Books

First edition, first printing, of the author's wildly successful debut novel, preceding the UK edition published the following year. The work reveals Smith's yearning for home: a conscientious objector, Smith and her husband emigrated from England to the US in 1939, spending time in California, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. I Capture the Castle is "a captivating story located in a medieval castle Smith had seen at Wingfield, Suffolk, in 1934, written in the form of the diary of Cassandra Mortmain, aged seventeen, essentially based on the young Dodie" (ODNB). The novel was adapted into 2004 film, starring Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Rose Byrne, and Tara Fitzgerald. Octavo. Original light blue cloth, spine lettered in blue, castle vignette on front cover in blue. With dust jacket designed by Samuel Bryant from a sketch by the author. Fly-titles with vignette illustrations by Ruth Steed. Small paper slip inscribed in a contemporary hand with a recipe for an orange sponge cake loosely inserted. Spine and edges slightly faded, a touch of mottling to cloth, a little browning to endpapers, contents clean; mild toning to jacket, less so than usual, couple of nicks and a little creasing to extremities, short closed tear to foot of front fold with light repair to verso, unclipped: a very good copy in like jacket. .

I Capture the Castle is a novel by Dodie Smith, written in the form of the journals of 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. She chronicles her eccentric family's life in their dilapidated English castle and her own coming-of-age experiences.