Widely praised in her lifetime, Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969) is less so now, her novels largely out of print. A Family and a Fortune (Bloomsbury Reader, £14.99, printed on demand; Tablet price £13.50), first published in 1939, is set in a country house near the nineteenth century’s end. Two brothers – Edgar, the family’s head, and the unworldly Dudley – are devoted to each other