This wonderful novel tells the story of seventeen-year-old, Cassandra and her extraordinary family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Cassandra's eccentric father is a writer whose first book took the literary world by storm but he has since failed to write a single word and now spends most of his time reading detective novels from the village library. Cassandra's elder sister, Rose - exquisitely beautiful, vain and bored - despairs of her family's circumstances and determines to marry their affluent American landlord, Simon regardless of the fact she does not love him. She is, in turns, helped and hindered in this by their bohemian step-mother Topaz, an artist's model and nudist who likes to commune with nature. Finally, there is Stephen, dazzlingly handsome and hopelessly in love with Cassandra. Amidst this maelstrom, Cassandra strives to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries, which candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has captured the heart of the reader in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.
This book is the winner of numerous awards
There are 416 pages in this book.
It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.
This book was published in 2003 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .
Dodie Smith was born in 1896. She made her name as a playwright before moving to the US in the 1940s where she began writing novels including I Capture the Castle in 1948 and her best-known work, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, in 1956.
This book contains the following story:
I Capture the Castle
This is the diary of Cassandra Mortmain, which tells of her extraordinary family and their crumbling castle home. Cassandra's father was once a famous writer, but now he mainly reads detective novels while his family slide into genteel poverty. Her sister Rose is bored and beautiful, and desperate to marry riches. Their step-mother Topaz has habit of striding through the countryside wearing only her wellington boots. But all their lives will be soon be transformed by the arrival of new neighbours from America, and Cassandra finds herself falling in love...
"This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met." -- J.K. Rowling
