I read A Family and a Fortune first, by pure chance, but I would recommend it as a first choice, first because it is in print and in paperback, and secondly because it is very approachable and her 'kindliest' work. I would then proceed to A House and Its Head which displays a typical tyrant and his victims, leavened by some extremely comic characters. Only then would I tackle Manservant and Maidservant, thought to be her best work by most critics.
Others recommended: from her early period, Men and Wives, Daughters and Sons, and Parents and Children; from her middle period, Elders and Betters; and from her late works, Mother and Son, especially for Plautus the cat, and her last novel, A God and His Gifts.
Which are the best?
'Well, favourites of mine are Manservant and Maidservant, and the first two-thirds of A House and Its Head. But I don't think there is a great difference in the quality of the books; and I think this is borne out by the fact that people who write to me saying which is their favourite, choose such different ones'. - Ivy Compton-Burnett
'.....her masterpieces A Family and a Fortune, A House and Its Head and Parents and Children; the brilliant below-stairs chorus of Manservant and Maidservant; or her splendid use of a cat to illustrate human behaviour in Mother and Son.' - Angus Wilson
'Manservant and Maidservant - a novel perfect both in its symmetry and in its balance of comedy and tragedy'. - Francis King
Ivy Compton -Burnett - what she thought of Virginia Woolf's and vice versa.
Ivy Compton -Burnett - -a typical novel.
Ivy Compton -Burnett - on herself.
Click here to send me an email message