The Last and the First

by Ivy Compton-Burnett

The Last and the First was Ivy Compton-Burnett's final novel. In it she deals with her familiar themes - tyranny, power and corruption. Although the novel was unfinished at the time of her death in 1969, it combines the brilliant wit and incisive insight into human relationships which make her one of the most original novelists in English literature.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Literary Fiction

147 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, DBE was an English novelist, published (in the original hardback editions) as I. Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son.

Reviews

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird but fun. The novel contains nothing but dialogue, well at least 95%. But it worked for me, I thought it very funny. So Ginsburg was mostly right.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not her best by any means, but still as excellent as always

[Samuel Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't aware that this was ICB's last novel when I picked it up, which come to think of it now, casts a different light on this aptly-titled book. I'm not gonna say this one is her best (it isn't, not by a long shot and I've only read three of her novels so far) but it does have her unmistakable voice which I've come to love. It really is akin to sitting with a very old friend because by now I feel like I've gotten so used to her rapid-fire dialogues that I no longer mind that I don't always know who's uttering which sentence, I just find that I'm intuiting it as it's become second nature to me. This little novel was entertaining from start to finish with great female characters throughout, ICB not only wrote great female protagonists but the secondary female characters are imbued with such character that puts other authors' leading ladies to shame. While I still don't think it would make the best introduction to Ivy Compton-Burnett's fiction, I'm grateful that Dame Ivy blessed us with so many novels that it's hard to be picky when all so far have proved a joy to read and discover.

[Laurel Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using mostly dialogue, this intriguing author tells a vivid story of two Edwardian families and the bridge between them. Great characterization. The servants are hilarious. I kept getting the feeling I was reading a play by Ibsen or Chekhov.

[David]

Compton-Burnett's final novel, worked up from her usual drafting MS in scribblers and published two years after her death. It makes a consistent conclusion to a remarkably consistent oeuvre, if a little light--her shortest since the first in the line many years before. All the usual concerns are there, though it seems money is most important (coupled, of course, with how families interact concerning money). A will, some generally acceptable and intelligent servants, education, a refused proposal, and the sort of change alluded to by the Biblical title form the bulk of this short novel. As a sidetone: I don't think there was anything incestuous in this one! Better be always careful about who handles receiving the household mail, though.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was Ivy's last novel and to my mind one of her best--I have read 7 or 8 of them. In this one, as in others, there is a person with no means being treated terribly by others in the household who ends up through a relative's will being the head of the household and thus unseating the current, mean-spirited head of household, but who will be nicer to those meanies than they were to her when they held the reins. Ivy's books have practically no plot, and characters are not announced as in Henry then said: etc but rather they just start talking and it is up to the reader to figure out who is speaking by their speech patterns, turns of phrase, etc. The best parts are the arch and very cynical aphorisms that characters spew forth. There is usually one character--often a butler--who serves as a sort of chorus commenting dryly and without emotion on the proceedings

[Daniela Sorgente · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ivy Compton-Burnett's books, more than novels they seem like scripts of theatrical plays, they are mostly dialogues and the descriptions are kept to a minimum. The dialogues are not real conversations but rather thoughts expressed aloud.
This book describes two matriarchal families, led by two authoritarian and manipulative women who rule over their children, stepdaughters and grandchildren. In the first family, Eliza makes the two stepdaughters suffer a lot just by existing and stealing the time and attention that should be given to her two children. She controls everything in her house, from the mail to the lighting of the fires in the fireplaces and is present in every dialogue and where she is not present she suddenly appears. The two stepdaughters have no freedom or intimacy. In the second, the head of the family is a grandmother who puts up with her orphaned grandchildren but also her only remaining son. The stories of the two families run in parallel, then intertwine with unpredictable outcomes.

[Bill FromPA]

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