Audio Book: I Capture The Castle
Written by Dodie Smith (The Audio Partners)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

---

Drawn heavily from 17-year-old Cassandra Mortman's journal, I Capture the Castle is a riveting up front account of one young woman's life in coarse poverty with her family. They are a collection of oddities, living together in the rubble of an old English castle. In a rare feat of construction, acclaimed author Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith - famous for her seminal children's tale 101 Dalmatians - pairs the often divergent qualities of vitality and romance without pandering with schmaltzy tired moments. The reader winds around every turn in the narrator's life finding humor, genuine introspection and strained familial relationships. Without a doubt, I Capture the Castle holds up in the 55 years since publication as not only a splendidly entertaining story, but an accomplishment in modern fiction. Dynamic British actress Emilia Fox reads Smith's work. A star of the stage and screen - most notably in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist - her voice picks up the emotive strains of the novel. The Audio re-issue pulls in at a relatively brief 4 hours and 53 minutes, each filled with eccentricity and poignant romance.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz