“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Virago Press (2003) (First published 1948)
360 pages

“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink”, writes Cassandra Mortmain in her journal, and that’s how this heady mixture of romance and coming-of-age story set in the 1930s Britain begins. Cassandra is an aspiring writer, living in a run-down castle with her sister Rose, along with their brother, stepmother and father. Here’s the catch: they’re so poor that they can’t afford decent meals at times. Cassandra observes: “I have just remarked to Rose that our situation is really rather romantic, two girls in this strange and lonely house. She replied that she saw nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud.” Cassandra’s father wrote a very successful novel years before and has written nothing since. Cassandra dreams of becoming a writer herself, so she goes around “capturing” her family and her home in her journal. When two American brothers — one of them the heir to the estate which includes the castle where Cassandra’s family is living in — return to England, Rose tries to court one of them as a way out from poverty, with rather hilarious results at times.

The book is a collection of Cassandra journal entries, so all are written in the first person. (Dodie Smith is also the author of The 101 Dalmatians, which I haven’t read.) She probably has the most charming voice I’ve ever come across — she’s witty and wry, precocious and naive at the same time. I love the first two parts — or was it the first one-and-a-half? — and the last part not so much. Cassandra grows up, of course, over the course of the year, and the later parts reflect this. I rather liked Cassandra more when she was happier and more pragmatic.

Her father reminds me of mine, actually. I wanted to march up to him at one point and ask him whether he has bipolar disorder as well — he certainly acts like he does! He’s the eccentric writer all the way — solitary and secretive and takes note of the strangest things, leaving his family wondering whether he really is mad. I liked the characters: Stephen, the servant turned family but mostly still servant who’s desperately in love with Cassandra; Topaz, the stepmother who sometimes wander around nude to commune with nature; the wealthy American brothers; even Rose at her most selfish and, of course, Cassandra herself.

The book came across to me as dreamy and funny and strange. The ending is bittersweet and fitting. If there’s a novel that I’ll remember the first and last sentences, it will be this one — I could still almost see Cassandra scribbling “I love you, I love you, I love you” in the margins of the journal as she runs out of space.

Apparently there’s a film made in 2003 based on the book, hence the cover of the paperback I read. (It was the library’s only copy.) I generally dislike covers for book tie-ins of films; I’d pick up another version if I have a choice. No real reason for this; just me being a snob, I guess. :P

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Also, this book was recced by Nikki for the Herding Cats challenge. This actually means I’ve covered the “read three books” requirement for the challenge, but hey, there’s nothing against going above and beyond requirements, right? Especially when you have a rec list with more than six hundred items on it. XD