shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Original Essays | December 12, 2009

Alexander McCall Smith: IMG The Courage of Others



I have recently written a novel about life in England during the Second World War. I felt some concern before I tackled this theme — the War... Continue »
  1. $16.76 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    La's Orchestra Saves the World

    Alexander McCall Smith

I Capture the Castle

by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle Cover

ISBN13: 9780312201654
ISBN10: 0312201656
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $7.95!

Staff Pick

An utter delight. This enchanting tale has long been a favorite of mine. It has just been reissued to coincide with the soon to be released movie version. Set in 1930s England, this story of young love beguiles with moated castles, moonlight swims, high humor and a complete cast of British eccentrics.
Recommended by Kathi, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals 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 castle" — and the heart of the reader — in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.

Review:

"I Capture the Castle is finally back in print. It should be welcomed with a bouquet of roses and a brass band. Ever since I was handed a tattered copy years ago with the recommendation 'You'll love it,' it has been one of my favorite novels. Cassandra Mortmain is one hell of a narrator, offering sharp wit, piercing insight and touching lyricism. She is a heroine we readers wish we could be, a young woman it is impossible not to adore." Susan Isaacs

Review:

"Dreamy and funny...an odd, shimmering timelessness clings to its pages. A thousand and one cheers for its reissue. A+" Entertainment Weekly

Review:

"It is an occasion worth celebrating when a sparkling novel, a work of wit, irony and feeling is brought back into print after an absence of many years. So uncork the champagne for I Capture the Castle." Los Angeles Times

Review:

"It's as fresh as if it were written this morning and as classic as Jane Austen. I'm very happy to have met it." Donald Westlake

Review:

"Much more fun than the reader has any right to expect." The Weekly Standard

Review:

"This book has one of the most charismatic narators I've ever met." J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series

Synopsis:

"A delicious, compulsively readable novel about young love and its vicissitudes. What fun!" Erica Jong

About the Author

Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith, born in 1896 in Lancashire, England, was one of the most successful female dramatists of her generation. She wrote Autumn, Crocus, and Dear Octopus, among other plays. I Capture the Castle, her first novel, was written in the 1940s while she was living in America. An immediate success, it marked her crossover from playwright to novelist, and was produced as a play in 1954. Smith also wrote the novels The Town in Bloom, It Ends with Revelations, A Tale of Two Families, and The Girl in the Candle-Lit Bath, but she is best known today as the author of two highly popular stories for young readers: The Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Starlight Barking. She died in 1990.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
Meredith, December 13, 2006 (view all comments by Meredith)
A delightful story of a British girl's coming-of-age. Written as entries in her journal, Cassandra's wit, humor, and insights are a joy to read. Written in the 1940s, it remains accessible and relevant to readers both old and young. A wonderfully fun book.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(8 of 17 readers found this comment helpful)
Kirsten, August 18, 2006 (view all comments by Kirsten)
Cassandra Mortmain, who lives in what remains of a crumbling castle with her eccentric family, starts a journal to record her daily life and hone her writing skills. Her family is completely destitute because her father, who is a writer, has suffered from writer's block for years and spends his time doing crossword puzzles and reading mysteries. When Cassandra's sister, Rose, desperately announces that she would marry rich just to avoid living in poverty any longer, everyone pretty much takes it as a joke -- until the new American owner of the estate where the castle is situated appears. With the appearance of Simon and Neil Cotton, everything changes for the Mortmains, and Cassandra records it all in her journal.

Oh wow, I loved this to bits! It may have helped that at the same time I was reading this, I came across one of my old journals from when I was about the same age as the narrator, which had the effect of totally reminding me of how Important everything was then. Smith captures the voice of a very bright but inexperienced teenage girl perfectly. This is set in the 1930's, but I would highly recommend it to people who like Jane Austen.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(19 of 36 readers found this comment helpful)
CassBrown, August 1, 2006 (view all comments by CassBrown)
An absolutely charming read! Smith creates a vivid picture of an eccentric family struggling to survive in their falling-down home. The relationships between the sisters is touching and their plot to help their father very amusing. I really wish Dodie Smith (101 Dalmations) had written another adult novel.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(17 of 30 readers found this comment helpful)
View all 3 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9780312201654
Author:
Smith, Dodie
Publisher:
St. Martin's Press
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Historical
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
England
Subject:
Castles
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
FIC045000
Subject:
Domestic fiction
Edition Description:
1st St. Martin's Griffin ed.
Series Volume:
208645
Publication Date:
March 1999
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
343
Dimensions:
8.26x5.52x.95 in. .71 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $9.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  2. $5.00 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Summerland

    Michael Chabon
  3. $5.75 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Red Tent

    Anita Diamant
  4. $6.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Secret Life of Bees

    Sue Monk Kidd
  5. $4.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  6. $4.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Eragon (Inheritance Cycle #01)

    Christopher Paolini

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.