Soon does one learn the bitter lesson that humanity is never content just to differ from you and let it go at that. Never.

“I don’t dare to know,” said Joanna. “I shut my eyes to the truth. It does seem that we are eating our cake and having it. And I should have thought we were, if it was not known to be impossible.” “It is, unless someone supplies another cake.”

[SOME ANAGRAMS OF IVY COMPTON-BURNETT Contrive Numb-Potty Province Nutty-Tomb Boycott Vermin-Punt Non-Cop Brevity-Mutt Connive by Trump-Tot Purity Tomb-Convent Mr. Bouncy Tinpot-Vet Bovine Mutton-Crypt]

Were the tombs so many in the churchyard when last you saw it?--were the familiar ones so grey and lichen-grown? Was the moss so close on the wall which marks its bound? Was the creeper on the porch of the parsonage framing its windows with many-tinted falls?

[Mildred Bailey, When That Man is Dead and Gone] archive.org/details/JV-1...

“You don’t feel that marriage would mean a fuller life?” “I don’t want the things it would be full of."

“Why is it cowardly to hit a person when he is down, or to strike a woman? Unkind and violent and quite inexcusable, but why cowardly? And why are bullies always cowards?" “They cannot be. Bullying is very brave. That is why they bully people weaker than themselves. They know how brave it is.”

I shall soon have to weed my book. Books are very like plants. They are better, the more they are weeded, and they come up out of each other and are all the same.

"Great novelists like Dickens, Wharton, and Woolf." BUT NOT THEM. NOVELISTS *LIKE* THEM.

So. 'Great novelists like Dickens, Wharton and Woolf, such as Trollope, Compton-Burnett and Joyce' is acceptable? Seems odd to express it thus!

Seems odd to express it thus because it's, as you certainly know, an aggressively badly constructed and purposely confounding construction.

She rose and fell upon him, and they gave themselves to combat. It raged for some minutes, illustrating the failings of human nature, as Julius proved that chivalry is not innate in man, and Dora resorted to instinctive feminine methods with tooth and nail.

[They don't tell you about the U. S. public domain Ivy Compton-Burnett books. Next January, Men and Wives. Please don't make 'em into slasher movies. Or should you?]

“I don’t know what it is, not to be ordinary. Most people must be that, or it would be something else.” “Well, a lot of people think they are not,” said Julius.

Reply with your resolutions, y'all. I will sprinkle whatnot magic on 'em. And whatnot.

“It is not the last straw that breaks the camel’s back,” said Thomas. “It is all the others.” “It can hardly matter which straw one is,” said Bernard.

Twelve wonderful books I read for #NYRBWomen25 this year. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/12/28/n...

Cook never replied to questions; she merely looked at a questioner with a smile, which the latter could never be sure was not some other expression, as it took place so far behind the rest of her face.

“We can’t expect to sleep, free of a cloud, on Christmas night,” said Tamasin.

I have been reading Ivy Compton Burnett this week - fascinating. NOT an easy read, but very interesting indeed. And then I discovered she was a classics student, too! Seeing if there's therefore more about her academic time which can be added to her page for #WCCWiki...

being back with my family for christmas is a bit like being in an ivy compton-burnett novel

[Happy 85th birthday to Hilary Spurling, Ivy Compton-Burnett's biographer!]

Good stuff here. And, for fun: The Eleanor Jourdain in this story is a sister of Margaret Jourdain, Ivy Compton-Burnett’s longtime partner.

I do not think my books have any real likeness to hers. I think that there is possibly some likeness between our minds. [On Jane Austen, BOTD in 1775]

I have read Jane Austen so much, and with such enjoyment and admiration, that I may have absorbed things from her unconsciously.

[My shelf: Jane Austen (BOTD in 1775) action figure, cats, Dandelion Wine signed to me by Ray (RIP) at Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale (RIP), John Silence, Who Fears the Devil, Girls of the Pansy Patrol by May Wynne, How Nell Scored by Bessie Marchant.]

People who withhold their wisdom before the event, need not produce it afterwards.

“A leopard can’t change his spots,” said Cook, moving to the stove with an air of accepting the law of immutability for herself.

“It is natural for the years to pass,” said her cousin. “Can it be?” said Terence. “It seems so wasteful and wicked, when we only have a certain number of them.”

“Nature is known to be red in tooth and claw,” said Anna. “She snatches things from us all the time. I have found it even at my age.” ”I never think of it,” said Tullia. “I suppose I am too forgiving.” “I forgive Nature nothing,” said Terence. “Least of all our death at last from natural causes.”

Allan Turpin was the male counterpart of Ivy Compton Burnett. In novels like Behind the Net Curtains (1976), he chronicled the nasty little bargains Edwardians made to survive insufferably intolerant situations. neglectedbooks.com/?...

Cook never replied to questions; she merely looked at a questioner with a smile, which the latter could never be sure was not some other expression, as it took place so far behind the rest of her face.

“I shall always think of my early years with him. But a show of sentiment has no meaning.” “I think it may have a great deal,” said his mother. “I never believe much in things that are not shown. If we are left to imagine them, they may be imaginary.”

["The sky had hives, it was rashy with stars." Distinctive prose from one of Cornell’s best, Rendezvous in Black!]

“We must not look down on our fellow-creatures.” “We can hardly avoid it in some cases, ma’am, if we look at them at all. The level involves it.” “Ah, to know all is to forgive all,” said Rhoda. “I confess I have not found it so, my lady. To forgive, it is best to know as little as possible.”

“What do you say to it all, Deakin?” said Walter. “It is hardly my place to comment, sir.” “I suppose you think the more?” “That is said, sir, but I see no reason. Sometimes people who say less, think less also.”

“Should we like to live for ever?” said Hamish “Yes, if we did so,” said his brother. “Our being would be adapted to it.”

“When are you returning to Oxford, Walter?” “I am not doing so, Mater.” “What do you mean? The term must almost have begun.” “It has done so. Simon will tell you about it. I am too tender a plant for such a harsh wind.”

Also updating the #NYRBWomen25 list. Eight excellent books to consider.

“Fanny, you do not mean half you say.” “Yes, often almost the whole.”

"And real charm should be unconscious.” "No good quality is that. Good qualities involve effort. Without it they would not exist. Think of charity and tolerance. Even with it they exist uncertainly. But charm is perhaps more of the nature of a gift. It makes me humble as well as proud.”

But I do not quarrel with fate. It is not a contest in which we should emerge victorious

“You pride yourself on pessimism, Deakin,” said Julia. “Well, ma’am, when we are told to look on the bright side of things, it is not generally at a happy time.” “But it is good advice for daily life.” “Daily life harbours everything, ma’am. All our troubles come into it.”

fuck Compton-Burnett

“ ‘Changes come and carry us with them.’ 'That sounds more comfortable than it is.’ ” –Ivy Compton-Burnett

Rereading some much-loved older books by Ivy Compton-Burnett and Peter Dickinson.

“It is a pity you have not my charm, Simon,” said Walter. “Well, we hardly want a double share in a family.” “I am glad you are all without it. It is untrue that we cannot have too much of a good thing. I could not bear to be one amongst many. It would not suit the something there is about me.”

“I shall not miss you,” said Felix. “You have killed my feeling for you. And I find that I like women better than men.” Jonathan looked from Felix to Gabriel, as if rejoicing in his possession of each. “I suppose all men do in a way,” said Fane. “I did not mean in a way,” said Felix.

“My figure is remarkably supple and lithe,” he said. “But when my father treats me as if I had the gift of perennial youth, I do not believe he is thinking about my figure.”