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Elders &
Betters
1944
The Donne family's move to the country is inspired by a wish to be close to their cousins, who are to be their nearest neighbours. It proves too close for comfort, however.
For a secret switching of wills causes the most genteel pursuit of self-interest to threaten good relations and even good manners ...
Ivy Compton-Burnett employs her sharp ear for comedy and celebrated powers of dialogue to spectacular effect. She reveals a devastating microcosm of human society, in which the elders are by no means always the betters, in which no character is totally scrupulous, but none without their appeal.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"A remarkable and unusual novelist, who has, in her own well-tilled field, no rival and no parallel."
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Times Literary Supplement
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