I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
I admit that one of the reasons I picked up this book was because the cover has a blurb by J.K. Rowling. The great thing about writers is that they are also readers. The good ones were the bookish kids, just like me, always with a book somewhere in tow. As readers, they know a good book when they run across one. One of my favorite books of all time is Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I never would have picked it up if I hadn't read an article in Entertainment Weekly by Stephen King calling it one of the best books nobody was reading (at the time). I read it in hours, literally. I think I got home at three and by dinner time I was done. So considering J.K. Rowling has rapidly become one of my favorite authors (and not just because of Harry Potter), I felt confident this novel might just work for me.
It's the story of the Mortmain family. There's father James, stepmother Topaz (ok, that one almost tripped me up), children Rose, Cassandra, and Thomas, and Stephen Colly, who was sort of taken in and does odd jobs around the house. James Mortmain was once a writer. He wrote one book, which did really well in America, but hasn't gotten around to writing anything else. At this point I got a little worried. This sounds a little like Mr. Ramsay in the Virginia Woolf novel To the Lighthouse. Words cannot express the level of distaste I harbor for Virginia Woolf. But gratefully this is NOT Virginia Woolf. The Mortmains are living in a run-down castle with no heating or electricity, and sometimes no food, because they are dirt poor, unlike the Ramsays. There is no place in this novel for a pouting James Ramsay to whine about not getting to go to the damn lighthouse for half the book. The Mortmains do the best they can with what they have.
Cassandra is the narrator, and we are reading her diary. She wants to be a writer, and as you know, writers must write. So she is writing everything. I am inclined to like her a great deal because she apparently loves Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. That's my girl! Her language is quiet and detailed, but never boring. It's really lovely and occasionally very poetic.
The land on which their castle is located is owned by a family called the Cottons, and when the patriarch dies the two grandsons come from America to claim their inheritance. Rose sees her chance to raise the family out of poverty and grabs it with both hands, and the rest of the novel is about how the Cottons and the Mortmains come to relate to each other.
It ends with happiness and hope. The Mortmains are better off for the encounter with the Cottons and Cassandra's diary ends on a very hopeful note. She leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions about her relationship status. This is not an action-packed page turner or a bodice ripper. It's quiet and gentle and funny, but it still holds your interest. It is modern (for its time) and yet still has the feel of Bronte or Austen, and it works. It's not a bizarre, incongruous mash-up of styles. It's a worthy complement to the authors the character loves so much.
It's the story of the Mortmain family. There's father James, stepmother Topaz (ok, that one almost tripped me up), children Rose, Cassandra, and Thomas, and Stephen Colly, who was sort of taken in and does odd jobs around the house. James Mortmain was once a writer. He wrote one book, which did really well in America, but hasn't gotten around to writing anything else. At this point I got a little worried. This sounds a little like Mr. Ramsay in the Virginia Woolf novel To the Lighthouse. Words cannot express the level of distaste I harbor for Virginia Woolf. But gratefully this is NOT Virginia Woolf. The Mortmains are living in a run-down castle with no heating or electricity, and sometimes no food, because they are dirt poor, unlike the Ramsays. There is no place in this novel for a pouting James Ramsay to whine about not getting to go to the damn lighthouse for half the book. The Mortmains do the best they can with what they have.
Cassandra is the narrator, and we are reading her diary. She wants to be a writer, and as you know, writers must write. So she is writing everything. I am inclined to like her a great deal because she apparently loves Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. That's my girl! Her language is quiet and detailed, but never boring. It's really lovely and occasionally very poetic.
The land on which their castle is located is owned by a family called the Cottons, and when the patriarch dies the two grandsons come from America to claim their inheritance. Rose sees her chance to raise the family out of poverty and grabs it with both hands, and the rest of the novel is about how the Cottons and the Mortmains come to relate to each other.
It ends with happiness and hope. The Mortmains are better off for the encounter with the Cottons and Cassandra's diary ends on a very hopeful note. She leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions about her relationship status. This is not an action-packed page turner or a bodice ripper. It's quiet and gentle and funny, but it still holds your interest. It is modern (for its time) and yet still has the feel of Bronte or Austen, and it works. It's not a bizarre, incongruous mash-up of styles. It's a worthy complement to the authors the character loves so much.
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