I first picked up this book because of the title. I love castles, medieval fairy tales, dragons, knights, princesses, any and all of the above in just about any combination. I thought I was getting a fantasy novel of some kind. I wasn’t, but I love what I found.
“I Capture the Castle” is the story of an unusual family. Our main character is Cassandra Mortmain, a girl of literary aspiration who tells us what’s happening as she sees it through the use of her journal. This I found slightly unrealistic; I don’t know anyone who would write such long, detailed journal entries. But that’s beside the point, really.
She lives in an old, broken down castle with her absent-minded father, her Bohemian step-mother, and her sister Rose. They have very little money and have to scratch out their daily bread from whatever source they can find. They’ve sold off their nice things and remake their clothing out of curtains and whatever else they can find. They are making the best of things, trying hard to ignore the fact that their father is failing, and isn’t able to provide for them anymore.
New neighbors come to the area, two very handsome and rich brothers. The sisters decide that for the good of their family, Rose should marry the older of the two brothers, and she does everything in her power to make herself more appealing to him. It’s not long before they’re engaged, which pleases Cassandra immensely. She likes him very much, unlike his younger brother, who gets her goat in any number of ways.
I don’t want to give too much away from here, because I’m hoping you’ll read the book yourself and be surprised, but I will say that the book takes some turns you would not expect and ends most satisfactorily; really, the only way it could end and have it be for the best. The story reminds me so much of myself – I see myself in Cassandra and can fully identify with all of her thoughts and feelings. In fact, it’s hard for me to describe just exactly how this book touched me; and for me to be speechless is a rare thing.
As a final note of interest, this author went on to pen a story you might be more familiar with – “101 Dalmations.”
(This book was first published in 1949.)