On “I Capture the Castle”: A Book Review

First off, let me say that the past few weeks have been somewhat busy for me, including being sick, becoming thoroughly engrossed in making a new dress (post to come soon), and then experiencing a brief bout of writer’s block, so if this review seems a bit stiff please forgive me, I promise that future ones will be better.

To start off my series of what will hopefully be monthly book reviews, I have chosen one of my most favorite books, I Capture the Castle, written by Dodie Smith (author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians) in the 1940’s.

About the book…
I Capture the Castle follows the lives of the Mortmain family as seen through the eyes of 17 year old Cassandra Mortmain, who opens her narrative with the ever wonderful line of “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” and who has every intention to capture what goes on around her. Living in a dilapidated castle that they haven’t paid rent on for years, the Mortmain family has a number of problems ranging from leaky roofs and lack of furniture to, foremost and most pressing, almost no income. However, with the death of their landlord and the arrival of his two grandsons, Cassandra and her family are about to experience some changes for the better.

What I think…
I really love everything about this book from the characters to the setting to the plot. While it is a quick and light read, it isn’t one that you can just breeze your way through without paying attention; however, it is what I’d refer to as relaxing. I enjoy the fact that  I Capture the Castle is written as a journal, as it seem to me that there are so few authors who write novels in first person and do it well, and in the case of this book Smith did an excellent job. It’s funny and romantic, but neither genre is to the extreme where they dominate the book or allow it to be classified strictly as one or the other. It would definitely be considered a coming of age story, though. As a final point, there is a nice variety of character types presented, which really adds to the story. Some are more down to earth, others are more aloof and artsy, they range in age, they have differing opinions, they are both sensible and silly (if they were real, I’d be more than happy to become friends with almost any of them). And without a doubt, Cassandra, with her thoughts on her family and friends, is most certainly one of the more amusing and quirky narrators you’ll encounter in your readings.

To sum it all up…
I Capture the Castle is beautifully written with lovable characters, an engaging story line, and a number of delightful incidents (one of my favorites involving a bear skin coat) and is a book that I happily revisit again and again and am always ready to recommend.♥