I’m the King of the Castle: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The novel begins, “Three months ago, his grandmother died, and then they had moved to this house.”

A man named Joseph Hooper goes to visit his dying father and takes his young son, Edmund Hooper. The boy’s visit is quick and not particularly emotional. Joseph reminds Edmund that he’s the heir to his grandfather’s fortune. Edmund can only think about his grandfather’s pale white skin.

After Edmund’s grandfather dies, Joseph moves into the house with Edmund. He tells Edmund that he won’t be able to spend much time around the house, adding that it’s hard to support a child “without a woman beside me.”

Joseph instructs Edmund never to go into the Red Room, explaining that there are lots of old, valuable things inside. When Edmund suggests that they explore the room, Joseph’s hand hesitates over a small drawer. But then, Joseph suggests that Edmund play cricket instead of looking through the house. When Edmund points out that he doesn’t have anyone to play cricket with, Joseph points out that Edmund may have “a new friend” soon. Now Edmund is sure he knows “where to find the key” to the Red Room.

Joseph thinks that Edmund is a lot like Ellen Hooper, Joseph’s wife, who died six years ago. Their marriage was unhappy.

The Hoopers’ house, which Joseph has now inherited from his father, is called Warings, and it was built by Edmund’s great-grandfather, meaning that “it was not very old.” Back in those days, the Hoopers were a wealthy landowning family. Now, however, the surrounding village is much smaller, and most of their land was sold to fund the construction of the manor. “But,” Joseph thinks, “there was still Warings.”

Joseph’s ancestor, an ambitious man of the same name (we’ll call him Joseph Hooper Sr.), had poured all his money into Warings. He succeeded, with the result that he had to sell all his other land to afford his new house. Joseph tells Edmund that Edmund should be proud of his family history, but Edmund doesn’t see why. From his perspective, the house is perfectly ordinary, and even rather ugly.

The house is tall and made of dark red bricks. It’s surrounded by yew trees, which Joseph Hooper Sr. selected because they were the longest-living trees. Inside, the house has lots of oak doors and staircases, and very little about it has changed since it was built.

Joseph grew up in Warings, and hated it. He’s now fifty-one years old, and he’s proud to be a Hooper and the owner of a large manor house. He knows, deep down, that he’s a dull, “ineffectual man,” and Warings gives him a sense of “both importance and support.”

Edmund has chosen to sleep in a small, dark room at the back of the house, a choice that surprises his father. One night, just before dawn, Edmund wakes up and sees moonlight shining down on the yew trees. He climbs down the staircase, confident that he won’t run into his father or Mrs. Boland, their housekeeper. He finds the drawer he noticed earlier and opens it. Inside, he finds a long, red key.

Edmund uses the key to enter the Red Room. Inside, he finds shelves of books, mostly “bound volumes of the Banker’s Journal.” He knows that the room was designed as a library, even though nobody ever used it for this purpose. Instead, Edmund’s grandfather began using the Red Room to house his collection of moths and butterflies. The room is full of display cases containing the dead insects. Joseph has shown Edmund the collection before, but Joseph privately believes that he should be able to sell it for a large amount of money.

Joseph remembers his own father, Joseph Hooper Sr, taking him to the Red Room to see the butterfly collection. Joseph’s father once told him, “I am an international authority … let me see you make a name for yourself.” Even then, Joseph knew he would never be able to do so. However, Joseph tells Edmund that it was a “splendid thing” that Edmund’s grandfather was so famous. Deep down, Joseph senses that he has failed to “ingratiate himself with Edmund,” even more than Joseph’s own father had failed to ingratiate himself with Joseph.

Late at night, Edmund walks through the Red Room, looking at the moths in their cases. He knows that there is a small key, kept inside a Bible in the Red Room, which unlocks the cases. He also notices stuffed foxes and weasels, which look exceptionally dusty. Edmund comes to a case at the end of the room. Using the key, he opens the case, revealing a “Death’s Head Hawk Moth.” Edmund touches the moth with his finger, and immediately, the moth, “already years dead,” collapses into dust.