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The novel relates the adventures of an eccentric family, the Mortmains, struggling to live in genteel poverty in a decaying English castle during the 1930s. The first person narrator is Cassandra Mortmain, an intelligent teenager who tells the story via her personal journal.
Lirmac: The Greengage Summer and I Capture the Castle are both exquisitly-crafted books narrated by girls on the brink of maturity. Both are engaging and timeless, and neither descends into the clichés of the 'coming of age' story.
BookshelfMonstrosity: Although I Capture the Castle is a coming-of-age story, not a mystery, both witty novels are narrated by precocious girls who, left to their own devices by their eccentric families, pursue adventures within the confines of quiet English villages.… (more)
I wish I had stopped reading this BEFORE Cassandra's complete 180 personality shift, the second half of this was just awful and it's so sad because I was enjoying it up until she decided she was in love with Simon out of NOWHERE. I'm supposed to believe that after she spent the whole book setting him up with her sister because she wanted to? And I'm supposed to buy that ACTUALLY Rose and Neil were in love the WHOLE TIME and wtf poor Steven. Also the cover of this book said it's now "the most romantic movie of the year"... this is NOT A ROMANCE. The second half of this book is so jarringly awful compared to the delight of the first half. I loved Cassandra and now I can't stand her. I swear she has anti-character-development. What a disappointment.( )
A darling little story of young love and sisterhood. I listened to the BBC Radio production and it was a great little 2 hour adventure with Cassandra. ( )
This book was such a wonderful, enchanting and unpredictable read that by the end of it I felt like I almost was Cassandra, since her confessions, recordings and thoughts in her journals gave me a thorough insight into her. I also loved how the sections of the book were arranged in differently priced notebooks, which really demonstrated the progression of the story
It feels, reading it now, as if this is the story that every romantic comedy Hollywood has ever made has been trying to tell. And when we come towards the end of the book and a marriage proposal and happily-ever-after storyline seems to be in the offing, I was worried we were going to stray into that territory. But Smith is too good a writer, Cassandra too interesting a person to settle for this.
I know all about the facts of life. And I don't think much of them.
She was so scared, she forgot to be a contralto.
Topaz said she had never been on the streets and rather regretted it, which is the kind of Topazism it requires much affection to tolerate.
Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.
When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it—or rather, it is like living it.
I am not quite Jane Austen yet and there are limits to what I can stand.
Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
This is no moment to be finicky about metaphors.
I certainly didn't think that father would be dead, but I did have a slight fear that we might have unhinged him – the state of his hinges being a bit in doubt even before we started.
Last words
Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you.
The novel relates the adventures of an eccentric family, the Mortmains, struggling to live in genteel poverty in a decaying English castle during the 1930s. The first person narrator is Cassandra Mortmain, an intelligent teenager who tells the story via her personal journal.
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"I write this sitting the the kitchen sink" begins Cassandra Mortmain's diary, recording family life in a ruinous castle. Father is a famous, irascible author suffering from prolonged writer's block. Elder daughter, beautiful Rose, is exasperated by their impoverished life, while son Thomas, rather oblivious, is still at school. They are all looked after (in her own way) by their young bohemian stepmother. And then the American heirs to the castle turn up, an energetic mother and two eligible sons...
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