Dodie Smith
Dodie Smith
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smithwas an English children's novelist and playwright, known best for the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Other works include I Capture the Castle, and The Starlight Barking. The Hundred and One Dalmatians was adapted into a 1961 Disney animated movie version. Her novel I Capture the Castle was adapted into a 2003 movie version. I Capture the Castle was voted number 82 as "one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels" by the British public as part of...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDramatist
Date of Birth3 May 1896
Father says hot water can be as stimulating as an alcoholic drink and though I never come by one...I can well believe it.
Only half a page left now. Shall I fill it with 'I love you, I love you'-- like father's page of cats on the mat? No. Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper.
And at last father flung the rug off as if it were hampering him and strode over to the table saying, 'cocoa, cocoa!'-- it might have been the most magnificent drink in the world; which, personally, I think it is.
He stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?" He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening — I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly.
Just to be in love seemed the most blissful luxury I had ever known. The thought came to me that perhaps it is the loving that counts, not the being loved in return -- that perhaps true loving can never know anything but happiness. For a moment I felt that I had discovered a great truth.
My God - it's a green child!" said the American. "What is this place - the House of Usher?
I have really sinned. I am going to pause now, and sit here on the mound repenting in deepest shame...
...With stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth seems to flow out as fast as I can get it down.
I could hear rain still pouring from the gutters and a thin branch scraping against one of the windows; but the church seemed completely cut off from the restless day outside--just as I felt cut off from the church. I thought: I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness.
Stew's so comforting on a rainy day.
The key to all knowledge comes in words of just one syllable, apparently.... There's only the last page left to write on. I'll fill it with words of just one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love.
I have noticed that rooms which are extra clean feel extra cold
It's odd how different a house feels when one is alone in it. It makes it easier to think rather private thoughts...
... for I know I shall be interrupted-- I shall want to be, really, because life is too exciting to sit still for long.