I Capture the Castle by Dodie SmithMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I didn't want this book to end. I didn't want Cassandra and all the wonderfully eccentric Mortmains to disappear the way characters do when you turn the final page. I read extremely slowly to keep it going longer.
Oh, and now they've gone. The Cottons have vanished and Mortmain has gone back to his gatehouse and the castle is quiet... just what is Cassandra doing with herself? She won't be writing in her journal, or making a new dress or even swimming in the moat. Perhaps she's listening to the wireless and tending the vegetable patch in between writing stories.
I adore this book from start to finish, but I do wish I had found it a bit earlier. I think it would be even more wonderful to read at 18 rather than 33. But it's wonderful. Wonderful!
This is a book to inspire one to keep a journal and to try to see the romance in one's surroundings. Maybe a bit easier if one is 17 and lives in a castle, but still. Even passing clouds have their romance.
There are also a few lessons about emotional honesty here. Cassandra is a lovely narrator because she is completely honest with herself about her feelings. She keeps no secrets from her journal, which is what makes it so refreshing and lively to read.
Cassandra is remarkably poised and articulate, considering she's suffering from the feverish delusions of first love for part of the book. She never seems to say the wrong thing and she seems very mature in how she behaves with the adults around her.
So it struck me as odd how often other characters referred to her as a 'child'. I wouldn't expect a full-grown young woman of 17 to be perceived to be a child by anyone, let alone by a young man of 25 or so. That was the only bit of the book that felt 'off' to me.
I especially enjoyed Cassandra's observations of her new American friends and the way their habits differed from the English ways of doing things. It was all totally accurate, and still relevant now. I laughed at how she noticed how they used their knife and fork and how they pronounced certain words differently. I imagine Dodie Smith must have looked for some Americans to observe while writing this book.
I Capture the Castle is going straight to my 'treasured favorites' shelf, if I have such a thing.
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