I Capture the Castle

By: Dodie Smith

Narrated by: Jenny Agutter

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Exclusively from Audible

In this coming of age story, Dodie Smith introduces the visionary and eccentric character of seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. The youngest daughter in a family of impoverished artists, it is her imagination and writing that takes us away from the ramshackle old English castle where they live, and towards an intriguing tale of husband-hunting and light-hearted sibling rivalry.

With the arrival of their new landlords, the impossibly handsome and wealthy American brothers, Neil and Simon Cotton, the Mortmains are roused from their stupor and moved to action. Despite developing feelings for the younger of the two brothers, Cassandra's beautiful sister, Rose, plots to marry the eldest heir in a desperate attempt to escape the poverty which surrounds her.

When Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the very first time with the same man as her sister, she explores her mixed emotions through her writing, making this a story which revels in irony and ambiguity.

A deceptively complex and intelligent story, I Capture the Castle is Smith's first published work and one which will undoubtedly and simultaneously make listeners tut, laugh and reminisce.

Narrator Biography

Jenny Agutter is a celebrated English stage, film and TV actress who was first brought to the attention of British audiences as a child, starring in East of Sudan and The Railway Children. She made her Hollywood debut in the critically acclaimed film Walkabout, in 1971, followed by Logan's Run, An American Werewolf in London and Child's Play 2.

Her TV career includes appearances on Spooks, Call the Midwife and The Man in the Iron Mask. Alongside this, Jenny is also considered one of the best classical actors of her generation and has performed with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre. She is an Emmy and BAFTA award winner and was awarded an OBE on the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours List for charitable services.

Jenny's other Audible audiobook narrations include Jane Austen's Emma, Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and E. Nesbit's The Railway Children.

©2000 Dodie Smith (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A good story, flourishing characters, and the most persuasive narrative voice." (Guardian [London])
"This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met." (J.K. Rowling)

delightful

What an unexpected delight... I enjoyed every minute and did not want it it to end...Superb narration by Jenny Agutter. I never imagined I would like to read a journal of a 17 year old girl, but I was utterly "captured" by this literary gem. I am disappointed by only one thing - there are no more adult books written by Dodie Smith...

Loved it at thirteen revisited at sixty

Still a good story and well read. Great for teen readers but not separate from adults. Written in a style that is like reading the author's diary. Her insights of life and growing up are still timely. Great romance as well.

Well written and "captured" my attention!

Although it was more of a character study and no big storyline, the quality of the writing kept attention and the progression and development of the characters was slow but kind of beautiful...like a beautiful Sunday afternoon lazy river ride.

Excellent

Not a book I would normally choose. But it was written very well, preformed well and just thoroughly enjoyable.

Magnificent

An absolutely beautiful rendition of this classic book. I understand why it is the favorite of so many great authors

Lovely encapsulation of teen existentialism

Great book! I did not enjoy the movie, which I encountered first, and I think it's because so much of this story is internal. The main plot is underneath the not-so-exciting action. Modern readers may find the story too slow or uneventful; I found it similar in pace to "Howard's End" or "Room With A View," but more profound.

Cassandra is on the cusp of adulthood. That feeling we've all had of emerging from a chrysalis -- gradually understanding that the world you know is about to change forever, believing you have endless potential, yet feeling tied down by your origins -- is laid out in bits and pieces in her journal, only forming the full picture in retrospect. All the teen angsts are there: distinguishing romantic love from familial feelings, the mortifying moments of believing a crush is true love, the knots one twists oneself into trying not to disappoint a dear friend whose romantic hopes you can't reciprocate.

Cassandra's naïveté is enhanced by her family's isolation, due to poverty, eccentricity and geography. It makes her efforts to understand the adult world seem more genuine; she's obviously a child who spends most of her time in her own head. Her father, who seems to be inspired by James Joyce, is the center of the family without actually being engaged with his children, so she certainly isn't getting any guidance from him, or her flaky stepmother who is only a few years older than her.

The narration is perfect, right down to edge in Jenny Agutter's voice during the more histrionic journal entries of a teen who feels like the world might end every time she's having strong feelings.

Great read, excellent performance

I found this novel having only seen the TV or Movie version. As usual the novel is more enjoyable, evoking depth to the characters that I don't recall in the film version.
The authors descriptions of her unique family and living situation are tender, and at times quite humorous. That said, it is a life story told by a young and naive woman, with all the overwhelming emotion that marks young love, first kisses, and secret longings that mark that age.
I listened straight through and found it delightful.

narrating

The ending felt unfinished and it was overall not a satisfying endying for myself personally.

Loved this

A romantic well-written intelligent lovely book, but an unsatisfying ending- which leaves the enigma in place…

An English Lost Domain

Anglophiles around the world will be transported back to England in the 1930s in this delicious, bitter sweet story of an eccentric family living in a house built into an ancient castle. It is easy to forget that the diary entries of the main character, teenager Cassandra, are ficticious. Dodie Smith writes such achingly beautiful observations of the countryside in all seasons equally well as she describes the endearing faults of her main characters. The Mortmain's lives are suspended in time for a while until a pair of American brothers arrive to claim their inheritance and the hearts of Cassandra and her sister Rose. Change is also in the air for their author father and "son of the house" Stephen. The story is not wound up too tightly at the end and we are left room to imagine where war, fortune and love will lead the characters. Jenny Agutter's reading beautifully captures the passion and "wiser than her years" poise of Cassandra.