#39. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
I want the book to linger, to not taint my mind with any other book or video, so I'm sitting here, happy to have finished a book, but a bit melancholy that this one has ended. Cassandra Mortmain keeps a series of journals over the course of a year between the ages of 17 and 18, capturing the characters in her life and the rundown castle they occupy in the English countryside (father, stepmother Topaz, older sister Rose, younger brother Thomas.) They live in utter poverty, supported by the labor of a former servant's son, Stephen, work for a neighboring estate, none of the adults much inclined to work. Her father wrote a novel many years before, of some acclaim, especially in America, but now keeps to himself; a possible tortured genius, or perhaps suffering from mental illness. In desperation one night, Rose climbs up and makes a wish on a gargoyle for something to happen to change their fates, they really have no prospects, Rose even considers prostituting herself. New, wealthy, American neighbors suddenly fall into their lives, and Rose is determined to marry one of them for money, if not for love. Over the course of the year, it's a sea change for everyone, and the girl Cassandra becomes a woman.
Oh, I loved this book. (Read after seeing a YouTube video from Spinster's Library, as one of her favorite books.)
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