Edwin Muir wrote of Ivy Compton-Burnett in the Observer: 'Her literary abilities have been abundantly acknowledged by the majority of her literary contemporaries. Her intense individuality has removed her from the possibility of rivalry. .. . She takes as her theme the tyrannies and internecine b...
I have been wanting to read Ivy Compton-Burnett since reading Virginia Woolf's diaries, in which she wrote that she was kept awake at night by the fact that her own writing was "much inferior to the bitter truth and intense originality of Miss Compton-Burnett."The Present and the Past has a plot ...
First published in 1963, A God and his Gifts was the last of Ivy Compton-Burnett�s novels to be published in her lifetime and is 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...
Cassidy.” “Thankyou, Miss James. It is so kind to cling to the hope.” “Please do not get up. I will sit down, if I am to keep you standing.” “I did not suggest it, because I thought you always stood.” “You see me at prayers, Mrs. Cassidy, and everyone stands then.” “Yes, of course; so reverent. I...
said Simon. “And you will hear me in silence. You will not betray any feeling. You will not utter a word to exhibit yourself. You will make neither sign nor sound.” Walter laid a hand on his lips and lifted his eyes to his brother’s. But there was a change on his face. “Rhoda is going to have a c...
But they appeared less concerned with it, than those who had left it behind. “Well, my daughter,” said Mr. Donne, embracing Anna in a conventional but ironic manner, and introducing these qualities into his speech; “so we are united once again. A family roof will continue to hold us together.” “A...
‘Hatton told us to do it, but we took no notice.’ ‘Then you had better do it now. The room is not in a suitable state for lessons.’ The pupils exchanged a glance over this unforeseen attitude. ‘Why don’t you do it?’ said Gavin, in a just audible tone. ‘I did not make the room untidy.’ Honor kicke...
said Adrian, and broke into tears. “Yes, yes, I know, my boy,” said Mr. Pettigrew. “The news came in time to prevent my coming to you yesterday. It is a sad break-up for you all.” “Things are to go on in the same way.” “But to you they cannot be the same.” “Miss Wolsey is to be here instead of Au...
“No,” said Dolores; “I cannot think as you do. I cannot think that the way to honour the memory of one who was loved, is to make one’s own life emptier. I am sure she would not feel it so. Surely the effort of rising above a life of passive remorse, and filling the days with striving, would be a ...