"I begin to see that writers are liable to become callous”

Afterthoughts #3: 'I Capture the Castle'

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Welcome to A Narrative of their Own, where I discuss the work of 20th century women writers and their relevance to contemporary culture.  You are reading my bonus Afterthoughts letter, where we delve into the themes behind the writing.

This Sunday I discussed the 75th anniversary of the publication of the young adult novel I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  Though Smith was a successful playwright at the time of the publication of this novel, she is arguably better known as the writer behind One Hundred and One Dalmations.

One of the interesting things I noted from readers’ comments is that this novel and writer appear to be better known here in the UK, with some US readers saying they hadn’t come across it before.  This is interesting: I had thought it was a modern classic, but perhaps its very English countryside feel, and the enormous success of Smith’s Dalmations has meant that this book didn’t really make it across the pond.  I was pleased that quite a few of you wanted to check it out though, so hopefully you won’t be disappointed!

Another subscriber mentioned loving the book and reading it when they were younger and living in a rural setting.  I loved this idea!  And I felt that this would only enhance the book. 

Photo by Magda Vrabetz on Unsplash

“I Capture the Castle is said to be a young adult novel, though it is one of those rare and wonderful cross-overs.”

Firstly, I am interested in this term ‘young adult’ when attached to novels.  I don’t know about other readers, but I often bypass novels with this kind of branding, as I feel like they are not likely to be ‘for me’.  However, when I have removed this barrier (often as a recommendation by one of my kids; I loved Alice Oseman’s Loveless, which I read earlier this year, for example), I have often been pleasantly rewarded.

This all to say that I am never quite convinced by age range recommendations on books.  But I’m also interested in whether other readers pick up books that are ostensibly not aimed ‘at them’, and find they thoroughly get lost in the story.

“First published in 1948, it was written by Smith during the Second World War, when she moved to California with her husband Alex Beesley, who was a conscientious objector.  Longing for home, Smith wrote of happier times, which appears through the novel to be around the 1930s.”

What I think comes across strongly in Smith’s novel is the idea of ‘home’, and of family belonging - for better or worse.  Home in this case being the English countryside of the 1930s, and the family being one of the most eccentric in literature.

I think this idea of home has been returned to by many novelists, and often also references the idealised versions of childhood.  I’m thinking of writers like Laurie Lee with his Cider with Rosie here, and I often think that these reflect the author’s wish to remember the comforts and ease with which they experienced a childhood with little responsibilities or awareness of more pressing difficulties.  As a homesick writer in exile in California during the war, Smith likely fell into this category, and even the genteel poverty of the Mortmain family must have reminded her of a simpler time.

“Although the book appears at first glance to be a youthful romp through the teenage years and a tale of thwarted romance, it has, at its heart, deeper considerations of sex and money.  In fact, Rose’s comments about wishing to live in a Jane Austen novel resonate; like the best of Austen heroines, and though Cassandra amusingly tells the tales of their misadventures, the reality of marriage for the girls as an escape from their picturesque but very real poverty is possibly the only option.”

I found it interesting that the frivolity and farce portrayed in the book opened up into a more serious debate on women’s (relatively limited) choices at this time.  Marriage was clearly identified in the novel as a chance to escape their father’s poverty, and although Rose is seen (by her own admission!) as a typical Austen-esque romantic heroine, the reality, as in the novels of Austen, is that one of the sisters really needed to score a good match in marriage in order to save themselves, if not the whole family, by association. 

“There is a tangible reality here; the girls are stuck in an isolated place with a father who is unable or unwilling to provide for them, and with Rose at least seeing the only means of escape available to a young woman in such a predicament as marriage to an eligible man.”  

I also liked to think whilst reading that although Smith through Cassandra is ‘capturing’ the lives of her family and friends in a humorous spirit within the pages of her journal, the ‘Capture’ in the title could also suggest that her writing ambitions and focus on improving her craft could indicate her awareness that she, unlike Rose, wishes to become the central character in her own life’s story.  If she becomes the successful novelist that her father appears to be failing at, in other words, perhaps she will be in the position to save herself (and possibly the rest of her family).  

Photo by nikki gibson on Unsplash

“What the book is also about is the actual act or art of writing itself.  Cassandra’s father is a failing writer…He is always playing the act of a writer, even trying to convince himself that he is writing again, when in fact he is not...whilst on Cassandra’s part, she harbours a desire to write and her journal keeping is simply a vehicle towards becoming a novelist.”  

This is the part of the novel I enjoyed the most.  I always feel drawn to a book that features a writer character, and will often pick one up just based on this!  I think, as someone who writes, it is fun and interesting to get drawn into reading about someone else’s practice of writing (even when it is a fictional character).  

Cassandra’s father is a perfectly drawn eccentric version of a writer who is living gregariously off his one successful novel, whilst it is clear that Cassandra is trying to develop her ear for the nuances of character and plot through the mishaps and romantic liaisons of her considerably eccentric family. 

“I really ought to have gone over and comforted her, but I wanted to set it all down here. I begin to see that writers are liable to become callous”.

I loved this quote!  It reminded me of times when we see or hear about a humorous or interesting incident or anecdote and think: This would make a great story opening!  And wondering whether it would be rude or inappropriate to get out a notebook and write it down…

I hope you have enjoyed my afterthoughts on some of the themes in this week’s newsletter.  If you have any thoughts to add to the conversation, please do so in the comments.  I’d love to hear them 😀

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