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I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith5/8/2023 ![]() Topaz deploys these faculties in equal measure while expressing her own Grace Coddington-meets-Veela (the bewitching, moon-bright creatures from Harry Potter) personal style and supporting the Mortmains’ reentry into society. She wields an intuitive knowledge of artful dress, while also possessing gritty resourcefulness and the social acuity required to read a room. ![]() As the narrative unfolds, however, Topaz’s theatrical approach to fashion reads more as a keen understanding of visual politics. We learn that Topaz is a famous artists’ model, who is “tall and pale, like a slightly dead goddess” with long “silvery hair” and a “sepulchral voice.” At the book’s outset, the impoverished Mortmain family find Topaz’s sartorial eccentricities, including penchants for vintage clothes and experimental dyeing, charming, if occasionally contrived. ![]() Set in the 1930s, I Capture the Castle is structured as a series of vivid journal entries by Topaz’s seventeen-year-old stepdaughter, Cassandra Mortmain. ![]()
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