Discover new books on Goodreads

See if your friends have read any of Arnold Bennett's books

Arnold Bennett’s Followers (326)

Arnold Bennett

Born

in Hanley, Staffordshire, England, The United Kingdom

May 27, 1867

Died

March 27, 1931

Website

http://www.arnoldbennettsociety.org.uk

Genre

Fiction

Influences

Guy de Maupassant; Emile Zola

edit data

Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboration with other writers), and a daily journal totalling more than a million words. He wrote articles and stories for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran the Ministry of Information during the First World War, and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. Sales of his books were substantial, and he was the most financially successful British author of his day.
Born into a modest but upwardly mobile family in Hanley, in the Staffordshire Potteries, Bennett was intended by his father, a solicitor, to follow him int Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboration with other writers), and a daily journal totalling more than a million words. He wrote articles and stories for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran the Ministry of Information during the First World War, and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. Sales of his books were substantial, and he was the most financially successful British author of his day.
Born into a modest but upwardly mobile family in Hanley, in the Staffordshire Potteries, Bennett was intended by his father, a solicitor, to follow him into the legal profession. Bennett worked for his father before moving to another law firm in London as a clerk at the age of 21. He became assistant editor and then editor of a women's magazine before becoming a full-time author in 1900. Always a devotee of French culture in general and French literature in particular, he moved to Paris in 1903; there the relaxed milieu helped him overcome his intense shyness, particularly with women. He spent ten years in France, marrying a Frenchwoman in 1907. In 1912 he moved back to England. He and his wife separated in 1921, and he spent the last years of his life with a new partner, an English actress. He died in 1931 of typhoid fever, having unwisely drunk tap-water in France.
Many of Bennett's novels and short stories are set in a fictionalised version of the Staffordshire Potteries, which he called The Five Towns. He strongly believed that literature should be accessible to ordinary people and he deplored literary cliques and élites. His books appealed to a wide public and sold in large numbers. For this reason, and for his adherence to realism, writers and supporters of the modernist school, notably Virginia Woolf, belittled him, and his fiction became neglected after his death. During his lifetime his journalistic "self-help" books sold in substantial numbers, and he was also a playwright; he did less well in the theatre than with novels but achieved two considerable successes with Milestones (1912) and The Great Adventure (1913).
Studies by Margaret Drabble (1974), John Carey (1992), and others have led to a re-evaluation of Bennett's work. The finest of his novels, including Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910) and Riceyman Steps (1923), are now widely recognised as major works.
...more

Combine Editions
Arnold Bennett’s books

Average rating: 3.68 · 26,554 ratings · 3,295 reviews · 1,203 distinct works • Similar authors

	How to Live on 24 Hours a Day 3.62 avg rating — 9,623 ratings — published 1908 — 323 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Old Wives' Tale (The Five Towns #5) 3.85 avg rating — 4,878 ratings — published 1908 — 411 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Anna of the Five Towns (The Five Towns #2) 3.68 avg rating — 1,911 ratings — published 1902 — 289 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett, Frank Swinnerton (Introduction) 3.47 avg rating — 1,741 ratings — published 1902 — 349 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Card (The Five Towns #7) 3.90 avg rating — 774 ratings — published 1911 — 249 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Enterrado en vida by Arnold Bennett, Vicente Vera (Translator) 3.78 avg rating — 715 ratings — published 1908 — 149 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clayhanger (The Five Towns #6) by Arnold Bennett, Frank Swinnerton (Introduction) 4.01 avg rating — 548 ratings — published 1910 — 200 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Riceyman Steps 3.87 avg rating — 490 ratings — published 1923 — 932 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	الذوق الأدبي: كيف يتكون by Arnold Bennett, دلال الرمضان (Translator ) 3.36 avg rating — 533 ratings — published 1909 — 165 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Human Machine 3.79 avg rating — 365 ratings — published 1908 — 228 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Arnold Bennett…

Series by Arnold Bennett

The Five Towns (11 books)
by

Arnold Bennett

3.82 avg rating — 9,135 ratings

Quotes by Arnold Bennett (?)

“The chief beauty about time
is that you cannot waste it in advance.
The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you,
as perfect, as unspoiled,
as if you had never wasted or misapplied
a single moment in all your life.
You can turn over a new leaf every hour
if you choose.”
― Arnold Bennett

tags: faith, hope, new-beginnings, new-day, time

522 likes

“The proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.”
― Arnold Bennett, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

tags: tea, time

89 likes

“Any change, even a change for the better is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.”
― Arnold Bennett

52 likes

See all Arnold Bennett's quotes »

Polls

January 2025 Old School Classics Poll

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, 1596, 103 pp

78 votes, 40.0%

The Death of King Arthur: A New Verse Translation translated by Simon Armitage, or Le Morte DArthur (The Death of Arthur): All Volumes by Thomas Malory, 1380, 304 pp

38 votes, 19.5%

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, 1824, 272 pp

27 votes, 13.8%

The Persian Expedition by Xenophon, -401, 375 pp

21 votes, 10.8%

Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson, 1885 384 pp

17 votes, 8.7%

The Card by Arnold Bennett, 1911, 224 pp

14 votes, 7.2%

195 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Book Challenge: Inna's 200 in 2010	67	772	Apr 09, 2010 05:52AM
The Book Challenge: laurea's 2010 challenge	25	83	Jul 11, 2010 01:10PM
The Seasonal Read...: 15.8 - "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble..."	171	364	Aug 25, 2010 11:49AM
Challenge: 50 Books: Whitney's 50 for 2010!	24	213	Dec 26, 2010 10:22PM
The Seasonal Read...: 30.2 - Cheryl TX's task: Alphabetically Speaking	22	191	Jan 18, 2011 10:15AM
Glens Falls (NY) ...: What MOVIES or DVDs have you watched lately? (PART FOUR - 2011) (ongoing thread)	1136	43	Jan 03, 2012 01:24PM
Reading with Style: Winter 2012/13 Rws Completed Tasks - Winter 12/13	841	154	Feb 28, 2013 09:01PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2012-2013: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2485	870	Feb 28, 2013 09:01PM

More…

Arnold Bennett’s Followers (326)

Arnold Bennett

Combine EditionsArnold Bennett’s books

Series by Arnold Bennett

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Arnold Bennett’s books