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Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett

Ivy's novels

An enigma throughout her life, by the 1950’s Dame Ivy was known in literary circles as ‘the English Secret’ and had gained a reputation as one of the most original writers of her time, writing 19 novels between 1925 and her death in 1969.

The 19 Novels of Ivy Compton-Burnett

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Pastors & Masters

1925

The characters in this lively, quick-witted comedy of manners have a talent for talking without ever saying what they think, as that would 'not always be politic.'

Brothers & Sisters

1929

Novelists have always been tempted by the closed situation, that is, by the confinement of several characters, in a particular place out of which there is no escape

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Men & Wives

1931

Harriet Haslam, the epitome of the maternal power figure, whose genuine but overpowering love dominates the novel and whose self-knowledge drives her into insanity.

More Women Than Men

1933

Josephine Napier, headmistress of a girls' school, is a woman whose mask of amiable authority disguises a ruthless ability to manipulate others.

A sophisticated comedy of manners...

A House & Its Head

1935

Among the most unsparing of Compton-Burnett's books, A House and Its Head dissects the domestic establishment of Duncan Edgeworth, a tyrannical pater familias.

Daughters & Sons

1937

At 85 years of age Sabine Ponsonby seldom speaks anything but evil of any human being and maintains a tyrannous control over her family, a secret act of kindness is her undoing.

A Family & a Fortune

1939

Ivy's unique genius lay in her ability to convey, using the delicate undertones of drawing-room conversation, the major experiences of life and the intrinsic emotions of the heart.

Parents & Children

1941

Ranging from nursery to university age, the nine Sullivan children live with their parents, Eleanor and Fulbert, in a huge country house belonging to Fulbert's parents, Sir Jesse and Lady Regan.

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.

Manservant & Maidservant

1947

The novel focuses on the household of Horace Lamb, sadist, skinflint, and tyrant, a man whose children fear and hate him and whose wife is planning to elope.

Two Worlds & Their Ways

1949

Sefton and his sister Clemence are sent to separate boarding schools. Their father's second marriage, provide perfect opportunities for mockery, and home becomes a source of shame.

Darkness & Day

1951

Why had Edmund and Bridget Gaunt and their daughters been away from home? Because some decades earlier Edmund has fathered an illegitimate daughter.

The Present & the Past

1953

Cassius Clare is the father of five children; two by his first wife from whom he is divorced, and three by his second wife who conscientiously tries to be a mother to all five.

Mother & Son

1955

The exacting Miranda's search for a companion brings her family into contact with a very different kind of household, raising a plenitude of questions about the ability to manage alone

A Father & His Fate

1957

Miles Mowbray, the central figure ... is one of Ivy Compton-Burnett's most successful domestic dictators in the marriage of comedy with sheer awfulness.

A Heritage & Its History

1959

The great Victorian mansion that holds and tyrannizes the Challoner family appears, at the rise of the curtain, to be formal and still as a painted background.

The Mighty & Their Fall

1961

The large county family of fading prospects, the egotistical widower, the stepmother, the despised governess, the hidden will, the clandestine attempt to prevent a marriage

A God &

His Gifts

1963

Considered by many to be one of her best, set in the claustrophobic world of Edwardian upper-class family life, it is the story of the self-willed and arrogant Hereward Egerton.

The Last & the First

1972

Posthumously published, her final novel is a major work of comedy and melodrama in Victorian family life — as sharp, spare, and funny as it is profound.

Dame Ivy in the media

Read news, interviews, recordings and publications relating to Dame Ivy and her novels.

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