Why does Mortmain encourage Cassandra to be 'brisk' with Stephen? What does I Capture the Castle say about class in mid-twentieth-century England?Ħ. How would you compare the situation of the Mortmain sisters to that of the Bennet sisters?ĥ. voracious reader, Cassandra compares her situation to that of the Bennets in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. What do you imagine Jacob Wrestling to be about?Ĥ. Yet beyond a few spare descriptions, Smith tells us little about the actual story. Mortmain's celebrated novel is described throughout I Capture the Castle as a literary breakthrough, a predecessor to James Joyce's work, and meriting the analysis of famous literary critics. Why do you think Dodie Smith chose the form of the diary to tell the story of Cassandra and the Mortmain family?ģ. I Capture the Castle is told through Cassandra's entries in her journals, an exercise she has undertaken in order to teach herself how to write. How might readers have responded differently to the novel at that time? How might their responses have been the same? Why does the novel continue to appeal to readers today as it did in 1948?Ģ.

'I Capture the Castle' was first published in 1948. By the time she pens her final entry, she has 'captured the castle' and the heart of the reader in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.ġ. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. Now a major motion picture from the Academy Award winning producer of Shakespeare in Love, I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen year old Cassandra and her family, who live in not so genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith