The novels of Ivy Compton-Burnett present intriguing problems of content and structure. They are distinctly not popular novels; yet, like many popular novels, they are written according to a few simple, undistinguished formulae. Scenes that are almost identical occur in several of the novels. The characters in one novel are often almost indistinguishable from those in another, and the crises that these characters encounter are often very similar and handled in the same ways. The locales of the novels might as well be the same, since they are usually described only specifically enough to be recognizably rural, English, and late Victorian.

Despite what may sound like the repetitious, monotonous, and unimaginative qualities that these novels have in abundance, they are, in fact, works of substance, fascinating in themselves, and lead the reader to think closely about human nature and human existence.

The major subject that runs throughout Dame...