From the back cover of the book, 19 Aug 2006
This novel is a quietly horrifying study in family tyranny during the late Victorian era. Horace Lamb makes the life of his children, his wife Charlotte and his cousin Mortimer unbearable by a mixture of psychological cruelty and domestic meanness.

Hoarding Charlotte's money for himself against the time when she dies, Horace fails to realise that she and Mortimer are planning to take the children and leave at the first opportunity. Fails to realise, that is, until an indiscreet letter falls into his hands. When the truth finally dawns on him, the final result for him and his family is vastly different from what might have
been expected .

Of Ivy Compton-Burnett as a novelist, it has been said that she "has created a world which has a sinister and compelling power over the imagination" (G S Fraser, 'The Modem Writer and His World'). Nowhere is this truer than in Manservant and Maidservant.


A curate's egg, 30 Nov 2005
Ivy Compton-Burnett is indeed an acquired taste with a writing style as dry as a stick in August. There is almost no description at all of anything, the characters speak and you learn everything from them, from a literary point of view that is the most interesting thing about this book. There is no authorial point of view to speak of and yet somehow it is there anyway in a very subtle way.

I didn't find this a fun or funny read at all. It's hard work but somehow it was quite a compelling read. I did want to know what happened next and how situations and relationships were to be resolved. I can understand why other writers rave about her novels but equally can see why her novels are largely out of print.

She takes the small almost petty minutiae of domestic life and creates tragedy from them in a comic way. I can't say I laughed out loud though but if it had been down to me I would have had George sacked!

Absolutely brilliant, 22 Oct 2002
This, as far as I am concerned, is the best of her novels. She is an acquired taste, but addictive. The goings-on in the servant' hall are the funniest part of the novel, with language and relationships and exercise of power mirroring what goes on above stairs. It's a hoot.

From the back cover of the book, 19 Aug 2006
This novel is a quietly horrifying study in family tyranny during the late Victorian era. Horace Lamb makes the life of his children, his wife Charlotte and his cousin Mortimer unbearable by a mixture of psychological cruelty and domestic meanness.

Hoarding Charlotte's money for himself against the time when she dies, Horace fails to realise that she and Mortimer are planning to take the children and leave at the first opportunity. Fails to realise, that is, until an indiscreet letter falls into his hands. When the truth finally dawns on him, the final result for him and his family is vastly different from what might have
been expected .

Of Ivy Compton-Burnett as a novelist, it has been said that she "has created a world which has a sinister and compelling power over the imagination" (G S Fraser, 'The Modem Writer and His World'). Nowhere is this truer than in Manservant and Maidservant.


A curate's egg, 30 Nov 2005
Ivy Compton-Burnett is indeed an acquired taste with a writing style as dry as a stick in August. There is almost no description at all of anything, the characters speak and you learn everything from them, from a literary point of view that is the most interesting thing about this book. There is no authorial point of view to speak of and yet somehow it is there anyway in a very subtle way.

I didn't find this a fun or funny read at all. It's hard work but somehow it was quite a compelling read. I did want to know what happened next and how situations and relationships were to be resolved. I can understand why other writers rave about her novels but equally can see why her novels are largely out of print.

She takes the small almost petty minutiae of domestic life and creates tragedy from them in a comic way. I can't say I laughed out loud though but if it had been down to me I would have had George sacked!

Absolutely brilliant, 22 Oct 2002
This, as far as I am concerned, is the best of her novels. She is an acquired taste, but addictive. The goings-on in the servant' hall are the funniest part of the novel, with language and relationships and exercise of power mirroring what goes on above stairs. It's a hoot.

A Good Read., 18 Apr 2008
The Author is justifiably famous for her rich and subtle dialogue. This book is a wonderful introduction to her style.Her lack of description leaves so much to the reader's imagination . She wields her pen like a knife and cuts through the respectable genteel suburban life portrayed . The dialogue sparkles between characters;so much is said but not everything is revealed. It is a case of "we heard what you said but we know what you really mean." I found that I could not put this down, and have sought out her other works. She has an unusual writing style that is intriguing and satisflying. A good read.

From the back cover of the book, 19 Aug 2006
This novel is a quietly horrifying study in family tyranny during the late Victorian era. Horace Lamb makes the life of his children, his wife Charlotte and his cousin Mortimer unbearable by a mixture of psychological cruelty and domestic meanness.

Hoarding Charlotte's money for himself against the time when she dies, Horace fails to realise that she and Mortimer are planning to take the children and leave at the first opportunity. Fails to realise, that is, until an indiscreet letter falls into his hands. When the truth finally dawns on him, the final result for him and his family is vastly different from what might have
been expected .

Of Ivy Compton-Burnett as a novelist, it has been said that she "has created a world which has a sinister and compelling power over the imagination" (G S Fraser, 'The Modem Writer and His World'). Nowhere is this truer than in Manservant and Maidservant.


A curate's egg, 30 Nov 2005
Ivy Compton-Burnett is indeed an acquired taste with a writing style as dry as a stick in August. There is almost no description at all of anything, the characters speak and you learn everything from them, from a literary point of view that is the most interesting thing about this book. There is no authorial point of view to speak of and yet somehow it is there anyway in a very subtle way.

I didn't find this a fun or funny read at all. It's hard work but somehow it was quite a compelling read. I did want to know what happened next and how situations and relationships were to be resolved. I can understand why other writers rave about her novels but equally can see why her novels are largely out of print.

She takes the small almost petty minutiae of domestic life and creates tragedy from them in a comic way. I can't say I laughed out loud though but if it had been down to me I would have had George sacked!

Absolutely brilliant, 22 Oct 2002
This, as far as I am concerned, is the best of her novels. She is an acquired taste, but addictive. The goings-on in the servant' hall are the funniest part of the novel, with language and relationships and exercise of power mirroring what goes on above stairs. It's a hoot.

A Good Read., 18 Apr 2008
The Author is justifiably famous for her rich and subtle dialogue. This book is a wonderful introduction to her style.Her lack of description leaves so much to the reader's imagination . She wields her pen like a knife and cuts through the respectable genteel suburban life portrayed . The dialogue sparkles between characters;so much is said but not everything is revealed. It is a case of "we heard what you said but we know what you really mean." I found that I could not put this down, and have sought out her other works. She has an unusual writing style that is intriguing and satisflying. A good read.

Classic Ivy, 19 Sep 2005
Ivy Compton Burnett novels are an acquired taste. There are distinct characters interacting and there is definitely plot, quite elaborate convoluted, even melodramatic, plot. But all the usual narrative devices of commentary, scene setting and transitions between scenes have been reduced, almost eliminated.
The storytelling occurs through the dialogue. All the characters speak in a stylised formal way, even children. This dialogue has a sophisticated ironic tone that is blackly comic (it frequently makes me laugh out loud), yet explicitly expresses a tragic sense of the hopelessness and tragedy of life. The main distinction between characters is where they stand in the hierarchy of the Victorian household in which all Ivy novels seem to be set. In other words these novels are about power, guilt and complicity: the mind games and power games into which we are all locked - the Victorian household and its characters becoming universal archetypes. (It may be a far-fetched comparison but I think that in both the settings and the rigorously 'minimalist' style, Ivy is to literature what Japanese director Ozu is to cinema, with a similar emotional punch.)
Because of the concentrated nature of the dialogue, reading Ivy is very intense and probably best read in small doses, one chapter at a sitting. But, apart from that, once you 'get it' then reading Ivy becomes easy and addictive. It's not like reading Finnegans Wake. I've now read several more Ivy novels and they are all similar, though Present and Past remains my favourite. It's quite short, focused, funny and poignant. We have Cassius, a typical Ivy father/husband: part tyrant part baby. A previous wife suddenly reappears. This appeals to Cassius's narcissism. He thinks he has formed a harem in which he wields absolute power. But then (a little like the infamous harem scene in Fellini's Eight and a Half) the previous wife and the present wife start to bond, and power begins to ebb from Cassius: his ego, his sense of self and then his very existence begin to crumble. Even the children start to deride him. And then a series of extraordinary plot twists... which you'll have to read the book to find out...