This little wisp of a book is really an extended farce skit. Written almost entirely in dialogue, sometimes without even indications of setting, or that the dialogue has shifted to other characters and setting, it reads much like a play or screenplay. The chat is witty and amusing enough, but for its full enjoyment it requires more knowledge of the inner workings and social conventions of British public schools that some American readers are likely to have. The surprise at the end is too slight, too farcelike, and the unveiling of it too improbable to support even so slight a structure as this book has. ( )

I had to give up on it. ( )

A slim novel with an attractive cover, the style is clipped and oblique and makes any action quite impenetrable. It started off well enough, a school having breakfast, but then got lost in a maze of conversations. Time seemed to slip around; events were portrayed in one chapter and then turned up again in the middle of the next, so I was never sure of the time scales. Unfortunately, this did not make me want to read another of her books; I prefer something with a stronger narrative. ( )

I won this book from Librarything in their Early Reviewers draw, and it’s a lovely little thing. Hesperus Press is another publisher whose raison d’être is bringing back neglected works into print and their list sounds very interesting (Pushkin, Flaubert and Charles Lamb etc). Printed on quality off-white paper with super matt wraparound soft covers, this novella was a physical pleasure to read. The reading itself was a little more difficult.

This was ICB’s breakthrough novel after one previous effort, and at a mere 98 pages is a swift read. Published in 1925 at the age of 41, Pastors and Masters is set in a minor prep school of which Nicholas Herrick is the nominal headmaster. However apart from taking prayers in the morning he leaves everything to Mr Merry (who, gasp! is not a qualified teacher), plus Mrs Merry, Mr Burgess (who, phew! is qualified), and Matron Miss Basden. Herrick and his younger sister Emily, prefer more intellectual pursuits engaging his friends in debate, and bragging about the book he is writing – will it ever get finished and be published? This is the basis of the plot, on which I’ll expound no further to save the twist in tail for you.

ICB’s style though takes a bit of getting used to. There’s little descriptive prose, it’s mostly dialogue and that is really clipped, and the characters never shut up! They’re constantly talking, mostly at each other, in engagements of verbal sparring, scoring points off each other. This was a group stuck in an old Victorian way of doing things, full of fake gentility. It was impossible to find a single likeable character who actually had anything interesting to say or did anything of merit whatsoever, something I suspect was a deliberate ploy of ICB.

‘How good we all are at talking without ever saying anything we think!’ said Bumpus.
‘It is not always politic to say what we think,’ said Miss Basden.
‘It is not so easy,’ said Masson.
‘Some times I suppose it is right to say it, whether or not we like it, and whether or not it is liked, said Delia.
‘Yes, yes the thing to be done,’ said Miss Lydia, sighing.
‘Oh, just possibly. Once or twice in a lifetime,’ said Mr Bentley to his daughter.
‘Nearer once than twice,’ said Bumpus.

An interesting introduction to ICB’s work, but just as I really got into it, it was over. Recommendations for a mature ICB to read some time in the future would be appreciated – hang on a minute, didn’t the Queen borrow one from the mobile library in The Uncommon Reader? ( )

I received this little novel from the Librarything early reviewers scheme. I was interested in reading a Compton-Burnett novel, as I recently read a biography about the novelist Elizabeth Taylor, and Compton-Burnett was a good friend of hers, and was referred to in the book a great deal.
In the forward to the novel, Sue Townsend suggests that readers might find it a hard read at times, that Compton-Burnett's style takes some getting used to. The novel is written almost completely in dialogue. I didn't however find it a difficult read, the style is a little unusual prehaps, but the writing is so very good that it flows easily and makes for a quick and lively read. The characters are quirky fully developed in spite of being written about in a style that one might think doesn't lend itself to the description of characters, and yet within the great swathes of dialogue there emerges strong and distinct characters. This is the first book by this author I have read, but it probably won't be the last. ( )