Ivy Compton-Burnett
Ivy Compton-Burnett was a British novelist born in London in 1884, whose life was profoundly shaped by personal tragedy and isolation, particularly following World War I. Despite experiencing significant loss, including her home and loved ones, she channeled her experiences into her writing. Her literary career began with her first novel, *Dolores*, in 1911, which reflects themes of sacrifice, but her later works, particularly from the 1920s and 1930s, showcase a distinctive evolution in her narrative style and philosophical outlook. Notably, Compton-Burnett’s writing is characterized by its dialogue-driven format and a focus on the intricate dynamics of family life in a pre-World War I setting. Although she received accolades, including an appointment as Commander of the British Empire and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, her works remain relatively obscure in contemporary literature, particularly in the United States. Critics have noted her ability to depict complex human behaviors and relationships, often leaving readers both challenged and intrigued by the moral ambiguities presented in her narratives. Among her most recognized novels are *Brothers and Sisters*, *More Women than Men*, and *A Family and a Fortune*, which exemplify her mature literary style.
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Subject Terms
Ivy Compton-Burnett
English novelist.
- Born: June 5, 1884
- Birthplace: Pinner, Middlesex, England
- Died: August 27, 1969
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Ivy Compton-Burnett was born in London in 1884 to James Compton-Burnett and Katherine, the daughter of Rowland Rees, and was educated at Royal Holloway College. Her life was marked by grief, tragedy, isolation, and near madness. By the end of World War I, she had lost her home, her occupation, and everyone she had loved or needed. However, throughout her life Compton-Burnett was able to draw on her past for material and to translate her personal loss into literary achievement.
Two items indirectly related to her life are important to anyone who wishes to trace her development as an artist. Her first novel was published in 1911 as Dolores. It is said to celebrate the beauty of sacrifice for the good of others. Certainly the mature Compton-Burnett, who after a fourteen-year literary silence published Pastors and Masters, repudiated the ideas and style of her first novel. Sometimes enlightenedly selfish, she was never attracted by self-sacrifice. The mature Compton-Burnett would call such a concept hypocrisy and self-deceit.
Though in the novels that follow Pastors and Masters there are notable and delightful variations in technique and substance, Compton-Burnett changed her ideas and her technique less than any other British novelist of the twentieth century. She was mature as both novelist and philosopher when she published her first mature work, and she modified herself very slightly thereafter.
In spite of the fact that she was awarded the order of Commander of the British Empire in 1951 and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1956, Compton-Burnett is probably one of the least widely read novelists in contemporary letters, especially in the United States. Most literary historians have not read her. This obscurity is remarkable, considering that in 1929, following the publication of Brothers and Sisters, Compton-Burnett was favorably compared by literary critics and readers to such American authors as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.
Admittedly, at first sight, the world of her fiction is strange beyond belief. It is the world before 1910; at its center are two or three families in villages. The depth in her work lies in her ability to dramatize what goes on behind the masks of these families in the years before World War I, the only period of which she believed she had "organic knowledge." Composed almost exclusively of dialogue, her novels of characters in terrifyingly real actions and situations reveal more about why wars occur than most war novels do. Her characters—with equivalent importance, masters, children, and servants—say what some might say to an intimate friend, plus what one wishes one had said, plus what few would dare to think to themselves. They perform both horrifying and good acts with calm.
Among her books it is difficult to choose the best; all are worth reading despite the fact that the plots and characters often tend to get confused in the minds of even her most avid admirers. Probably her novels written in the 1930s, especially More Women than Men and A Family and a Fortune, represent best her most fully mature manner. Yet arguably, none of her novels is more delightingly factual about human behavior than Manservant and Maidservant, The Present and the Past, and A God and His Gifts.
Author Works
Long Fiction:
Dolores, 1911
Pastors and Masters, 1925
Brothers and Sisters, 1929
Men and Wives, 1931
More Women than Men, 1933
A House and Its Head, 1935
Daughters and Sons, 1937
A Family and a Fortune, 1939
Parents and Children, 1941
Elders and Betters, 1944
Manservant and Maidservant, 1947 (pb. in U.S. as Bullivant and the Lambs, 1948)
Two Worlds and Their Ways, 1949
Darkness and Day, 1951
The Present and the Past, 1953
Mother and Son, 1955
A Father and His Fate, 1957
A Heritage and Its History, 1959
The Mighty and Their Fall, 1961
A God and His Gifts, 1963
The Last and the First, 1971
Bibliography
Baldanza, Frank. Ivy Compton-Burnett. New York: Twayne, 1964. Packs much information into a short space. Offers brief characterizations of all the novels, organized around common themes such as home and family. Also analyzes the major evaluations of Compton-Burnett available at that time.
Burkhart, Charles. I. Compton-Burnett. London: Victor Gollancz, 1965. Classes Compton-Burnett as an eccentric novelist and offers a psychological account of this type of writer. Presents themes found in Compton-Burnett’s works, such as conventions, secrets, people and power, and ethos, devoting a chapter to each. Concludes with a summary of each of the novels, ranking Manservant and Maidservant as the most brilliant.
Gentile, Kathy Justice. Ivy Compton-Burnett. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. A shrewd feminist rereading with chapters on Compton-Burnett’s "ethic of tolerance," her early novels, her treatment of mothers and martyrs, her view of civilization, her later novels, her reading of human character, and the responses of her critics. A very thorough study, with notes and bibliography.
Kiernan, Robert E. Frivolity Unbound: Six Masters of the Camp Novel—Thomas Love Peacock, Max Beerbohm, Ronald Firbank, E. F. Benson, P. G. Wodehouse, Ivy Compton-Burnett. New York: Continuum, 1990. Traces the decline of Compton-Burnett’s literary reputation.
Liddell, Robert. The Novels of I. Compton-Burnett. London: Victor Gollancz, 1955. Offers extended discussions of Compton-Burnett’s works. Includes a bibliography.
Nevius, Blake. Ivy Compton-Burnett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970. A general account of the novelist. Argues that her works stress the conflict of passion and duty and are situated in an enclosed space, and that their peculiar form, consisting almost entirely of dialogue, has led many to dismiss Compton-Burnett as an eccentric. Although her characters are static, her theme of the abuse of power has contemporary relevance.
Sprigge, Elizabeth. The Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett. New York: George Braziller, 1973. Devoted to Compton-Burnett’s life more than her works. Sprigge is extremely favorable to her subject and accepts what Compton-Burnett claims at face value.
Spurling, Hilary. Ivy: The Life of I. Compton-Burnett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. The most comprehensive account of Compton-Burnett’s life, based on exhaustive research and conversations with her friends. The novelist’s severely repressed life as a child in the late Victorian era dominates the first half of the book. After the suicides of her two sisters in 1917, her life was outwardly uneventful. Her childhood experiences influenced her stories and novels, all of which are discussed at length.