Pastors & Masters
1925
Pastors and Masters is a short novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett published in 1925. Called "a work of genius" by The New Statesman, it was the author's second novel and the first in which she introduced the characteristic style of clipped, precise dialogue that was to make her name. It is largely a character study, dealing with themes of tyranny, female subservience and unconventional sexuality within the setting of a boys’ preparatory school.
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'. Displaying her penchant for dialogue to superb effect, Ivy Compton-Burnett allows them to catch themselves — and each other — out.
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"How profound you are, Nicholas!" said Emily. "I have always thought that. Though I have never known that I thought it. Think how it is with everything; how tolerance, for example, is only condensed intolerance, and how it holds more intolerance than anything else. It is just a case for intolerance to be kept in. And think how religion holds more dislike of religion than anything else! ... I think that good is bad condensed, and holds more bad than anything else ..."
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— from Pastors and Masters
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CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"As for Pastors and Masters, it is astonishing, alarming. It is like nothing else in the world. It is a work of genius. How to describe it – since there is nothing of which to take hold? ... No quotation could do this book justice"
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The New Statesman
