I Capture the Castle
OCLC 24724940 | | |
823.914 |
I Capture the Castle is the
The novel relates the adventures of an eccentric family, the Mortmains, struggling to live in genteel poverty in a decaying
In 2003 the novel was listed at number 82 in the BBC's survey The Big Read.[1]
Plot
The novel takes place between April and October in a single year in the 1930s. The Mortmain family is genteel, poor, and eccentric. Cassandra's father is a writer suffering from writer's block who has not published anything since his first book, Jacob Wrestling (a reference to Jacob wrestling with the angel), an innovative and "difficult" modernist novel that sold well and made his name, including in the United States. Ten years before the novel begins he took out a forty-year lease on a dilapidated but beautiful castle, hoping to find either inspiration or isolation there. Now his family is selling off the furniture to buy food.
The widowed Mortmain's second wife, Topaz, is a beautiful artist's model who enjoys communing with nature, sometimes wearing nothing but
Things begin to happen when the Cottons, a wealthy American family, inherit nearby Scoatney Hall and become the Mortmains' new landlords. Cassandra and Rose soon become intrigued by the unmarried brothers Simon and Neil Cotton. Neil, who was raised in California by their English father, is a carefree young man who wants to become a
At their first meeting the Cottons are amused and interested by the Mortmains. When they pay a call the very next day, however, the inexperienced Rose flirts openly with Simon and makes herself look ridiculous. Both brothers are repelled by this display and, as they walk away, Cassandra overhears them resolving to drop all acquaintance with the Mortmains. After an amusing episode involving a fur coat, however, all is forgiven and the two families become good friends. Rose decides that she really is taken with Simon, and Cassandra and Topaz scheme to get Simon to propose to her. Simon falls in love with Rose and proposes to her.
Rose and Topaz go to London with Mrs Cotton to purchase Rose's wedding trousseau. While everyone else is away Cassandra and Simon spend the evening together, which leads to their kissing. Cassandra becomes obsessed with Simon, but suffers feelings of guilt since he is Rose's fiancé. Cassandra concludes that she must tactfully deflect Stephen's offer of love, and encourage him in his emerging career as a model and a film actor. She joins forces with Thomas to help their father overcome his writer's block by the drastic expedient of imprisoning him in a medieval tower; copes with her own increasing attraction to Simon; and records everything in her journal.
Meanwhile, unnoticed by everyone but Stephen, Rose and Neil have been falling in love. To conceal their budding romance they pretend to hate each other. When they eventually
Adaptations
- Smith adapted her novel into a two-act play "with musical notes" in 1954.[2]
- In 1963 Walt Disney Productions announced plans to film the novel with Hayley Mills in the role of Cassandra.[3] Disney ended up dropping the project, while still retaining film rights to the book, when Smith and the selected screenwriter Sally Benson did not get along.[4] Mills grew too old for the part before the project could be revived,[4] but Disney denied film rights to any other studio until intense legal leveraging in the late 1990s after Smith's death, which eventually resulted in the 2003 BBC Film production.[4][5]
- After Disney released the film rights to the novel in the late 1990s, Heidi Thomas wrote a screen adaptation.[4] This resulted in a 2003 feature film directed by Tim Fywell for BBC Films. It starred Romola Garai as Cassandra.
- In November 2015, a BBC Radio 4 adaption was broadcast, which was dramatised by Jane Rogers and directed by Nadia Molinari. It starred Holliday Grainger as Cassandra and Toby Jones as Mortmain.
- A musical adaptation with book and lyrics by Teresa Howard and music by Steven Edis received its staged premiere at the Watford Palace Theatre in April 2017. It was directed by Brigid Larmour.[6]
- A musical adaptation with lyrics by Marion Adler, score by Peter Foley, and book by Cara Reichel was commissioned by Signature Theatre's American Musical Voices Project: Next Generation (Arlington, Virginia) and given staged readings in 2013 at Pace New Musicals (Pace University, New York, New York).[7]
Critical reception
On 5 November 2019, the
I Capture the Castle was cited by Armistead Maupin as an influence on his novel Maybe the Moon, which he also structured as a diary.[9]
References
- ^ "The Big Read". BBC. April 2003, retrieved 26 October 2012
- OCLC 314700197.
- ^ "Hayley is About to Grow up". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 30, no. 38. 20 February 1963. p. 1 (Teenagers' Weekly). Retrieved 15 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b c d Gritten, David (11 July 2003). "The coming of age of a much-loved story". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- ^ Quinn, Anthony (4 February 2014). "I Capture The Castle (PG)". The Independent. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- TheGuardian.com. 9 April 2017.
- ^ Gioia, Michael (24 January 2013). "Pace University Will Offer Free Concert Readings of Drew Gasparini and Alex Brightman's Make Me Bad Musical". Playbill. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- ^
"100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.
- ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
External links
- A reading group guide for I Capture the Castle.