I Capture the Castle | Dodie Smith

Title: I Capture the Castle
Author: Dodie Smith


This book was remarkably heartwarming and funny. Normally, I find that humor in books this old doesn't age well, but that really isn't the case here. Dodie Smith's sense of humor shines through in a superb way, and I found myself laughing out loud multiple times. That said, this isn't a comedy. There's a love story. There's concern of mental illness. It's a complex tale of a family that others wish to save (from poverty, from irrelevance, etc.), but they ultimately save themselves. It doesn't end with a happily ever after, but I still feel good about where the characters are at the end. It's Austen-esque with a dose of realism. I like that.

Four out of five stars.

QUOTES:
"There is only one page left to write on. I will fill it with words of only one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love."

"I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life."

"Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can."

"Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing."

"He stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: 'What is it about the English countryside--why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?'
He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening--I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly."

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READING PROGRESS:
Needful Things by Stephen King: 94%
Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings: 62%
Boys of Brayshaw High by Meagan Brandy: 97%
Swan by Mary Oliver: NOW STARTING

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