Ivy Compton-Burnett

Sabine Ponsonby presides over her large household with despotic force, rivalled only by her imperious daughter, Hetta. As her needling cruelties cause one governess after another to flee, the familys younger generation begins to stir in revolt, and the seeds for a reckoning are sown. Written in Ivy Compton-Burnetts iconic style, where dialogue seethes with veiled insults and manipulations,Daughters and Sonsis an acidic comedy of cold deceptions, mistaken identities and family struggles for dominance.

First published in 1959, A Heritage and its History tells the story of 69 year old Sir Edwin Challoner, and his extended family.Unmarried, and with no direct issue, Challoner''s closest relation, and business associate, is his younger brother Hamish.When Hamish dies of a heart condition, his son Simon prepares to take over as head of the house, as everyone assumes that Sir Edwin will also die in a matter of months.However, Sir Edwin surprises everyone by announcing his marriage to Rhoda, his neighbour, also more than 40 years his junior.Following the return from their honeymoon, Rhoda succumbs to a moment of unbridled passion with Simon, her new husband''s nephew.When Rhoda falls pregnant, there is no question who has fathered the child.A Heritage and its History gets right to the heart of this family as it splits into factions, growing increasingly bitter and resentful.The reader watches on in amazement as two families become more and more entangled, and the path to the inheritance of this once great house and title becomes ever more twisted.Sooner or later, the secret must come out...

At the centre of this novel stands 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. Even after her death Harriet continues to dominate.Surrounding this central figure are a host of marvelously realised characters - Sir Geoffrey Haslam, Harriet''s husband, an innocent self-deluder; Dominic Spong, a hypocrite whose platitudes do not quite conceal his powerful self-interest; Agatha Calkin whose benevolent maternalism nearly hides the greediest of drives towards power; Lady Hardistry, the most outrageously witty of all sophisticates; Camilla Christy, a loose woman, dazzling, charming, and corrupt. Unlike Harriet Haslam, who will not spare herself the truth, the others are happier with their lies and can never achieve Harriet''s grandeur.

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 battles of English family life in leisured well-conducted country houses. To Miss Compton-Burnett the family conflict is intimate, unrelenting, very often indecisive and fought out mainly in conversation. . . . The passions which bring distress to her country houses have recently devastated continents.''To present an image of this totally unique writer, we have to imagine a Jane Austen writing, in the present day, Greek prose tragedies (in which the wicked generally triumph) on late Victorian themes. First published in 1939, A Family of a Fortune conveys, largely through dialogue (which may be subtle, humorous, envenomed, or tragic), the effects of death and inheritance on the house of Gaveston - in particular on the relations between Edgar and his selfless younger brother, Dudley. This, apart from the embittered character of Matilda Seaton, is her kindliest novel.

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. For a secret switching of wills causes the most genteel pursuit of self-interest to threaten good relations and even good manners...Ivy Compton-Burnett employs her sharp ear for comedy and celebrated powers of dialogue to spectacular effect. She reveals a devastating microcosm of human society, in which the elders are by no means always the betters, in which no character is totally scrupulous, but none without their appeal.

Unico plausibile parallelo a Jane Austen, Ivy Compton-Burnett (1892-1969) passo una vita in apparenza priva di eventi, a Londra, mentre intorno a lei si accumulavano le catastrofi della storia. Ma non di esse parlano i suoi romanzi, che sono tutti contrappunti su un altro genere di catastrofi: quelle che avvengono ogni giorno in qualsiasi interno borghese. E quale migliore occasione di nefandezze di un''eredita? Soldi, sesso e famiglia: una miscela, la piu esplosiva, che non manchera di agire.

Una ceremonia sutil, cómica y terrorífica de vejación y manipulaciones.La mansión de los Lamb contiene todo lo necesario para el desastre. Su dueño es un tirano; un opresor de su mujer, de sus hijos, de su primo y de sus criados. Al mismo tiempo, el mayordomo y la cocinera, aliados contra sus subordinados, reflejan y caricaturizan el sistema de jerarquias y la hipocresia de su amo. Los niños no se quedan atras, pues estan dotados de toda la crueldad de la infancia. Jerarquias, crimen y humor negro en una de las mejores novelas de esta gigante de la literatura inglesa.

Una familia y una fortuna es una novela despiadada, inusitadamente entretenida, sobre ese organismo a la vez trivial y angustioso al que damos en llamar "familia". " Más que hablar, sus personajes esculpen epitafios en sus lápidas. Hablan como lúcidos esqueletos que han salido de los armarios". V.S. Pritchett. "Una de las más grandes novelistas que ha dado Inglaterra" Nathalie Sarraute.

Tan pronto como Duncan Edgeworth se queda viudo, contrae matrimonio con otra mujer mucho más joven que su esposa muerta. Una mujer cuya actitud provocadora empieza a causar trastornos y transgresiones en la familia, desde el adulterio hasta el asesinato. Continuando con nuestra biblioteca Ivy Compton- Burnett, esta novela recrea los claroscuros de una familia atrapada en los eternos años treinta.

Horace Lamb runs an austere household with tyrannical force and cruel thrift. His five children shiver through the winter and learn that a fire is not a thing to be taken for granted. Hierarchies are more lightly enforced in the servants quarters, where Bullivant and Mrs Selden attempt to rein in their young charges. When Horace suddenly turns attentive and caring, the real difficulties begin: the taut order of the household slackens, setting loose old grievances.Her own favourite among her novels, Manservant and Maidservant is Ivy Compton-Burnett at her witty, lacerating best. A ruthless satire of power struggles and petty economies, it exposes the violence and cruelty at the core of Victorian family life.

No es oro todo lo que reluce tras el porte y la alcurnia de una gran familia victoriana…Ivy Compton-Burnett cuenta los secretos que guarda la gran mansión de los Challoner, así como las grandezas y m

Una excel·lent demostració de la mestria tècnica d''''Ivy Compton-Burnett. L''''Eleanor i en Fulbert Sullivan viuen amb els seus fills en una enorme casa del camp pertanyent als pares d''''en Fulbert

Esta novela, escrita en el periodo de mayor esplendor de Ivy Compton-Burnett, es una de sus mejores y más accesibles y humorísticas creaciones. En su clarividente prólogo, el escritor mexicano Sergio Pitol afirma: "En ninguna de las veinte novelas de la autora campea el ingenio con mas espontaneidad que en Criados y doncellas." Los temas fundamentales de todas sus novelas son la familia y el poder.En Criados y doncellas, Horace Lamb es un tirano, un opresor de su mujer, de sus hijos, de su primo, de sus criados. La mansion de los Lamb contiene todo el material necesario para la conflagracion; sus habitantes llevan a cabo una sutil, comica y terrorifica ceremonia de vejacion y manipulaciones. A lo largo de la novela afloran los temas del crimen, el parricidio, el adulterio.El elemento basico y radicalmente original de las novelas de Compton-Burnett es el dialogo: sus libros se estructuran como una sinfonia de voces, la narracion avanza a traves de las palabras de los personajes, que utilizan el lenguaje como un arma. Aviso al lector: estos singulares dialogos en los que las palabras mas sorprendentes surgen de las bocas mas inesperadas son extremadamente traicioneros: quienes hablan ¿mienten, disimulan, dicen la verdad, la tergiversa