Manservant and Maidservant

Ivy Compton-Burnett (1892-1969) wrote over fifteen novels about the upper classes of the late Victorian period. The novels are constructed almost entirely of seemingly banal dialogue that eventually reveals, beneath its surface, the truths of human nature and insights into human relationships which Compton-Burnett took as her themes. Her works include Pastors and Masters, A Family and a Fortune, Manservant and Maidservant, and A House and Its Head. »

Diane Johnson’s most recent novel is Lulu in Marrakech. (November 2009) »

Manservant and Maidservant

By Ivy Compton-Burnett
Introduction by Diane Johnson

At once the strangest and most marvelous of Ivy Compton-Burnett's fictions, Manservant and Maidservant has for its subject the domestic life of Horace Lamb, sadist, skinflint, and tyrant. But it is when Horace undergoes an altogether unforeseeable change of heart that the real difficulties begin. Is the repentant master a victim along with the former slave? And how can anyone endure the memory of the wrongs that have been done?

Read the introduction (PDF)

Reviews

Apart from physical violence and starvation, there is no feature of the totalitarian regime which has not its counterpart in the atrocious families depicted in these novels.
— Edward Sackville-West

Also see:

A House and Its Head
By Ivy Compton-Burnett
Afterword by Francine Prose

A House and Its Head is Ivy Compton-Burnett's subversive look at the politics of family life, and perhaps the most unsparing of her novels.

Format: Paperback
Retail Price: $16.95
Price: $12.71 (25% off)

Feb 28, 2001
320 pages
ISBN: 0940322633
9780940322639
Literature in English
NYRB Classics

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