I Capture the Castle
I fell head over heels in love with I Capture the Castle the first time I read it.
When I was a kid I used to fall in love with books all the time. I read and re-read A Little Princess (which is a painfully soppy book to read as an adult) and swallowed Down a Dark Hall in one day when I was 13.
Books have changed, though, or I have changed. Perhaps books written for adults can get away with being more intellectual and less entertaining (though the books I've read as an adult which are supposed to be just entertaining are generally fairly repulsive). Whatever the case, I don't really fall in love with books anymore.
I Capture the Castle is an exception, and, in truth, I'm not sure why. A large part of it is that it's so funny; it makes me laugh out loud. The heroine, Cassandra, is also very attractive and very believable.
Dodie Smith wrote this book in the '30s. I think what she wanted to do was to reference Jane Austen and the Brontes but have a modern setting that allows her characters to reject some of the assumptions and plot conclusions in the Austen/Bronte books. In one passage, the two sisters start to talk about whether it would be better to live in an Austen world with a bit of Bronte, or a Bronte world with a bit of Austen. Cassandra also refers to herself and her sister as "two Bronte-Austen girls, poor but spirited." In the end, though, Smith puts her own spin on things and doesn't follow the old, worn models.
This is a very clever book with a lot more going on in it than is apparent at a casual read. While I Capture the Castle is undoubtedly a bit dated, it is very entertaining and a book you can fall in love with.
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