Ivy Compton-Burnett

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Standard Name: Compton-Burnett, Ivy
Birth Name: Ivy Compton-Burnett
ICB published twenty novels: the first while she was in her twenties, in 1911, but the first one to use her mature and startlingly original style when she was forty, in 1925. From the beginning she was praised by critics (sometimes a chorus, sometimes a few lone voices) but sold less well than she would have liked. She was a paradox: a person shaped by Victorian values and social hierarchies, whose novels—composed largely of razor-sharp dialogue—dismantle those values and hierarchies from within.

Connections

Connections Author name Sort descending Excerpt
Education Lady Cynthia Asquith
The most important of Cynthia's governesses, Charlotte Jourdain , arrived on the scene when she was six, after the death of her brother Colin. Her arrival initiated a very important time in Cynthia's childhood, lasting...
Reception Samuel Beckett
Novelist Elizabeth Taylor boldly took her older friend Ivy Compton-Burnett to this play, and was rewarded with Compton-Burnett's pronouncement, Not a play to miss.
Liddell, Robert, and Francis King. Elizabeth and Ivy. Peter Owen.
96
For her part Taylor thought it as much as one...
Literary responses Vera Brittain
The book was widely and favourably reviewed. Lady Rhondda found it [e]xtraordinarily interesting. I sat up reading it till long past my usual bedtime and have been reading it again all this morning.
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
1
Virginia Woolf
Friends, Associates Bryher
The flat became a gathering place for friends including the Sitwells (Bryher grew especially close to Edith and Osbert ), Elizabeth Bowen , and Ivy Compton-Burnett .
Schaffner, Perdita. “Keeper of the Flame”. H.D., Woman and Poet, edited by Michael King, National Poetry Foundation, pp. 27-33.
32
Bryher,. The Days of Mars. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
18
While in London, Bryher increased the...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth De la Pasture
EDP was made CBE in 1918.
Waugh, Auberon et al. “Introduction”. The Unlucky Family, Folio Society, p. vii - xii.
viii
She has been seen as a significant influence on Ivy Compton-Burnett .
Cooper, Jilly. “Life is like that”. The Guardian, p. 21.
21
Family and Intimate relationships E. M. Delafield
EMD 's mother, Elizabeth Lydia Rosabelle (Bonham) de la Pasture , was a popular and prolific novelist whose work was admired by writers as far-ranging as Ivy Compton-Burnett and Evelyn Waugh . She wrote to...
Occupation Eva Figes
EF had a long stint as co-editor of this series, which includes works on Margaret Atwood , Jane Austen , Elizabeth Bowen , Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Frances Burney , Willa Cather , Colette ,...
Occupation Graham Greene
GG also worked as director for two different London publishing houses: for Eyre and Spottiswoode from 1944 (when he resigned from the secret service) to 1948 and for Bodley Head for ten years beginning in...
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Jane Howard
Her friends during the 1950s included Stephen and Natasha Spender , Alec Waugh , Margaret Lane , Malcolm Sargent , and Joyce Grenfell . She also met Cyril Connolly , Olivia Manning , Stevie Smith
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Muriel Jaeger
This book is sometimes called a memoir, but its autobiographical moments are only incidental. MJ 's attention is mostly directed towards books and reading; her own experiences of writing, publishing, and having her works performed...
Friends, Associates F. Tennyson Jesse
Gordon Place became the centre of an active female literary community, which included Elizabeth Bowen , Rose Macaulay , Virginia Woolf , Ivy Low (who was also a good friend of Viola Meynell ), Ivy Compton-Burnett
Friends, Associates Pamela Hansford Johnson
Friends made in New York included PHJ 's publisher Charles Scribner , as well as Diana and Lionel Trillingwhom I loved, but always found a little intimidating.
Johnson, Pamela Hansford. Important to Me. Macmillan; Scribner.
45
At home her literary friends included...
Textual Production Pamela Hansford Johnson
In late 1951 she wrote a booklet for the British CouncilWriters and their Work series on Ivy Compton-Burnett , who was only just beginning to attract attention among those interested in the craft of...
Literary responses Pamela Hansford Johnson
In a letter Compton-Burnett reported herself grateful . . . in a way to her critic (whose name she got wrong) but felt she had made errors which needed to be pointed out. Damningly she...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Pamela Hansford Johnson
PHJ includes among her topics Edith Sitwell , Shakespeare , Ivy Compton-Burnett , and Proust : these are taken up not in formal critique, but in statements of what each meant to her. She writes...

Timeline

1826: The Royal Society of Literature received...

Writing climate item

1826

The Royal Society of Literature received its charter; it had been founded several years previously.

9 December 2006-17 July 2007: The National Portrait Gallery in London mounted...

Writing climate item

9 December 2006-17 July 2007

The National Portrait Gallery in London mounted an exhibition of photographs of women writers, mostly novelists, from 1920 to 1960.

Texts

Compton-Burnett, Ivy. A Family and a Fortune. Gollancz, 1939.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. A Father and His Fate. Gollancz, 1957.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. A God and His Gifts. Gollancz, 1963.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. A Heritage and Its History. Gollancz, 1959.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. A House and Its Head. Heinemann, 1935.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Brothers and Sisters. Heath Cranton, 1929.
Burkhart, Charles, and Ivy Compton-Burnett. “Critical Epilogue”. The Last and the First, Gollancz, 1971, pp. 151-9.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Darkness and Day. Gollancz, 1951.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Daughters and Sons. Gollancz, 1937.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Dolores. W. Blackwood and Sons, 1911.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Elders and Betters. Gollancz, 1944.
Sprigge, Elizabeth, and Ivy Compton-Burnett. “Foreword”. The Last and the First, Gollancz, 1971, pp. 7-12.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Manservant and Maidservant. Victor Gollancz, 1947.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Men and Wives. Heinemann, 1931.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. More Women than Men. William Heinemann, 1933.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Mother and Son. Gollancz, 1955.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Parents and Children. Gollancz, 1941.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Pastors and Masters. Heath Cranton, 1925.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy et al. The Last and the First. Gollancz, 1971.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. The Mighty and Their Fall. Gollancz, 1961.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. The Present and the Past. Gollancz, 1953.
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Two Worlds and Their Ways. Gollancz, 1949.