I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith – one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, also included on The BBC The Big Read list - 10 out of 10

 

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith – one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, also included on The BBC The Big Read list

10 out of 10

 

 

This novel is glorious, mesmerizing and has an impact beyond the pleasure that it provides, which was immense for this reader, but it will also encourage readers to hope that they will find other books that satisfy the conditions explained at the bottom of this note, taken from To The Heritage https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/to-hermitage-by-malcolm-bradbury-author.html by Malcolm Bradbury

 

All my gratitude to Dodie Smith, a divine author, who has brought back the certitude that there are books out there which will bring extreme joy, just like I Capture The Castle, with its fabulous heroine, Cassandra Mortmain, her relatives and other characters, that substantiate the quote from Umberto Eco, the late novelist

He said that those who ‘do not read live one life, while readers live five thousand’, words to that effect, and while in some fiction we are not exhilarated by the personages – it happened to yours truly a few times lately – Cassandra and the figures that populate the Castle, the novel are magnificent, most of them…

 

James Mortmain has written a successful book, and then found this spectacular, though somewhat ruined castle, moved there his family, his daughters Cassandra and Rose and his son, Thomas, and his wife, only to find that he has no inspiration for another work, and steadily, they become destitute, selling furniture to buy food

They rely on Stephen, the son of a former servant, to bring in pay from a farm, so that they have some food on the table, the adolescent is in love with Cassandra, and he is ready to do anything for her, though she does not feel the same towards him, she is kind, generous, she even encourages him to kiss her at one point…

 

Nonetheless, the relationship does not lead anywhere (first, a spoiler alert would be needed here, perhaps, and if there are no slip ups, still, you could find something better to read, second, there may be some wrong opinions, the connection does have some effects, they become platonic friends, which is something)

Topaz is the beautiful, if a bit vain, superficial, and theatrical second wife of the blocked author, who tries hard to help him, she is also munificent with her family, to make Rose shine, she even dresses in a modest outfit (not that they have money for lavish dresses, or anything else) so that she does not steal the limelight

One day, they find that a car is trapped in the mud outside the castle, and two Americans are coming out to get some help to try and take the vehicle out, and they are impressed with what they see, which is in fact their property, they have become inheritors of a mansion nearby and the castle, which they visit with the hosts

 

Rose is trying hard to seduce Simon, the brother who has the money, Neil will have just have to find a farm in the Californian desert, which is his dream, the only way out of misery appears to be Rose getting a rich husband, and this looks like the perfect chance, only there are some obstacles in the way, as we find out

As they leave the hosts, the two brothers talk to each other, and express dismay at the preposterous way in which Rose behaved – she has had no experience and took the lines she had read in novels as the rules of the game, the is exaggerating the moves of the eyelashes and appears to try and capture Simon in an ostentatious manner

 

Cassandra is writing at her diary, in one of the auxiliaries of the property, when she overhears the lamentations of the two Americans and that would cause some outrage, she shares the news with Topaz, and not with Rose, not for a while, however, there is another chance for things to move in the right direction…

Simon looks as if he jumps over the first impressions, and gets attracted to Rose, while Neil looks as if he hates the ‘gold digger, and meanwhile Cassandra does all she can to smooth the way – on one night, even if she knows she will freeze, she provokes Neil to swim in the cold waters that defend the castle and he accepts the challenge

 

This is done so that Rose can have privacy, so that the romance develops, even reaches a climax, which it does, just as Cassandra is coming to the room, she hears Simon proposing, and then they get engaged (remember the spoiler alert) and it looks as if they will come close to Eden, all of them, for now they do not starve

Notwithstanding that, Cassandra has the chance to talk to Simon, they participate together in some ancient ritual, and she finds that she loves her future brother-in-law, and now readers are in anguish, what will happen to our favorite narrator, the intelligent, munificent, splendid friend that we now have in her?

 

Simon loves Rose, but does she feel the same, or is it just a question of escaping destitution, hunger, and while Cassandra is looking for the answer, we have certitudes – Thomas thinks she does not love Simon, and when confronted, when the sisters have a few moments of intimacy, the truth is revealed and then a paradigm shift is required

Cassandra leaves the flat in London, with her superb dog, and when she eats in a restaurant, finds she has no money, not even a few pennies to call Stephen for help, eventually, she is scared she will be taken by the police, but that is just one of the small adventures that we have in his stupendous, extraordinary, magnificent magnum opus

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”