Reading Challenge Book 2: I Capture the Castle

I Capture the Castle is a lovely book to escape into, written by none other than Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmatians.

The story consists of the musings of Cassandra Mortmain, a young woman who has as her goal to become a writer, as her father is.  Towards that end, she sets out to write about her days living in a castle in the English countryside with the rest of her impoverished family. Her journal tells of how they stretched each shilling they had to the most, her father's difficulties with writer's block and their affect on the family, and how the young residents of the house fall in love, though not always with the person who loves them. Through the use of beautiful descriptions of the surroundings as well as the humorous descriptions of the events and characters in the book Ms. Smith has created a book that tells of a family's sophisticated naiveté.

One of my favorite aspects of the book are the character descriptions, as seen by Cassandra, of course. Of one family member, she relates "...there were moments when my deep and loving pity for her merged into a desire to kick her fairly hard" and of another "wonderfully patient - but I sometimes wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows."

I'm afraid that my description of the book isn't doing it justice, honestly. Suffice it to say, if you want an enjoyable read that also makes you think, you will have found it should you open the pages of this book!