A House and Its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett

This is a very extraordinary and interesting book, I've never encountered anything quite like it. It's written mostly in dialogue, so reads a great deal like a play. It took me a while to figure out what was going on with the dialogue. Most of the time, we assume that people say one thing and (perhaps) mean another. In this book, it's the opposite, the dialogue is what people are thinking/meaning, which may or may not coincide with what they are saying. We never actually get to find out what they are saying. The action has to be deduced from the dialogue, and the events that unfold are unexpectedly shocking. The novel is a wonderful and unique experiment in form and part of it reminded me a lot of Shakespeare, especially King Lear, because it focuses on the theme of favourite children and a domineering father. Also a very interesting view of late Victorian society.