{"product_id":"a-house-and-its-head-paperback","title":"A House and Its Head - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eIvy Compton-Burnett\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eFrancine Prose\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA radical thinker, one of the rare modern heretics, said Mary McCarthy of Ivy Compton-Burnett, in whose austere, savage, and bitingly funny novels anything can happen and no one will ever escape. The long, endlessly surprising conversational duels at the center of Compton-Burnett's works are confrontations between the unspoken and the unspeakable, and in them the dynamics of power and desire are dramatized as nowhere else. New York Review Books is reissuing two of the finest novels of this singular modern genius--works that look forward to the blacky comic inventions of Muriel Spark as much as they do back to the drawing rooms of Jane Austen. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eA House and Its Head\u003c\/i\u003e is Ivy Compton-Burnett's subversive look at the politics of family life, and perhaps the most unsparing of her novels. No sooner has Duncan Edgeworth's wife died than he takes a new, much younger bride whose willful ways provoke a series of transgressions that begins with adultery and ends, much to everyone's relief, in murder.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eIvy Compton-Burnett (1892-1969) wrote over fifteen novels about the upper classes of the late Victorian period. The novels are constructed almost entirely of seemingly banal dialogue that eventually reveals, beneath its surface, the truths of human nature and insights into human relationships which Compton-Burnett took as her themes. Her works include \u003ci\u003ePastors and Masters, A Family and a Fortune, Manservant and Maidservant, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA House and Its Head\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrancine Prose is the author of three collections of stories and ten novels. Her most recent novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Blue Angel, \u003c\/i\u003e was nominated for the National Book Award.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 304\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.8 x 7.98 x 4.98 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 28, 2001\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51757335970080,"sku":"9780940322646","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/795b786ebe456842375ddfaffb2374b7.webp?v=1780099872","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/a-house-and-its-head-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}