I Capture the Castle

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I Capture the Castle
Icapturethecastle.jpg
First British edition, William Heinemann, 1949
Author Dodie Smith
IllustratorRuth Steed, from sketches by the author
CountryUnited Kingdom, United States, Canada
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Set in Suffolk and London, 1930s
Publisher William Heinemann (UK); McClelland and Stewart (CA); Little, Brown (US)
Publication date
1948
Media typePrint: hardback
OCLC 24724940
823.914

I Capture the Castle was Dodie Smith's first novel, written during the Second World War when she and her husband Alec Beesley, a conscientious objector, moved from their native England to California. Smith was already an established playwright and later became famous for writing the children's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians .

Contents

The novel concerns an eccentric family struggling to live in genteel poverty in a decaying castle during the 1930s. The first-person narrator is Cassandra Mortmain, who tells the story through her journal. It is a coming-of-age story in which Cassandra becomes a young woman and experiences her first love.

In 2003 the novel was listed at number 82 in the BBC's survey The Big Read. [1]

Plot

The novel takes place between April and October in a single year in the 1930s. Ten years before, widower James Mortmain took out a forty-year repairing lease on a dilapidated but beautiful castle, hoping it would inspire him and cure his writer's block. He has been unable to write anything since the success of his first book, Jacob Wrestling (a reference to Jacob wrestling with the angel), an innovative and "difficult" modernist novel that made his name internationally. So far, his family has survived on royalties from that book, but they are dwindling to nothing. Now they are selling off the furniture to buy food.

His family consists of:

As the novel opens, Rose and Cassandra learn that their new landlords are two rich and handsome young American brothers, who have arrived at nearby Scoatney Hall.

Rose determines to marry Simon, declaring she would marry the Devil himself to escape poverty.

The brothers are excited to meet James Mortmain, whose book they admire, and are amused by the eccentric, bohemian family. However, when they pay a call the following day, Rose flirts blatantly with Simon and makes herself look ridiculous. Both brothers are repelled by this display and, as they walk away, Cassandra overhears them resolving to drop all acquaintance. After an amusing episode involving a fur coat, however, all is forgiven and the two families become good friends. Cassandra and Topaz scheme to make Rose's wish come true by getting Simon to fall in love with her and propose. The plan succeeds.

While Rose and Topaz are in London with Mrs Cotton to purchase Rose's wedding trousseau, Cassandra and Simon spend the evening together, and they kiss. Cassandra becomes obsessed with Simon. She suffers terrible guilt since he is Rose's fiancé, but she also begins to have misgivings about the marriage, since Rose's letters are full of the luxuries she's enjoying, with no mention of Simon at all.

Stephen, noticing Cassandra's unhappiness, offers to marry her. She declines saying she doesn't love him, and encourages him in his emerging career as a model and film actor. She and Thomas concoct a scheme to help their father overcome his writer's block by the drastic expedient of imprisoning him in a medieval tower.

Meanwhile, unnoticed by everyone but Stephen, Rose and Neil have been falling in love. When they eventually elope, Simon is left heartbroken, but Cassandra becomes hopeful. Before Simon returns to the States, he comes to see her. Cassandra deflects the conversation at a moment when she thinks he is about to propose, in the belief that he is still in love with Rose. The book closes on an ambiguous note, with Cassandra reminding herself that Simon has promised to return and closing her journal for good by reasserting her love for him.

Adaptations

Critical reception

On 5 November 2019, the BBC News listed I Capture the Castle on its list of the 100 most influential novels. [8]

I Capture the Castle was cited by Armistead Maupin as an influence on his novel Maybe the Moon , which he also structured as a diary. [9]

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References

  1. "The Big Read". BBC. April 2003, retrieved 26 October 2012
  2. Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle. London: Samuel French. OCLC   314700197.
  3. "Hayley is About to Grow up". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 30, no. 38. 20 February 1963. p. 1 (Teenagers' Weekly). Retrieved 15 September 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  4. 1 2 3 Gritten, David (11 July 2003). "The coming of age of a much-loved story". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  5. Quinn, Anthony (4 February 2014). "I Capture The Castle (PG)". The Independent . Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  6. "I Capture the Castle review – musical labour of love oozes romance". TheGuardian.com . 9 April 2017.
  7. Gioia, Michael (24 January 2013). "Pace University Will Offer Free Concert Readings of Drew Gasparini and Alex Brightman's Make Me Bad Musical". Playbill . Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  8. "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News . 5 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019. The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.
  9. Summers, Sue (6 April 2003). "Her castle was her home". The Guardian. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 17 February 2023.