The Mortmain sisters. I Capture The Castle by Dodie SmithRead about the other entries on the list.
The deliciously described tale of opinionated teenage writer Cassandra and her ‘bitter with life,’ waifishly beautiful sister Rose, who eggs the weather on, ‘positively encouraging forked lightning.’ Cassandra and Rose live in a crumbling castle and have to cope with their dysfunctionally-eccentric elders, as well as a poverty that sees them eating meagre portions of bread and margarine, without any dining room furniture as it has all been sold.
The sisters share a draughty bedroom, warm their feet with hot bricks and take it in turns to have a week sleeping in the four poster, the other relegated to the iron bedstead. It is in the dark that they confide in each other most. These intimate conversations showcase both their poverty, and the differences in their character.
Rose: ‘I’d marry him even if I hated him…did you ever see anything as beautiful as Mrs Cotton’s bathroom?’
Cassandra: ‘Yes, lots of things…and no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate.’
I Capture the Castle is among Gail Honeyman's five favorite idiosyncratic characters, Anna Wilson's top ten embarrassing parents in books, Rose Mannering’s top five books, Diane Johnson's six favorite books, and Sophia Bennett's top ten stylish reads.
--Marshal Zeringue
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