Whenever she was asked which of her novels were her favorites, Ivy always referred to A House and Its Head and Manservant and Maidservant.

“Among the most unsparing of Compton-Burnett’s books, A House and Its Head dissects the domestic establishment of Duncan Edgeworth. Duncan is a tyrannical pater familias who can’t stop remarrying, while his daughters can’t get married at all. And Grant, Duncan’s nephew, can’t stop fooling around. Soon enough the family’s conflicting interests set off a series of increasingly appalling transgressions, made all the more scary by the ease with which, in the end, the survivors accept the results.”