{"product_id":"2026100007344-secondhand-ivy-the-life-of-i-compton-burnett","title":"Ivy: The Life Of I. Compton-Burnett","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: 1st us ed.,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Remainder mark\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind the austere, imperious gaze that defined one of Britain's most singular literary minds lies a life as dramatic and unsettling as the novels she wrote — Hilary Spurling's Ivy: The Life of I. Compton-Burnett is the definitive biography of a writer who transformed domestic tyranny into high art. Spurling chronicles the long and extraordinary life of Ivy Compton-Burnett, from her claustrophobic Edwardian upbringing — scarred by the death of siblings and the suffocating dominance of a formidable stepmother — through to her emergence as one of the twentieth century's most idiosyncratic and celebrated novelists. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Britain, the biography details how Ivy's darkly comic, dialogue-driven fiction became a unique mirror of repression, power, and survival, earning her a devoted following among literary cognoscenti.\n\nSpurling, herself a Whitbread Award-winning biographer, brings meticulous scholarship and remarkable empathy to her subject, illuminating how personal trauma was alchemised into a body of work that remains bracingly original. The biography argues persuasively that Compton-Burnett's clipped, theatrical prose — stripped of conventional narrative description and rich with menace — was not mere stylistic affectation, but a direct response to a life lived under the shadow of secrets and loss. For readers already acquainted with novels such as Manservant and Maidservant or A House and Its Head, this biography reframes everything; for those yet to discover her, it presents an irresistible invitation into a world of quietly devastating brilliance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130995482843,"sku":"2026100007344-SECONDHAND","price":30.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/7f9515af-3463-40fa-bc67-807d6946825c.png?v=1786593972","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100007344-secondhand-ivy-the-life-of-i-compton-burnett","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}