I Capture the Castle in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Jan 18, 2008 MJ rated it liked it

Shelves: idiots-ultimate-reading, fiction, liked-it

17 year old Cassandra and her family live in an old castle that is falling down around them in the English countryside. There is her "brilliant " writer father who has not written anything in years, her model bohemian step-mother, beautiful and bitter older sister Rose, her younger wise beyond his years brother Thomas and the son of their former housekeeper Stephan who is in love with Cassandra. Cassandra starts writing in a journal to practice speed writing (short-hand to us Americans) in hopes ...more

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Jun 16, 2009 Sri rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult

Aku suka buku ini! Buku ini ditulis sebagai jurnal seorang gadis berusia tujuh belas tahun yang bernama Cassandra Mortmain. Cassandra adalah anak kedua dari seorang ayah yang eksentrik. Sang ayah adalah penulis yang unik, yang terkenal baik di Inggris maupun Amerika. Sang ayah memutuskan untuk menyewa sebuah kastil dari keluarga Cotton untuk tempat tinggal keluarganya.
Suatu ketika ada kesalahpahaman yang membuat sang ayah harus dipenjara. Setelah keluar dari penjara sang ayah tak mau menulis lag ...more

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May 20, 2008 Erin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 20th-century, british

The narrator's voice is clear and fantastic. Earnest, funny, and poignant. The way her growth and maturity is developed from beginning to end is beautifully subtle. Also, the conceit of the prose is unique--it's in first person present tense and the narrator justifies this by explaining that she's practicing her speed-writing in her journal. Lovely detail in that.

Aside from a hearty recommendation from a friend, I knew little about this book. I was surprised to discover it was originally publish ...more

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Jun 22, 2008 Amy rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2009

I wanted to love this book, but ended up just liking it.
Cassandra Mortmain is a seventeen year old writer, living in a remote castle in 1930's England. Her family exists in genteel poverty, with no prospects for improvement any time soon. Her father wrote one critically acclaimed book many years before and has suffered from writer's block since. Her stepmother is an underemployed artist's model. She and her older sister have no employment prospects; their younger brother is still in school. The I wanted to love this book, but ended up just liking it.
Cassandra Mortmain is a seventeen year old writer, living in a remote castle in 1930's England. Her family exists in genteel poverty, with no prospects for improvement any time soon. Her father wrote one critically acclaimed book many years before and has suffered from writer's block since. Her stepmother is an underemployed artist's model. She and her older sister have no employment prospects; their younger brother is still in school. The only one to provide any income to the family is Stephan, the son of a former maid who stayed with the family after his mother died.

Cassandra and her sister Rose hope for someone rich to come along, so Rose can marry and rescue the family from poverty. Enter American brothers Simon and Neil, who have inherited the estate the castle is built on.

The story ends up in a kind of love ladder - only one couple ends up happy at the end, with several other cases of unrequited love. I found the teenage love aspects of the story to be annoying; perhaps if Cassandra had selected my favorite character, Stephan, I would have felt differently.

Cassandra is a budding writer; this book is her journal, describing characters and events from her perspective. Although able to view and describe her world and actions at an advanced level, emotionally Cassandra is still a teenager. That's probably what annoys me.

Slightly more interesting is the description of Cassandra's father and the slow process by which he starts to write again. Cassandra is much kinder to her father than he deserves; but perhaps that is my more modern, American perspective. At some point after five or ten years of writer's block, I would expect an able-bodied man to find an alternate means of providing for his minor children. Once they're all grown, perhaps you can go back to starving while waiting for the muse to inspire you.

The book I had contains a list of reading group discussion questions at the end. I think you could have some pretty good discussions about class, feminism, the creative writing process, and how the world has changed since this novel was published. Cassandra also reveals her thoughts on religion towards the end of the book, which could lead to a good discussion. I'm just not inspired enough right now to tackle any of the discussion questions. Maybe inspiration will hit before I have to return the book to the library. ...more

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Apr 17, 2009 Sunflower rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2009, library

Found this on a Vintage Classics shelf at Borders, and I can see why it was there. It is an enjoyable read that hasn't lost anything of its effect since it was first published in 1949. It is told from the point of 16-year-old Cassandra, who lives in a crumbling castle with her eccentric family, who are so well characterised that they are entirely believable.
Interesting trivia: the author is probably more famous for "101 Dalmations", and this book starts with one of the best opening sentences on ...more

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Aug 23, 2007 Joanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: borrowed, bookclub, next-best-bookclub

I tried to read this book a few years ago and didn't make it very far. When it was chosen as a book for bookclub I gave it an honest effort and wound up loving the story. Cassandra begins keeping a journal to teach herself speedwriting and end up chronicling some pretty significant changes that take place within her family over a 6-month period. It's listed as a young adult book but I think it would appeal to a much wider audience. ...more

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