I Capture the Castle

Rating:
Summary: I wished I'd have had this when I was younger!
Review: This is a really wonderful book for those with a whimsical, romantic, but unconservative bent. Seventeen year old Cassandra, along with her unusual family, lives in a chilly dilapitaded English castle. Though they live in poverty, the strength of their imaginations, wit, and sense of fun, prevents one from feeling their lives are lacking. Many scenes are infused with a subtle otherworldliness, as are some of the characters. The tale is filled with the tricks ones mind can play on itself when in love and even Cassandras sister Rose, so determined to marry her way out of poverty, finds she cannot ignore the real thing when it comes along. Though she tries. Oddly, as a female, I had a lot more empathy for the male characters. Especially the gentle love-sick Stephen. The characters, while not sophisticated, are something finer, more brilliant, and fresh. Nothing new or original is said about love in this story, but it does take the essence of coming of age, longing, and struggle, and infuses it with a pensive magic. To say anything more would deprive one of the delightful details of this wonderful tale.

Rating:
Summary: Cassandra's World
Review: I knew that the book was good the moment I realized that I was enjoying it -- because the first time I read "I Capture the Castle", I was only ten years old. Furthermore, my mother was forty-five, and she loved it just as much as I did. And, now that I think of it, so did my grandmother (sixty-eight, I believe).

"I Capture the Castle" is an amazing novel set in the thirties, near the town of Godsend, somewhere in England. The book is told in the form of a journal; seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain, whose best poem was written on top of the henhouse (and it wasn't a good one at that), has finally given up on rhyme and meter, and has decided that the best way to train herself into "good writer" position would be to keep a journal in her own very unique shorthand.

Cassandra, her broody father, her eccentric stepmother Topaz, her older sister Rose, her younger brother Thomas, and Stephen (who helps with the gardening and things) all live in a large house -- well, mostly castle, but a bit house as well -- with very little money and not much hope ... until two strangers show up at their door after their car has been stuck in the mud, claiming to have seen some spirits dancing around atop the battlements.

Smith's style is whimsical at times, dead serious at others, but all the time managing to capture the reader's attention, as she captures the castle.

Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: I just finished this - thought it was great. Once the story got rolling I couldn't put it down. The characters are memorable - the setting intriguing. I'm sure I'll be picking this one up again to reread!

Rating:
Summary: A new favorite of mine!
Review: Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain lives a life of poverty is a crumbling castle in England. Her family consists of her father who was once a critically acclaimed author but hasn't been working in years; her eccentric step mother, Topaz; her dramatic and romantic sister, Rose; her younger brother, Thomas; and Stephen, who helps maintain the castle for free and is infatuated with Cassandra. Cassandra begins, one cold evening, sitting in her kitchen sink, to write a journal in order to teach her self how to read. The events that follow this decision will change her life forever. Her family meets the Cottons, two wealthy men from America named Simon and Neil. When Rose becomes attracted to Simon she begins to come up with a plan that could bring the Mortmain family out of poverty. What is she marries Simon? As the book progresses Cassandra deals with all the issues of growing up: love, trust, finding faith, and learning to understand her family and friends.

I have to admit the only reason I really read this book is because of JK Rowling's commentary of it on the cover. I learned quite quickly that I Capture the Castle was much different from Harry Potter. Written by Dodie Smith (who wrote 101 Dalmations which has been made into two movies by Disney) in the 1930s, I Capture the Castle manages to capture a young, charismatic narrator that you will fall in love with right away. Cassandra begins this book very much as a child but by the end she has not only "captured the castle" but has grown up into a sophisticated young woman. I very much enjoyed this book. There are a couple twists near the end that even I didn't expect to see. The characters are fascinating and very well drawn and it's written extremely well. I would recommend this novel to both the young and the young at heart. It's a very good book. I highly recommend you read it!

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Summary: I am Cassandra!
Review: (I save 10's for Dostoyevsky)

This book is a dear, wonderful tale of life and love and intellectual exploration. It is the story of Cassandra and her sister Rose; their adventures in castle and great house and village of England; touching on London high society, the art world, Druidic rites, and an American dowager who collects creative types.

When it opens, Cassandra and Rose are in dire poverty because their brilliant writer father is going through a long dry spell. Rose makes a wish by kissing a gargoyle 30 feet above their medieval kitchen for something to happen... anything! Of course her wish comes true. Enter Simon and Peter and many exciting events, including Cassandra being stranded penniless in London after midnight, and Rose being mistaken for an escaped circus bear.

Reminiscent of "As You Like It", with its daisy chain of infatuations, and peopled with delightfully real characters from the beautiful, gallant Steven to the bogus artist-model stepmother, this book is a joy to read from start to finish. I'm jealous of you if you haven't read it yet. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: A Lovely Narrator
Review: I CAPTURE THE CASTLE was recommended to me by an acquaintance when it became available a few years ago, in print after a long absence in the United States. It has become one of my favorite books not for it's depth or subject matter but for the shimmering state of existence it captures- that of a precocious girl becoming an intelligent young woman. Don't let the recent film adaptation prevent you from reading the book because its charm lies in the first person narration (something never captured in film) of Cassandra Mortmain. She chronicles her family's life in an old castle where her beautiful elder sister Rose chafes at her isolation and poverty, her father, the once promising author, continues to suffer from writer's block, his artist's model second wife, Topaz, makes the best of it, and the solid Stephen helps the family without pay. Their world is inevitably changed by the arrival of new American landlords and eligible bachelor brothers Simon and Neil Cotton.

However what could become a trite romance or standard coming of age story is carefully avoided by the thoughtful honesty of its narrator tempered by the comedy of the situations and by a hint of the sadness that accompanies all change. I confess I have purchased eight copies of the book and given them to friends because of the transitory feeling it so accurately grasps. Set in the 1930's, the narration still feels fresh even if the social codes have changed. This is unlike Dodie Smith's famous work, 101 Dalmatians, though, it is perhaps more like her plays, indeed, she even wrote a stage version of I CAPTURE THE CASTLE. It is an imminently readable and enchanting book.

Rating:
Summary: great!
Review: this book was really good i just finished it. i loved the characters although i wished the ending was a little different. i recomend it to anyone who loves the british!

Rating:
Summary: Over-Rated
Review: This book seemed "shallow" and "wandered" a great bit.

Rating:
Summary: Mixture of L.M. Montgomery and F. Scott Fitzgerald
Review: The method of telling the story reminds me heavily of Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery but the overall themes and characterizations remind me most of the Great Gatsby.

Nick Carraway, the narrator and protagonist of The Great Gatsby describes Jay Gatsby, all his excesses and his hangers on with a sense of detachment and mild amusement. Cassandra, the narrator and protagonist of I Capture the Castle takes the same approach with her description of the Cottons, who are visiting from America. In Cassandra's case, her family's extreme poverity heightens the divide between the two families and opens her eyes even wider to the oddities of the wealthy.

Rating:
Summary: Good romance, rich with mood and character
Review: This is a gently whimsical and vaguely gothic story told from the perspective of young Cassandra Mortmain, living with her eccentric, genteely impoverished family in an old English castle. Writing in her beloved journal, Cassandra, an aspiring writer, creates a clear picture of her castle home and her brilliantly bizarre family; genius novelist father James with a case of intense writer's block, sweet, bohemian stepmother Topaz, elder sister Rose and servant boy Stephen.

The novel picks up pace when the wealthy Cotton brothers move from America to their English estate, very close to Cassandra's castle. This sets life into hectic motion for all the family, particularly Cassandra and Rose. As Cassandra chronicles the goings on, she gradually, gracefully grows up. Ultimately, this is a story about the joy and pain of love, particularly when that love is unrequited.

While there are moments when characters behave, well, randomly (why in the world DOES Simon kiss Cassandra?), the book has a quirky, lovable charm and beauty. Cassandra's voice is fresh and unaffected, and the characters and surroundings are finely sketched. A good read for anyone, particularly imaginative teenagers.