Ivy Compton-Burnett was born in Pinner, Middlesex, England in 1884, the child of a doctor, and grew up in a middle-class home with the six siblings that followed, as well as the five children from her father’s first marriage, the conventional servants, and a nurse for the children. This background would be the setting, in effect, for most of the twenty highly original, difficult, yet fascinating novels she wrote between 1911 and her death. The family subsequently moved to Hove, on the south coast, and, after her father died in 1901, Ivy read Classics at Royal Holloway College for women: classical structure and tragedy has often been seen as a major influence on her writing. Ivy’s mother Katharine became something of a family tyrant – another theme that would play a major part in…
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Citation: Turner, Nick. "Ivy Compton-Burnett". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=976, accessed 25 April 2024.]
