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Manservant and Maidservant

Manservant and Maidservant

by Ivy Compton-Burnett, introduction by Diane Johnson

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British & Irish Literature Fiction Literature in English
Format

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?

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Classics
ISBN: 9780940322639
Pages: 320
Publication Date:

Praise

The realism of this novel [Manservant and Maidservant] like the realism of all Dame Ivy's novels goes far beyond verisimilitude to some psychologically consistent truth that transcends words.
— Constance Lewis

A remarkable and unusual novelist, who has, in her own well-tilled field, no rival and no parallel.
— Times Literary Supplement

The thing is, Compton-Burnett is absolutely sui generis, although she's often compared to Jane Austen. But as Francine Prose points out in the afterward to one of these new editions, she is Austen on bad drugs. Compton-Burnett herself was loftily dismissive of a comparison with Henry James. Her remorseless humor and savagery are a unique cocktail. There's no middle ground with this novelist—you're either bewildered by her or you become an addict. The technical term for the latter is an Ivyist. I do urge you to find out where you stand.
— Maria Aitken, Bomb

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