More Women Than Men by Ivy Compton-Burnett

More Women Than Men takes place in a girls’ school, although the students are rather secondary (none of the girls say anything in the novel). It is the headmistress, Josephine Napier, we set our sights on. She rules over both staff and family, rendering them powerless but for their words. Maxims are investigated, logic tries to eviscerate words, and plain old sauciness slips in. Then there is the murder... Strongly stylized, surreptitiously queer.