The novels have a remarkable similarity in that almost all are set in about 1900 and take place in a country house or school where there lives a large family with poor relations and many servants. The family is dominated by a tyrant, mostly a parent, and the plot, usually melodramatic, concerns evil in the family, even stretching to incest or infanticide. The evil and its consequences is worked out within the family without outside agencies being involved. Although this makes the novels sound gloomy and tragic, they are at the same time witty and amusing, and it is this mixture that makes them distinctive.
The family is often large, averaging about four children, its age range from infancy to over ninety, with most of the main characters middle-aged. They are landed gentry who send their children to Eton, but feel that they are not as well off as they should be and economise in petty matters, such as quantities of food, staff numbers and heating the rooms. They do not work, for the most part, and the family is the focal point of existence. With few exceptions they are irreligious.
The only descriptions in the novels serve to introduce characters, and are limited to details of appearance and age. Otherwise the books are made up entirely of conversation. Not normal conversation, but talk of an artificial and often abstract nature. Often the conversations are asides or only half-voiced, sometimes they may be interior monologues, and there are often eavesdroppers.
Ivy Compton -Burnett - what she thought of Virginia Woolf's novels - and why you should read hers.
Ivy Compton -Burnett - a list of her novels.
Ivy Compton -Burnett - on her writing.