping by in a crumbling English castle they leased when times were good. Now there's very little furniture, hardly any food, and just a few pages of notebook paper left to write on. Bravely making the best of things, Cassandra gets hold of a journal and begins her literary apprenticeship by refusing to face the facts. She writes, "I have just remarked to Rose that our situation is really rather romantic, two girls in this strange and lonely house. She replied that she saw nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud."
Rose longs for suitors and new tea dresses while Cassandra scorns romance: "I know all about the facts of life. And I don't think much of them." But romantic isolation comes to an end both for the family and for Cassandra's heart when the wealthy, adventurous Cotton family takes over the nearby estate. Cassandra is a witty, pensive, observant heroine, just the right voice for chronicling the perilous cusp of adulthood. Some people have compared I Capture the Castle to the novels of Jane Austen, and it's just as well-plotted and witty. But the Mortmains are more bohemian--as much like the Addams Family as like any of Austen's characters. Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmations, wrote this novel in 1948. And though the story is set in the 1930s, it still feels fresh, and well deserves its reputation as a modern classic. --Maria Dolan
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