I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith)

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Product:	I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
Date:	16.08.00 (698 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Charming, timeless, hugely enjoyable, beautifully written

Disadvantages: Not enough people have read it!

“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” So begins Dodie Smith’s charming, timeless novel of adolescent angst and family loyalties. It is hard not to fall immediately in love with a book that begins in such a way, and I defy you not to adore this book, no matter what age you are.

You see, until recently, this classic tale of 17 year old Cassandra Mortmain and her struggle to ‘capture’ the essence of her eccentric, bohemian family and the crumbling castle they call home, has often been relegated to ‘teen fiction’ sections in bookshops. The introduction to the Virago Modern Classics edition, by Valerie Grove (who also wrote a biography of the author called ‘Dear Dodie’), explains her aim to widen the audience of the novel, as it was never originally intended just for children. She also lists the huge number of famous writers who have been influenced by reading the novel, and says that once most people read it, they cannot help but recommend it to others and pass it along as a kind of literary family heirloom.

I had read so many reviews raving about this book that I felt I had to try it for myself. I did not put it down all night and read until the early hours so I could finish it. It is exquisitely written (in the form of Cassandra’s journal) and so convincingly recreates the emotional experience of being a teenage girl. The trials and tribulations of the family and their many misadventures will keep you hooked until the very end…and you will not want it to end!

It is a book worthy to be mentioned in the same light as the best of Jane Austen’s work, or any of the Bronte sisters’ – it has the same kind of charm, amusing details and emotional truth. Cassandra, and the other characters, are memorable and lovable, you really feel you have come to know them through reading this. It is wryly amusing and also, at times, heartbreaking.

Dodie Smith is perh
aps best known as the author of The One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but she really deserves to be remembered for I Capture The Castle – many people consider it a masterpiece, and I cannot disagree.

She wrote the novel in a fit of homesickness for England, having moved to Hollywood with her husband during the war; and along with ‘capturing’ 1930’s England, she has captured many reader’s hearts. Buy a copy and allow yourself to be captured, too. You will thank me! :-)

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