I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)

This charming book features a delightful young narrator, telling her story through journals she writes to "capture" her world in a fresh, engaging voice. The story begins with a family living in genteel poverty, patching clothes and struggling to find enough to eat, in the ruins of an old castle in the English countryside. The story evokes Jane Austin in its focus on people falling in love with appropriate and inappropriate people as the family's situation changes in unpredictable ways. Written in 1948, the story echoes the absolute thinking of love at the time: either you are in love or you aren't and there is nothing you can do about it. This way of thinking rubs me the wrong way, but I loved the writing so much it didn't bother me as much as it usually does. Recommended.