Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4687 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Entertainment Weekly
Dreamy and funny...an odd, shimmering timelessness clings to its pages. A thousand and one cheers for its reissue. A +.

Los Angeles Times
It is an occasion worth celebrating when a sparkling novel, a work of wit, irony and feeling is brought back into print after an absence of many years. So uncork the champagne for I Capture the Castle

Daily Mail
‘This is a wonderfully charming story of love, sibling rivalry and the eccentricities of bohemian life'

Customer Reviews

It captures my castle - and my heart
What a joy this book is to find! I was lent it by a friend and had seen the film a few years ago. Beautifully, masterfully written, with a thundering page-turner of a plot, the characters are as real as any you meet in person.
Just buy it, fill your bath and ENJOY every paragraph. I wish I could find more by this author......

Well written and atmospheric
The castle is well and truly captured! I saw the castle and I saw the people in it but more than anything, I felt the penury which had descended on the family because of Mortmain's writer's block. Without that understanding of the hand to mouth (if only!) existance you can't empathise with Rose but with it, Rose's behaviour becomes completely rational. This is an excellent well-written multi-layered book. I felt absolutely satisfied when I came to the end. Just what a good book should be.

Delights revisited
I have recently re-read this delightful book as it is the choice for our book club this month. And what a joy - like revisiting an old friend you haven't seen for a long time but had vague happy memories of the last time you saw them. Although it is sometimes described as a 'right of passage' book, which it very probably is, I came to it in my 40s and enjoyed it immensely.

The voice of Cassandra, the 17yr old 'author' is pragmatic, romantic, lyrical and real in a funny, true way. She sees life in her chaotic, unconventional home through such a kind, loving but clear-eyed way. Her protrayal of the characters really does bring them to life on the page and yet there is enough creative license to enable the reader to visualise the story in their own way.

The only other book that had a similar impact on me is 'Cold Comfort Farm', another classic which I came to late, where the humour is sharper, but the family life just as clearly drawn. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good writing at it's charming best.