The vicar is more of a friend than pastor to the family he is well-educated and one of the few people that the girls or their father know in the small village. But this little story, written from the point of view of the younger sister by way of her journal, captures more than just the castle as young Cassandra discovers life and love and the wide world beyond genteel poverty.Īlthough Smith's story is not meant to be challenging, I like a small section where Cassandra talks to the local vicar about religion. The story is quite simple with shades of Jane Austen two poor girls with no prospects live with their eccentric parents in a rundown ruin of an English castle then the rich neighbors move in and life is changed forever. 'This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met.' -J.K.This book, a discovery by my aunt in Connecticut, is such a charming work that I can't understand why I never read it before. By the time she pens her final entry, she has 'captured the castle' - and the heart of the reader - in one of literature's most enchanting novels. Through Cassandra's sharply funny, yet poignant, journal entries, she chronicles the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. Until one day when their new landlords move in, which include two (very handsome) sons, and the lives of the Mortmain sisters change forever.

So Cassandra instead strives to hone her writing skills in her journals. While her beautiful older sister, Rose, longs to live in a Jane Austen novel, Cassandra knows that meeting an eligible man to marry isn't in either of their futures when their home is crumbling and they have to sell their furniture for food. Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her family may live in a ramshackle old English castle, but that's about as romantic as her life gets.

'Every time I meet someone who also loves I Capture the Castle, I know we must be kindred spirits.' -from the new foreword by Jenny Han, the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I've Loved Before.Ī beautiful, deluxe edition of Dodie Smith's beloved novel, I Capture the Castle, featuring a new foreword by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Han, a stunning new cover, and designed endpapers that is perfect for devoted readers and those discovering this timeless story for the first time.

I capture the castle deluxe edition