I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is a novel based in the 1920s in England. The whole book is comprised of journal entries the main character Cassandra wrote. Her family lives inside a run down castle and has to deal with poverty and how to survive throughout the year. She fills out 3 different journals throughout the year and each journal shows how she is growing more and more as a person. Throughout the book she deals with romance, family drama, what happens around the castle. She listens to the conversations and sees what goes around. Cassandra’s dad is an author who does not write anymore, she has an older sister (Rose), and she has a stepmom. Their family is pretty much broke and they have sold everything that has some value so there is no more income for the family. Cassandra has to find a way to make money for her family. Their landlord just died who never made them pay rent anymore and the new landlords just came here from America. They are two young brothers named Simon and Neil Cotton. Their family owns the castle and they are the next in line to receive it. Cassandra sees this chance as a way to get her older sister to marry Simon so she could inherit the money and castle he owns. Throughout the book Cassandra also deals with boys. There is a servant named Stephen that has lived with the family his whole life and is only a few years older then Cassandra. He has feelings for her and she kind of does too. Cassandra has to deal with confusing emotions because she likes Simon and Neil but also likes Stephen. She does not know how to deal with her emotions and writes them down to help her deal with them. Each chapter in the book is a different journal entry she made. Time passes between them sometimes and she catches us up on what has been going on since her last entry. She documents her sisters complicated relationship between her, Simon, and Neil. She also documents how people are changing in her life. She writes about her dad being a sad guy who hasn’t written in years and how her sister changes from someone who was thankful for the simplest act turned into a snob after getting engaged to Simon. Rose and Neil don’t get a long and Cassandra really focuses on that. Rose and Cassandra are finding out how relationships work and how to deal with liking someone for the first time. This book is kind of reminds me of Downton Abbey for some reason maybe because it has to do with relationships and scandals in a family that’s British. This book also reminds me of Disney princesses. Cassandra is lived in the castle for most of her life and when she was little she imagined she was a princess and some prince would come. The castle in the book makes you feel like it’s going to be a fairytale but in reality it is the total opposite of that. In the middle of the book though it got very slow and boring. Nothing that exciting was going on in the book too. Also since the book was written a very long time ago it was hard to read and probably one of the more challenging books I read. It was fun to read how people acted and how girls behavior has changed so much from then and now.
Throughout the book she deals with romance, family drama, what happens around the castle. She listens to the conversations and sees what goes around. Cassandra’s dad is an author who does not write anymore, she has an older sister (Rose), and she has a stepmom. Their family is pretty much broke and they have sold everything that has some value so there is no more income for the family. Cassandra has to find a way to make money for her family. Their landlord just died who never made them pay rent anymore and the new landlords just came here from America. They are two young brothers named Simon and Neil Cotton. Their family owns the castle and they are the next in line to receive it. Cassandra sees this chance as a way to get her older sister to marry Simon so she could inherit the money and castle he owns. Throughout the book Cassandra also deals with boys. There is a servant named Stephen that has lived with the family his whole life and is only a few years older then Cassandra. He has feelings for her and she kind of does too. Cassandra has to deal with confusing emotions because she likes Simon and Neil but also likes Stephen. She does not know how to deal with her emotions and writes them down to help her deal with them. Each chapter in the book is a different journal entry she made. Time passes between them sometimes and she catches us up on what has been going on since her last entry. She documents her sisters complicated relationship between her, Simon, and Neil. She also documents how people are changing in her life. She writes about her dad being a sad guy who hasn’t written in years and how her sister changes from someone who was thankful for the simplest act turned into a snob after getting engaged to Simon. Rose and Neil don’t get a long and Cassandra really focuses on that. Rose and Cassandra are finding out how relationships work and how to deal with liking someone for the first time.
This book is kind of reminds me of Downton Abbey for some reason maybe because it has to do with relationships and scandals in a family that’s British. This book also reminds me of Disney princesses. Cassandra is lived in the castle for most of her life and when she was little she imagined she was a princess and some prince would come. The castle in the book makes you feel like it’s going to be a fairytale but in reality it is the total opposite of that. In the middle of the book though it got very slow and boring. Nothing that exciting was going on in the book too. Also since the book was written a very long time ago it was hard to read and probably one of the more challenging books I read. It was fun to read how people acted and how girls behavior has changed so much from then and now.