Darkness and Day

451. Darkness and Day, by I. Compton-Burnett (read 22 Nov 1952) SPOILER When I started to read this I said: "Super boring." The next day I said: "If suitable concentration were given, it could be a satisfying book." The following day I said: "Book had a few traces of humor in the conversation of the 8 and 10 year old girls, Rose and Viola." On the day I finished the book I said: "Liked book muchly. Bridget turned out to be the daughter of Sir Ransom Chase and Mrs. Spruce. The best characters in the book were Rose and Viola, eight year old daughters of Bridget and Edmund. Very good book."

Ivy Compton-Burnett was an English novelist with her own peculiar style which is evident in her 1951 novel; Darkness and Day. Her subject is family life and in this case it is an upper class family with the usual collection of servants and so it has an upstairs-downstairs feel about it. Events in the life of the family are lived by the family and commented on in the privacy of the servants own meeting room. Although the novel was published in 1951 it feels like a novel set in late Victorian or Edwardian times. It is difficult to be precise because almost the whole content of the novel is in dialogue and so the reader only becomes aware of place and setting through hints in the conversations that take place. It is also distinctly show more claustrophobic because the action is confined to two adjacent houses and apart from family life there is little extraneous detail.

Sir Ransom Chace is 88 years old and is feeling his age. He is a widower and lives with his two unmarried daughters. His friend Mr Gaunt Lovett from next door visits him with some news that will affect both families. Gaunt's brother Edmond and his wife Bridget are returning to the family house after being away for three years; they have two young daughters. It seems that they went away because of some family issue that required them to keep their distance. Sir Ransom Chace is anxious to see them all before he dies and the reader gets the impression that there is some unfinished business to be resolved. Mildred Hallam is the housekeeper, friend and ladies companion to the two unmarried Chace daughters and takes it into her head that she really must become the governess to Edmund's two children when they are settled in next door. There are definite skeletons in the closet and the book is a slow reveal of these as Sir Ransom Chace prepares to put his affairs in order before his death

Apart from dealing with events of the past effecting the here and now, a major theme of the novel is growing old and the legacies one leaves behind. The dialogue style means that the reader has to form an opinion of the characters by what they say and this does not aways work: for example the two precocious children, who with their witty dialogue seem much wiser than their years. It is also not always clear who is speaking and there is some concentration needed from the reader, however it does result in a lively read, even if one puzzles over some of the conversation pieces wondering at the level of irony or lack of. It was a different reading experience and one that kept me amused 3.5 stars show less