![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Just like I Capture the Castle
Jan. 27th, 2012 11:45 amRecently ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladyherenya and I have been chatting about “books like I Capture the Castle, because we both love books that could be so described and thought that, hey, it would be so much easier to find them if there were a master list somewhere.
But in making a list it became apparent that “books like I Capture the Castle” needed to be defined, so here’s an attempt at itemizing the necessary qualifications for a book to make the cut.
1. The voice. Cassandra’s voice is, for me, the heart of I Capture the Castle. She’s young and sheltered, but clever, inquisitive, funny; intoxicated with language and all its possibilities. She could natter on about dust bunnies and be brilliant.
I tend to lump everything that echoes Cassandra’s voice into the umbrella category, but there are other qualities that many of these stories share.
2. A eccentric family. The parent figures are loving but somehow deficient - either too distant or too immature to hold the family together - and the sibling bonds are tight, often acting as the support that parents can’t provide. There’s often a sense of isolation from the world, at least at the beginning.
3. The coming of age story. There are lots of kinds of coming of age stories, and this particular sort involves the heroine breaking free of the aforementioned isolation and stepping into the world - both socially and intellectually; and, in The Montmaray Journals, politically. There’s more to say about this, I think.
There’s often a lot of writing about books. I love books about books, and books about the intellect taking shape, and they’re so rare.
4. A peculiar house, preferably a castle, although a decrepit country house is also acceptable. I think this is as much for atmosphere as anything else - doubtless a Cassandra-ish story could be set in a split-level; but who doesn’t love atmosphere?
Those are the main qualities that I’ve thought of so far. Am I missing anything?
***
If you, too, wish to read more books like I Capture the Castle, so far our list contains:
1. Michelle Cooper’s brilliant Montmaray Journals - A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes in Exile, soon to be joined by The FitzOsbornes at War. I’M SO EXCITED. I WANT TO READ IT NOW.
2. Eva Rice’s The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
3. Jean Webster’s Daddy-long-legs
With honorable mentions to:
1. Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, because Juliet sounds like a grown-up Cassandra and because there’s lots of talking about books and ideas even if there’s no coming of age story - Juliet being already quite grown-up - and no castle, worse luck.
2. L. M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon trilogy. I’ve only read the first, butladyherenya says the later ones follow a Cassandra-ish coming of age story.
It’s not a very long list. If you have any possible additions, please suggest them.
ladyherenya and I have been chatting about “books like I Capture the Castle, because we both love books that could be so described and thought that, hey, it would be so much easier to find them if there were a master list somewhere. But in making a list it became apparent that “books like I Capture the Castle” needed to be defined, so here’s an attempt at itemizing the necessary qualifications for a book to make the cut.
1. The voice. Cassandra’s voice is, for me, the heart of I Capture the Castle. She’s young and sheltered, but clever, inquisitive, funny; intoxicated with language and all its possibilities. She could natter on about dust bunnies and be brilliant.
I tend to lump everything that echoes Cassandra’s voice into the umbrella category, but there are other qualities that many of these stories share.
2. A eccentric family. The parent figures are loving but somehow deficient - either too distant or too immature to hold the family together - and the sibling bonds are tight, often acting as the support that parents can’t provide. There’s often a sense of isolation from the world, at least at the beginning.
3. The coming of age story. There are lots of kinds of coming of age stories, and this particular sort involves the heroine breaking free of the aforementioned isolation and stepping into the world - both socially and intellectually; and, in The Montmaray Journals, politically. There’s more to say about this, I think.
There’s often a lot of writing about books. I love books about books, and books about the intellect taking shape, and they’re so rare.
4. A peculiar house, preferably a castle, although a decrepit country house is also acceptable. I think this is as much for atmosphere as anything else - doubtless a Cassandra-ish story could be set in a split-level; but who doesn’t love atmosphere?
Those are the main qualities that I’ve thought of so far. Am I missing anything?
***
If you, too, wish to read more books like I Capture the Castle, so far our list contains:
1. Michelle Cooper’s brilliant Montmaray Journals - A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes in Exile, soon to be joined by The FitzOsbornes at War. I’M SO EXCITED. I WANT TO READ IT NOW.
2. Eva Rice’s The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
3. Jean Webster’s Daddy-long-legs
With honorable mentions to:
1. Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, because Juliet sounds like a grown-up Cassandra and because there’s lots of talking about books and ideas even if there’s no coming of age story - Juliet being already quite grown-up - and no castle, worse luck.
2. L. M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon trilogy. I’ve only read the first, but
ladyherenya says the later ones follow a Cassandra-ish coming of age story.It’s not a very long list. If you have any possible additions, please suggest them.
