One of I. Compton-Burnett's richest novels, Manservant and Maidservant (1947), opens with this brief dialogue:

"Is that fire smoking?" said Horace Lamb.

"Yes, it appears to be, my dear boy."

"I am not asking what it appears to be doing. I asked if it was smoking."

"Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth," said his cousin. "But we seem to have no other."

It is a typical beginning. The subject of conversation is ordinary in the extreme, the language is colorless, indeed the exchange seems pointless and a little dull…. [The] mild little observation about the nature of appearances turns out to be a leading theme not only of this novel but of all the author's work: the appearance of a thing may or may not help us toward the truth, but it is in any case all we shall ever have.

The point that...