Dave's Book Blog: "Pastors and masters" by Ivy Compton-Burnett

Saturday, 13 July 2024

"Pastors and masters" by Ivy Compton-Burnett

Mr Herrick owns a boys' prep school but he wants to be remembered as a writer. This tiny novel is a social comedy explores the cloistered world of academics and teachers and lays bare its endemic pretensions and hypocrisies.

There are over a dozen important characters which is quite a lot for a book of fewer than a hundred pages. Sometimes but not always they are introduced. To help me, I constructed a cast list which I offer for the assistance of the reader:

Mr Merry is a senior teacher at Mr Herrick's school, despite having no qualifications (other than he gets on very well with the boys and even better with the parents; Mr M is the perfect salesman for the school).
Mrs Merry aka 'Mother' is his wife who runs the catering and teaches Scripture by reading the text book.
Miss Basden is matron; she teaches French and English; she's a very clever lady, far more widely read than any of the others, and quite militant in terms of women's rights.
Mr Burgess: teaches the senior boys
Nicholas Herrick, aged 70, is the owner of the school, putting in a ten minute appearance every day to read prayers. He used to be a university don. He desperately wants to be a novelist so that he can say that he has done something with his life but so far has only been able to be a critic.
Emily Herrick is Nick's sister and lives with him. She thinks herself better than those of a lower social class.
Richard (Dickie) Bumpus is a university don who once wrote a book but "caused a manuscript to be put into the grave of a friend" (Ch 2); he's now trying to write a second (or is it to rewrite the first?). He is witty and sarcastic with one-liners highlighting the daft things others say.
William Masson is another university don.
Revd Peter Fletcher, who is invited to spread at Prize Day, is about to retire. He has old-fashioned views about women.
Mrs Theresa Fletcher is his wife.
Miss Lydia Fletcher, Peter's sister, lives with them and, having a private income, is charitable
Revd Francis Fletcher is Peter's nephew
Mr Bentley, twice a widower, is the father of two boys at the school, John and Harry, and a daughter Delia.

It's written, as is typical of ICB novels, mostly in quite formal dialogue (for example: "Shouldn't he not have written?"; Ch 2 and "Then I may betake myself with a clear conscience to the solid pursuits which must be my portion, I fear"; Ch 6), almost like a playscript. Some people speak their mind but others hide, using euphemisms such as 'nice' and omissions and downright distortions. "How good we all are at talking without ever saying anything we think!" one of the characters exclaims in the final chapter. What this means is that the reader must pay close and careful attention to exactly what is said. It isn't easy and I'm not confident I understood all the subtleties of plot, let alone the nuances of character. It is clear that this technique was deliberate so that ICB was able to explore issues that were probably tabu in 1925 within her social circle, if not in the wider literary world. Here are some examples:

She shows sympathy with the unemployed: "The man has struggled to get work until he is hopeless, just to get work, just that, poor soul!" (Ch 3)
She can be cutting about the social classes. There is a sardonic edge when she considers the relative positions of Mr Herrick who profits from the school despite only putting in a daily ten-minute appearance and Mr Merry and his team who actually do the work: the Herricks find the sight of Merry doing his duty upsets them: "The sight of duty does make one shiver ... The actual doing of it would kill one, I think." (Ch 2) Emily in particular seems to think she is doing Mr Merry a favour in employing him and, when she discovers that he has a Christian name, says: "How simply and kindly of him it seems to have one!" (Ch 7) Emily also says: "It must be so dreadful to be a servant ... and do the important work of the world. That sort of work, so ill paid and degrading." (Ch 7)
There is the suggestion that William Masson is gay. Masson and Bumpus "had meant romance for each other in youth." (Ch 2) Emily says of Masson that he wants to marry her "as much as he wants to marry anyone. Anyone who is a woman. And that is not very much." (Ch 3) But then she also suggests that she is a lesbian: "I might tell you it is that way with me too." (Ch 3)
There are comments about god that could be seen as blasphemous. "He always seems to me a pathetic figure, friendless and childless and set up alone in a miserable way. ... And he had such a personality ... Such a superior, vindictive and over-indulgent one. He is one of the best drawn characters in fiction." (Ch 2)
Miss Basden fights for the rights of women. She points out that "women often equal and surpass men in literary achievement" (Ch 7) When Francis says that "it is my inclination to put women on a plane of their own, and to regard them as coming down from it, when they take upon themselves the things that might have been held fitter for men" she responds: "There is the usual kind of contempt in that sentimental exaltation of women." (Ch 7)

Selected quotes:

"Mrs Basden stepped forward and quickly cut the string, in the manner of one tying gunpowder to a friend at the stake." (Ch 1)
"If a book is a whole in itself, why is its length any matter?" (Ch 2)
"His peculiar smile, in which he stretched his lips without parting them, so that his teeth were not displayed." (Ch 3)
"We miss what we give most to, the most." (Ch 3)
"Some people never know how nice it is to help ... We ought to be sorry for them. Because it is so nice. It is so nice." (Ch 3)

The characters are created through their styles of speaking as well as what they say. Out of their own mouths they are condemned and their world is condemned but the reader has to follow subtle clues and hints and nuances to spot the condemnation. This means that it is hard work to read but in the end it is very worthwhile.

July 2024; 96 pages