I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dodie SmithEdition: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 1999-04-30
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of I Capture the Castle
Book Review: A Timeless Castle to Visit Again and Again....
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not sure when first I read "I Capture the Castle". I believe I might have been in High School. I do know when I got my own copy of the book: in 1975, when I was twenty-five years old. That was 31 years ago...and I have read it every few years ever since I've had the joy of it's presence on my bookshelf. I shared it with my daugter when she was in High School, and it's one of her favorites, too. That is not to say this book is a "girly" book, or even a "romance". It's something altogether different. Ethereal, yet heart touchingly real. Imaginative, yet grounded and honest. It really is, very much, a journey of a young soul into self awareness, truth, and ultimately, spiritual and moral triumph. All this accomplished through a journal written by 17 year old Cassandra Mortmain, documenting the sometimes humorous, sometimes embarassing, sometimes touching and sometimes painfully profound events that occur during seven months in one momentous, and pivotal year. This is no "fairy tale". The image of the crumbling castle, and it's eccentric and complicated inhabitants isn't a careless or gratuitous one. Like in the fictional book "Jacob Wrestling", that the father of our heroine wrote years ago as his "one hit wonder"...there is a reason for everything in this book. The image of a "bear" "attacking" sister Rose, the "dead shoes", the "Shape" seen at a Midsummer's Eve observance. the pennies coming out of a 'phone in answer to "prayer"; the green of a liqueur against beautiful hair, a bowl and pitcher glimpsed in a window: all of it together forms a pattern that is crafted to imprint the book's message indeliably into a receptive reader's mind. Yet..it's all done so charmingly that one hardly realizes one has just had one's consciousness elevated. The reader may think he's merely being entertained....I am with those who believe "I Capture the Castle" is a modern classic. The very fact, from the time I read it first, some 40 years ago, that it's images and charm has haunted me to this day is testament to it's validity and value. I will find myself somewhere, in some circumstance, and suddenly a correlating scene from the book pops into my head. As Cassandra's passage into womanhood leaves first one childhood dream, then another, behind...my heart squeezes with pain at the losses we all endure in our journey into adulthood. Yes, this is a wonderful book for a young person. But it's also for all ages, even someone old, like me. That is why I must go back to "The Castle" every few years, as I travel this road of life...and with every visit, I spot something new, learn something else, grow a little more....
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