Ivy Compton-Burnett

Sabine Ponsonby presides over her large household with despotic force, rivalled only by her imperious daughter, Hetta. While her needling cruelties cause one governess after another to flee, the family's younger generation begins to stir in revolt. Written in Ivy Compton-Burnett's iconic style, with dialogue seething with veiled insults and manipulations, Daughters and Sons is an acidic comedy of manners...

Horace Lamb runs an austere household with tyrannical force and cruel economy. His five children shiver through the winter and learn that a fire is not a thing to be taken for granted. Hierarchies are more lightly enforced in the servants' quarters, where Bullivant and Mrs Selden attempt to rein in their young charges. When Horace suddenly turns attentive and...