MAD Hoydenish: I Capture the Castle

Saturday, May 21, 2011

I Capture the Castle

Scribble Title: I Capture the Castle
Author: Dodie Smith (also author of 101 Dalmatians)
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Paperback: 352 pages
Original Publish: 1948
Genre: Fiction (diary)
Description: From the cover of the green paperback:

"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 pins her final entry, she has "captured the castle" - and the heart of the reader - in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments."

"This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met."--J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series
"Dreamy and funny . . . an odd, shimmering timelessness clings to its pages. A thousand and one cheers for its reissue. A+"--Entertainment Weekly

"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."--Susan Isaacs

"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

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