
I Capture the Castle
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Narrated by:
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Jenny Agutter
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By:
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Dodie Smith
About this listen
Exclusively from Audible
In this coming of age story, Dodie Smith introduces the visionary and eccentric character of seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. The youngest daughter in a family of impoverished artists, it is her imagination and writing that takes us away from the ramshackle old English castle where they live, and towards an intriguing tale of husband-hunting and light-hearted sibling rivalry.With the arrival of their new landlords, the impossibly handsome and wealthy American brothers, Neil and Simon Cotton, the Mortmains are roused from their stupor and moved to action. Despite developing feelings for the younger of the two brothers, Cassandra's beautiful sister, Rose, plots to marry the eldest heir in a desperate attempt to escape the poverty which surrounds her.
When Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the very first time with the same man as her sister, she explores her mixed emotions through her writing, making this a story which revels in irony and ambiguity.
A deceptively complex and intelligent story, I Capture the Castle is Smith's first published work and one which will undoubtedly and simultaneously make listeners tut, laugh and reminisce.
Narrator BiographyJenny Agutter is a celebrated English stage, film and TV actress who was first brought to the attention of British audiences as a child, starring in East of Sudan and The Railway Children. She made her Hollywood debut in the critically acclaimed film Walkabout, in 1971, followed by Logan's Run, An American Werewolf in London and Child's Play 2.
Her TV career includes appearances on Spooks, Call the Midwife and The Man in the Iron Mask. Alongside this, Jenny is also considered one of the best classical actors of her generation and has performed with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre. She is an Emmy and BAFTA award winner and was awarded an OBE on the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours List for charitable services.
Jenny's other Audible audiobook narrations include Jane Austen's Emma, Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and E. Nesbit's The Railway Children.
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Overall
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Light-skinned Black woman Irene Redfield encounters an old childhood friend - Clare - who is now "passing" as a White woman. Clare is married to a racist White man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. In spite of the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large, she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world.
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Almost didn't finish-so glad I did.
- By Lisa C on 01-21-21
By: Nella Larsen
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After You’d Gone
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Elle Newlands
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice’s family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended.
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Very well written.
- By Audible Fan on 02-24-21
By: Maggie O'Farrell
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Rebecca
- By: Daphne du Maurier
- Narrated by: Anna Massey
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.... The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives - presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.
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Easily the best audiobook I have ever heard!
- By Kid at Heart on 11-10-18
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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
- A Novel
- By: Helen Simonson
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.
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Charming book with an excellent narrator
- By jc on 03-05-10
By: Helen Simonson
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Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
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One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
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Bluebird, Bluebird: Booktrack Edition
- By: Attica Locke
- Narrated by: J.D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules—a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.
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I probably won’t recommend it.
- By William C. Mccoy on 07-06-20
By: Attica Locke
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The Jane Austen Society
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Jenner
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now, it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people - a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others - could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen.
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Why so much bad language? Ruined a good book
- By Anonymous User on 08-12-20
By: Natalie Jenner
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Native Son
- By: Richard Wright
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
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Simply a classic
- By Noah Smith on 11-11-10
By: Richard Wright
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The Enchanted April
- By: Elizabeth von Arnim
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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It began in a women's club in London on a February afternoon. A discreet advertisement in The Times, addressed to "Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine..." lures four very different women away from the dismal British weather to San Salvatore, a castle high above a bay on the sunny Italian Riviera. There, the Mediterranean spirit stirs the souls of Mrs Arbuthnot, Mrs Wilkins, Lady Caroline Dester, and Mrs Fisher, and remarkable changes occur.
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Oh, Gosh! What a Delightful Surprise!
- By Gillian on 01-27-14
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Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching—yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.
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How Did This Escape Me?
- By E. Pearson on 11-23-11
By: Ralph Ellison
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The Memory Police
- A Novel
- By: Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder - translator
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses - until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten. When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards.
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A Calm, Quiet Dystopian
- By Booky Nooky on 12-13-19
By: Yoko Ogawa, and others
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The English Understand Wool
- Storybook ND Series
- By: Helen DeWitt
- Narrated by: Lucy Raynor
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge’s, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests.
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The wild and crazy story, narrated brilliantly!
- By AudiobookMaven on 11-24-24
By: Helen DeWitt
I've subsequently done a little research on the book, and I can see it featuring on lists like "Classics All Young Girls Should Read" etc... This makes me a little embarrassed, as I'm a middle-aged man. I suppose I can understand some dismissing this as a “charming little girls book"—it is a tad heavy on young romance, first loves, stolen kisses, exciting marriage proposals (Dear God, I'm cringing as I write). But what a pity if they did pigeon-hole it that way; it has way more to offer. It is witty, thoughtful, clever and genuinely laugh-out-loud funny at times. And the characters are so deeply drawn, I guess I didn’t mind all the accompanying histrionics.
I should say that I did live in the UK for many years, so I know my nostalgia for the English countryside enhanced my enjoyment. My favourite quote: “It came to me that Hyde Park has never belonged to London - that it has always been , in spirit, a stretch of countryside; and that it links the Londons of all periods together most magically - by remaining forever unchanged at the heart of a ever-changing town.”
Loyal fans of the book have admired this audio version, and I totally support all praise for Jenny Agutter. This is a flawless narration and I can’t imagine a better way to enjoy this book.
Oh and—by the way—I think I’ve now realized why the algorithm recommended the book to me in the first place. I had “Cold Comfort Farm” listed as a favourite, and it’s only now that I’m starting to see the synchronicities between these two novels.
Well, that was a surprise
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I capture the castle
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I think this book is about a translation from childhood to adulthood, the change from naive child trust to the realization that you really know nothing.
The book is nice, like reading journals, but the writer drops the n word more then once and there are some harmful views of women while grown men shove and grab at lady’s and no one is stressed about it.
Good but dated
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A Delight and a Surprise
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Slow beginning but worth the wait
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What made the experience of listening to I Capture the Castle the most enjoyable?
I think this book would have been better not as an audio book. Several of my friends loved this book and I liked it fine, but didn't find it as charming as they did.What was one of the most memorable moments of I Capture the Castle?
There were a few little laugh out loud moments. The way the story was told was also enjoyable.What do you think the narrator could have done better?
Her American accent wasn't stellar and I got confused which character was talking.If you could rename I Capture the Castle, what would you call it?
The Story of My Sister and MeMight Be Better Not as an Audio Book
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It did take me a couple chapters to get hooked. It was worth hanging on!
It did take me a couple chapters to get hooked. It was worth hanging on!
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delightful
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Loved it at thirteen revisited at sixty
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Well written and "captured" my attention!
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