Austen Citing Index

Jane Austen Society of Australia

Austen citing: Dodie Smith

Dodie Smith was the pseudonym of C L Anthony (1896-1990), playwright, novelist and theatre producer, best known for her children’s book The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956), which of course has been made into a film more than once. Her novel I Capture The Castle (1949) made a deep impression on me when I first read it as a teenager: it is a coming-of-age story with lots of intelligence, feeling and wit. In addition, it reveals many echoes of Pride and Prejudice, of which the following extract gives a hint. Here the narrator, Cassandra, and her sister Rose are talking late at night:

Then [Rose] said:

‘Did you think of anything when Miss Marcy said Scoatney Hall was being re-opened? I thought of the beginning of Pride and Prejudice – where Mrs Bennet says ‘Netherfield Park is let at last’. And then Mr Bennet goes over to call on the rich new owner.’

‘Mr Bennet didn’t owe him any rent’, I said.

‘Father wouldn’t go anyway. How I wish I lived in a Jane Austen novel!’

I said I’d rather be in a Charlotte Brontë.

‘Which would be nicest – Jane with a touch of Charlotte, or Charlotte with a touch of Jane?’

This is the kind of discussion I like very much but I wanted to get on with my journal, so I just said: ‘Fifty per cent each way would be perfect’, and started to write determinedly.

Judy Stove

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09 June 2002

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