I Capture the Castle

For the film based on this book, see I Capture the Castle (film).

I Capture the Castle

First British edition, published by William Heinemann, 1949.
Author	Dodie Smith
Illustrator	Ruth Steed, from sketches by the author
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	William Heinemann (United Kingdom); McClelland and Stewart (Canada); Little, Brown (United States)
Publication date	1948
Publication place	United Kingdom, United States, Canada
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA

I Capture the Castle is Dodie Smith's first novel, and was published in 1948. Smith, who wrote the novel during a sojourn in America, was already an established playwright and later became famous for authoring the children's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians.

I Capture the Castle relates the adventures of an eccentric family, the Mortmains, struggling to live in a decaying English castle in the 1930s. The novel, narrated by an intelligent teen-aged girl, Cassandra Mortmain, is cast in the form of her journal. A play based on the book appeared in 1954, and Heidi Thomas adapted a screenplay based on the novel for Tim Fywell's 2003 film version.

Plot summary

The Mortmain family is very poor, but very interesting. Cassandra's father, a writer, suffers from writer's block and has not published anything since his first hit book, Jacob Wrestling. More than ten years before, he took out a forty-year's lease on the dilapidated but beautiful castle, hoping to find either inspiration or isolation there; now, his family is selling off the furniture to buy food.

Mortmain's second wife, Topaz, is an artist's model who enjoys communing with nature, sometimes wearing nothing but hip boots. Rose, the elder daughter, is a classic English beauty pining away in the lonely castle, longing for a chance to meet some eligible (and, preferably, rich) young men; she tells her sister that she wants to live in a Jane Austen novel. Cassandra, the younger daughter, has literary ambitions and spends lots of time developing her writing talent by "capturing" everything around her in her journal. Stephen, a handsome, loyal, live-in family friend, and Thomas, the youngest Mortmain child, round out the list of major characters. Stephen, a noble soul, is in love with Cassandra, which she finds touching, but a bit awkward; Thomas, a schoolboy, is, like Cassandra, considered "tolerably bright".

Things begin to happen when the Cottons, a wealthy American family, inherit nearby Scoatney and become the Mortmains' new landlords. Cassandra and Rose soon become intrigued by the unmarried brothers, Simon and Neil Cotton. The brothers, whose parents are divorced, differ considerably in character; Neil, who was raised in California, is a carefree young man who wants to become a rancher in America, while Simon, who grew up in New England, is scholarly and serious, and loves the English countryside.

Cassandra takes an immediate liking to Simon, and feels the first stirrings of romantic feeling for him. Unfortunately, he considers her a mere child; also, since he is the wealthier brother, Rose decides she wants to be Mrs. Simon Cotton, and soon wins his heart. At the same time, however, she and Neil begin to fall in love; to conceal their budding romance, they pretend to hate each other, fooling everyone. When they elope, Simon is left heartbroken - Cassandra, hopeful. At the end, Simon leaves for America, but promises to return, not wanting to lose his ties to Scoatney, and his friendship with the Mortmain family, especially Cassandra.

Meanwhile, Cassandra must: tactfully deflect Stephen's offers of love, and encourage him in his new career as a model and actor; join forces with Thomas to help their father overcome his writer's block; cope with her own increasing attraction to Simon, whom she thinks belongs to Rose; and record everything, wittily and winningly, in her journal. As the journal advances, the relationships she depicts become subtler and more problematic, and she concludes her narrative on a bittersweet note. When Simon departs, still crushed by Rose's defection, Cassandra, although saddened by her first disappointment in love, can still reflect with satisfaction on the Mortmain family's improved fortunes, and look forward to the future.

Allusions

The novel often alludes to works ranging from classic English literature novels, various tales and legends, as well as poems and biblical episodes. They are often important to the understanding of the novel, especially as some characters are at times compared with other characters from said works.

Novels

I Capture the Castle alludes mainly to novels classic English novels, including Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Thackeray’s The History of Henry Esmond and Vanity Fair and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. (The Vicar describes Cassandra as Jane Eyre with a touch of Becky Sharp) Other mentioned novels include A la recherche du temps perdu by Proust and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Plays

Cassandra once compares Stephen to Silvius, a reference to Shakespeare's As You Like It

Biblical episodes

Biblical episodes, mainly Jacob's Ladder and Jacob Wrestling, are an important part of Cassandra's Father's successful novel Jacob Wrestling. Samson and Delilah also play an important part in the novel, as the couple is compared with Simon and Rose.

Tales and legends

"Heloise and Abelard", Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Hansel and Gretel" are cited.

Poems

Ralph Hodgson's works are mentioned, as well as John Keats' La Belle Dame sans Merci (Stephen wonders if she would have lived in a place like Belmotte Tower), Gilbert Keith Chesterton's Song of Quoodle and Thomas Nashe's Spring, the Sweet Spring.

Reviews

• "I know of few novels - except Pride and Prejudice - that inspire as much fierce lifelong affection in their readers." -Joanna Trollope
• "This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met." -J.K. Rowling

External links

• A review of I Capture the Castle from Critique Magazine.
• A reading group guide for I Capture the Castle.
• I Capture the Castle at IMDb
• I Capture the Castle at Fantastic Fiction.

See also

• Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons, an earlier comic romance novel about an eccentric English family living on a derelict farm in an unspecified near future. In this novel, various Brontë-esque, Lawrencian and other turgidly romantic literary tropes are exaggerated for comic effect.