I Capture the Castle in Reading the Classics

Mar 20, 2022 Alisha Marie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own-that-i-ve-read, classics, four-star-books, read-in-2022

For the longest time I've always considered I Capture the Castle to be one of my favorites if not my favorite (eventually surpassed by Jane Eyre and probably My Cousin Rachel) classic and one of my favorite books. So, I decided it was time for a re-read. I had assumed I'd read this book about 5-6 years ago. Imagine my surprise to discover that I originally read this book in 2010. A whole 12 years ago! So, naturally I had forgotten about 90% of what happened here. So, it was like reading it for t For the longest time I've always considered I Capture the Castle to be one of my favorites if not my favorite (eventually surpassed by Jane Eyre and probably My Cousin Rachel) classic and one of my favorite books. So, I decided it was time for a re-read. I had assumed I'd read this book about 5-6 years ago. Imagine my surprise to discover that I originally read this book in 2010. A whole 12 years ago! So, naturally I had forgotten about 90% of what happened here. So, it was like reading it for the first time. And I still enjoyed it. Just not as much as my first go around.

Here's the thing: One of my most hated tropes in everything is girl-falls-in-love-with-sister's-boyfriend because it's just something you don't do. I get the circumstances in this, but even when I originally read I Capture the Castle, I found that part to be the most annoying in the book. But I still read and enjoyed the book. Now, however, I won't read anything that has that trope in it because, again, I hate it. So, that not-so-little part of the book bothered me more this time around. Hence why it got docked a star in my re-read.

However, I loved everything else in I Capture the Castle. I still loved Topaz and Stephen. I really loved Neil this time around. But man, did I feel for Rose on this reread! I remember finding her a smidge unlikable the first time I read this book, but 12 years later, I get her plight because man, who doesn't want a sugar daddy?! I joke, but I found Rose so heartbreaking and because of this, I felt a little less charitable to Cassandra this time around.

In the end, I still really like I Capture the Castle. I think this was one of the first classics I read and I remember finding it so easy to read and way less intimidating than other classics. Even more so this time because I ended up reading this rather quickly. So, I still recommend this, especially to people who feel daunted by classics, but want to read them. And I can still see myself re-reading I Capture the Castle for a third time.

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Sep 07, 2020 Rebecca rated it it was amazing

I’ve just put this book down for a re-read and can’t help but muse, as Cassandra would. I muse over the reviews, where some claim this novel inextricably changed the trajectory of the reader’s very life, while others can only curse its absurd storyline. All I muse on is that each review seems to be written in the style and cadence of Cassandra’s inner dialogue, which means to say that the power of a narrator is not one to be diminished, whether one loved or loathed.

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