A God and His Gifts

First published in 1963,* A God and his Gifts* was the last of Ivy Compton-Burnett�s novels to be published in her lifetime and is considered by many to be one of her best. Set in the claustrophobic world of Edwardian upper-class family life, it is the story of the self-willed and arrogant Hereward Egerton. In his marriage to Ada Merton he maintains a veneer of respectability but through his intimate relationships with his sister, Emmeline, and his son�s future wife, Hetty, he steps beyond the bounds of conventional morality with both comic and tragic results…