I Capture the Castle

First published in 1948, this novel is the journal of Cassandra Mortmain, a seventeen-year-old living in a ruined Suffolk castle with her family in genteel poverty. Her father, once famous for an experimental novel, has stopped writing; her stepmother Topaz models and communes with nature; her sister Rose wants clothes, money, and a way out. The American brothers Simon and Neil Cotton, heirs connected with the nearby estate, arrive and overturn the household's prospects. Cassandra records meals, schemes, and her own education in love and observation. The book is a coming-of-age story told as a diary, not a gothic romance of the castle itself.

Bound in off-white cloth cover printed with a picture in shades of blue and brown, light blue spine with title in brown surrounded by an off-white castle image. Blue endpapers printed with a gold pattern. Plain slipcase.