Published in 2003 (first published 1948)
343 pages
Dorothy Gladys “Dodie” Smith, was born in 1896 in Lancashire, England, and she was one of the most successful female dramatists of her generation. She wrote “Autumn,” “Crocus,” and “Dear Octopus,” among other plays. Her first novel, I Capture the Castle was written when she lived in America during the ’40s and marked her crossover debut from playwright to novelist. The novel became an immediate success and was produced as a play in 1954. Her other novels were The Town in Bloom, It Ends with Revelations, A Tale of Two Families, and The Girl in the Candle-Lit Bath. Today, however, she is best known for her stories for young readers, The Hundred and One Dalmations (1956) and The Starlight Barking (1967). The Hundred and One Dalmations was inspired by Dodie’s own Dalmation named Pongo, and became the basis of two Disney films.
What is this book about?
Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family. By the time the last diary shuts, there have been great changes in the Mortmain household, not the least of which is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly, in love.
