A reviewer’s guide to I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle was brought to us by the woman who gave generations of children 101 Dalmatians; Dodie Smith. It is an absolutely fantastic book with a follow up film which, for me, wasn’t anywhere near as emotional. The book is captivating from the moment it opens; ‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it...’.
The girl narrating the story is called Cassandra and she lives in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud – basically a rundown castle – with her father, step-mother, sister, brother and Stephen, who has lived with them since he was tiny and does odd jobs for the family.
The focus of the first section of the novel is on making money, as the family, once wealthy, are now incredibly poor, mainly due to the fact that their father, a onetime great author, hasn’t written in years and seems to have no intention of writing anything further. Whilst Cassandra and Topaz, the rather flamboyant step-mother, see their situation as somewhat romantic, Cassandra’s sister Rose is desperate with the poverty of their lives.
Personally I love Cassandra. Throughout the book her childish enthusiasm and fanciful nature is captivating and very tender. She is 17 at the opening of the novel and has been described as ‘poised between childhood and adultery’. Technically this statement is true, but her childish naivety never dwindles, even as the experiences she has pushes her into an adult world.
Rose on the other hand desperately wants to be part of an adult, sophisticated world. At 21 she longs for a husband and a home, hot dinners, dresses and jewellery. So, predictably, when two rich young men befriend the family, the emphasis changes from making money to finding Rose a rich young husband.
And so the plot to win the heart of Simon, one of the rich Americans who seems to have taken a shine to Rose, dictates the next section of the book. This is the funniest section of the book, watching the girls chasing the boys so to speak. And Smith just writes so beautifully, you can see everything. On the train on their way back from London, sporting fur coats that had been left to them in a will, they hide behind the luggage of the two Americans, who also just happen to be on the same train. Because they’re wearing the fur coats they are mistaken for bears, and very quickly the whole train is out there, trying to kill them! Just it is the fear of being discovered and embarrassing themselves in front of the two men that worries them most – never mind the loss of their lives! And a little later in the book there is another occasion, where Rose is holding a liqueur close to her hair because she knows that it will accentuate the colour and what she’s doing is so obvious, it’s just so endearing and vivid. Fortunately Simon thinks so too, and a little later proposes. So Rose gets her dream..., or so we are led to believe.
Key themes throughout the book are Love and Betrayal. There is the almost forced love between Rose and Simon, as Rose falls in love with what he represents as oppose to Simon himself. Then there is the dutiful love between Topaz and her husband. She puts up with the fact that he has to all intents and purposes led his family into deep poverty. We see unrequited love between Stephen and Cassandra, and then Cassandra and Neil, the other American, and this exposed a variety of other themes – jealously, fear and ultimately, acceptance. And the sisterly love between Rose and Cassandra is a strong driver throughout the entire book, and in many ways acts as the backbone to the novel.
For me it is the characterisation of Cassandra, and the simple, vivid imagery of the novel that is so fantastic. And that castle! It is rarely described in detail, but I constantly look for it in real life, and refer to ruins, full castles or other monumental buildings that I’ve seen in the past as ‘I Capture the Castle’ castles because they remind me of that castle that I can ‘see’ in the novel. For a novel to be as memorable as that, it definitely deserves its title as ‘a classic’.