Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4395 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 415 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

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.

Quirky yet reassuringly familiar observations
I can barely remember what this book was about - in terms of storyline, nothing dramatic particularly happens, yet Cassandra's voice stays with me - her quirky yet reassuringly familiar feeling observations and thoughts on the world. She is a hugely likable character. I haven't read it in a while but can't recall thinking, like a couple of other reviewers, that she is 'consciously naive'. I think she is quite forthright and self assured in a good way. This book is short, quiet and very atmospheric; when I think of it I remember not the storyline but the feeling of nostalgia and affection it leaves me with.