Hilda Lessways

The Five Towns #8

by Arnold Bennett

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Genres: Classics, Fiction, Novels, British Literature, Ebooks, Victorian, Literature

327 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free download at Librivox here: https://librivox.org/hilda-lessways-b...

The second of a series of four set in Arnold Bennett's "Five Towns" which are the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries - Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tungstall, that now make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England:
1.Clayhanger
2.Hilda Lessways
3.These Twain
4.The Roll-Call

It is important to read the four in this order!

We meet Edwin Clayhanger and Hilda Lessways in the first book. In this, the second book, we follow what is happening in Hilda’s life as the events in Edwin’s life unroll. Timewise, the two run parallel, but Clayhanger is more complete. On finishing the first book you want to know more about Hilda. Her personality is intriguing. What has shaped her? Why does she behave and say the things she does? On closing the book, you have the answers.

Bennett draws in both books life in England during the late 1870s and 1880s. In this book he takes us out from the Midlands to London and the resort town Brighton. In the first book we are shown the pottery and printing businesses and now we are shown lawyers, landlords and rent collectors. In both we see the rise of labor unions and strikers. Bennett shines a light on the lives of middle class people, both men and women. They are books of historical fiction that teach readers about the past.

The characters are fictional. You get a wide spectrum of characters from different walks of life. They are ordinary people. None are monstrous criminals, which isn’t to say they are without faults. It is their ordinariness that appeals to me.

I am not a fan of series. I prefer one book which is in itself complete and compact. As the two books run alongside each other, what happens in one is repeated in the other. I was sometimes bored, and parts felt too long and drawn out. Those who enjoy series will probably not have such complaints.

I am not sure I will read the remaining two of the series, but I am glad to have gotten to know Hilda in and out. My hunch was that the more I got to know her, the more I would like her. This proved to be true. Hilda is a character I like. She and Edwin fit together. Both characters feel very real to me. I like their normalness.

Simon Evers does the narration at Librivox. He speaks distinctly. Only those words no longer used today were difficult to distinguish. It is possible to lower the speed if you think he speaks too fast. The narration isn’t exceptional, but it’s good, so I have given it three stars.

“Tears shall take comfort and turn to gems.”
These words describe Hilda, the central protagonist of this story. Bennett takes the line from a poem by Richard Crashaw.


************************
*Anna of the Five Towns 4 stars
*Riceyman Steps 4 stars
*Helen with the High Hand - An Idyllic Diversion 4 stars
*The Old Wives' Tale 4 stars
*The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns 4 stars
*Buried Alive 4 stars
*Clayhanger 3 stars
*The Grand Babylon Hotel 3 stars
*Hilda Lessways reading 3 stars

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to Clayhanger and Hilda Lessways read wonderfully by Simon Evers on Librivox. Hilda’s story provided her side of the same chronology as Edwin Clayhanger in the first book. I find Arnold Bennett’s books very appealing—he gets inside his characters so well, both male and female. I plan to continue the series with the last two books. There is also an old BBC miniseries on YouTube that I’ll watch after reading the tetralogy.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A good character based historical fiction novel. The characters of George Cannon and Hilda Lessways are fully developed. This novel covers the same characters that are in Bennett’s book, ‘Clayhanger’, published in 1910.

‘Hilda Lessways’ covers the same time period as ‘Clayhanger’, accordingly there are no new plot surprises.

This book was first published in 1911.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great entertaining story from the 1880s set in Bursley and Brighton. I was particularly interested in the Brighton aspect as I live there. I am really interested in seeing 59 Preston Street the setting for George Cannon’s boarding house. The Ship Street hotel the Chichester is still an actual hotel where I stayed.

I like the story and Hilda following her instincts. Failing her mother, bewitched by George Cannon and her confusion about her feelings for Edwin Clayhanger. The characterizations by Bennett are superb and the way he draws you into another world. The Brighton promenade, servants, the smells of the boarding house and the relationships with the guests are all compelling. I look forward to the final book These Twain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

What a cliff hanger to end on. Hilda engaged to Edwin and then returning to Brighton to help Sarah the invalid sister of George. Then finding herself pregnant and ending the engagement surreptitiously through a letter to Janet. Even though George has fled to America when she discovered he was already married.

[Ivy-Mabel Fling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This dovetails cleverly with Clayhanger but Arnold Bennett has to be quite ingenious on occasion to reconcile Hilda's two lives (and almost two personalities). An intriguing read for those who enjoy late 19th century/early 20th century realism.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine achievement. It is both a sequel to and a book that runs parallel with Clayhanger. If you've read the first, you know what is going to happen which is quite a new idea in construction (to me). Despite this, it constantly surprises and moves you. Its not perfect, but its very good. The problems facing an intelligent, independent woman in the 1880s and 90's are covered in many other novels. The way the subject is dealt with here is unique to my reading and the entire book is to be admired. I was about 5% short of engaging fully with her. If I had, and this could easily be my fault, it would have been an out and out 5 star book.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first volume some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can certainly read "Hilda Lessways" without having read (or remembered) the first book. This story is about a young woman coming of age - what makes it interesting is the choices that she takes to decide her own life. She is a strange heroine - not the most beautiful, charming nor intelligent but she is strong willed and Bennett shows us how she chooses her own path and accepts the consequences. I like the glimpses into early 20th century domestic life - as well as Bennett's observations on the daily drudgery of the domestic staff.

[zhixin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilda is an interesting female character with many contradictions. While she is strong-minded and will perform a strong impulse as it comes to her even as it is controversial, she minds it when there is gossip about her and Cannon. She is unable to let go of what she perceives as the duty she owes to another person, which is something very feminine - to serve another person despite unhappiness and lack of obligation. She is easily swayed by the impression of authority and power. She's also highly sensitive to beauty and emotion. All of these traits make it such a tragedy when ultimately she is trapped in an unfortunate situation because of her identity as a female.

[5greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate doing the silly scoring thing for books I really enjoy, because I always go too high - anyway, I loved Clayhanger and this was equally brilliant, not least in the overlaps between the two. One to put on your 'Top Literary Heroines' list.

[latner3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read. Tasty omelette too.

[Richard Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems this novel is thought inferior to its predecessor, Clayhanger. This is surely because it lacks a character as thoroughly memorable as Clayhanger's astounding Darius. But then, you won't find a character more interesting and compelling than Darius Clayhanger in almost any other novel, by Bennett or by any other writer.

I find Hilda Lessways in every way a worthy second part in the trilogy. The characterisation of the titular heroine is hugely reminiscent of the sort of thing for which DH Lawrence used to be so praised. The difference is that, after Women in Love, Lawrence's creativity was increasingly swamped by pretentious waffle. Though Bennett's prose has its share of clunky victoriana, he is never pretentious and his sympathy for and understanding of his heroine are marvellous to witness. Bennett's omniscient third person narrator has a light touch indeed. Much has been written or needs to be written about Bennett's endorsement of feminist causes: though he's a man of his time, it seems to me that his nature as a writer - understanding, sympathetic - made his support of some radical causes inevitable.

Like Clayhanger, Hilda Lessways is an important novel and reading it has made me eager to get on to These Twain.

[Herrholz Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book in the Clayhanger series, this novel follows the life of Hilda Lessways and compliments and expands on the first book Clayhanger. Hilda Lessways is written in a parallel time line with the first book. Many of the events of the first are echoed in the second and this creates an interesting and novel effect through juxtaposition. Not quite as good as the first one but a good four stars.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second book in the Clayhanger trilogy follows the life of Hilda Lessways into early adulthood. Bennett’s style is often wryly humorous and occasionally touching, providing a unique perspective on womens’ experience in late Victorian England

[MarilynLovesNature · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it very much.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being married to a bigamist
The parallelquel (if such a word exists) to Edwin Clayhanger. The story of Hilda. Now, we know of the previous novel that she obviously fell in love with Edwin but leaves and just informs Janet that she married one George Cannon. Would he please inform Edwin. The bitch. Now, we suspect there must be something more to it.
Hilda is a strange woman. She does not know what to do with her life. Does she read? No, she just wastes her time. This is what she tells Mr. Cannon. He is a lawyer, hired by her to do some business with the houses owned by her Mother. And he is the owner of a collection of the works by Victor Hugo. She loves Hugo, or rather one poem. Cannon makes her learn phonology, i.e. shorthand. And then he employs her when he starts a newspaper. That becomes a failure but for some strange reason, she stays with him, marries him eventually (although she has met Edwin in the meantime). There is some bond with half-sister of George who is sick and who had some connection with her, Hilda’s mother, but I really did not get it completely. During the newspaper adventure, Hilda disregards a telegram that urges her to come to see her mother. When she eventually takes the train it is too late. Mother dead. This somehow leads to her marrying George, I guess. He turns out to be married to some other woman. An “old” one, married for money. (Of course, he also invested, wasted Hilda’s money.) It must be said though, that George is by no means a one-dimensional bad guy. Just like Hilda is not a naive good-natured heroine.
Now, when she really falls for Edwin, she thinks she is free, having just learned about her husband's engagement, but when she returns to Brighton she finds herself pregnant. And thus, she sends the letter.
Not quite as convincing as Book I, but wonderful.

[Redbird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bennett does equally well with serious topics as with humor. His portrayal of the inner struggles of the female mind with regard to her place in society, in familial roles, and in career are compelling. Hilda is an intriguing and somewhat unpredictable person whom I root for nonetheless.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was compelled to read this after reading Clayhanger, the first book of a trilogy. I didn't think this one quite lived up to the other. Much of it seemed contrived and unauthentic, and that could simply be the author's attempt to write from the point of view of a budding "modern woman." Hilda is always trembling with something marvelous and monumental and feeling extremely different from the rest of the world and that is fine, but sometimes it begs belief.
Otherwise, I felt the timelines between Clayhanger and Hilda Lessways didn't quite add up. It could be my faulty memory!
Anyway, I'm not sorry I read it, and since I have the trilogy I will probably waste some more time on the last one. I do like Bennett, even if this wasn't terrific.

[Scout · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really struggled through the second book in this trilogy. To me, Helen is not a heroine. She is amazingly blind in so many different ways. She was one of the first women stenographers, yet she failed to capitalize on that experience to save herself from near destitution. She was a poor judge of men in her marriage to George Cannon.
This trilogy is an exercise in the old adage " A trap is preceded by one's own choice of entrance". I don't believe Hilda is capable of real love. I think Edwin is too inexperienced to know what love is let alone whether Hilda loves him.

I am sorry, I just couldn't bear to read the third and final book The Twain. I tried and got halfway through. I just kept getting more and more irritated with the story. When I get to that point, I ask myself Why am I here? And Why am I putting myself through this. NOPE, no more.

[Bill Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the Clayhanger trilogy, this book is a character driven masterpiece. Hilda sets off in her adult life journey and with a series of seemingly sensible decisions ends up trapped in a toxic relationship.

Far beyond me to do a full review, but I would say how surprising it is that Arnold Bennett is so little known. Clayhanger is a family saga and doesn't have the scope of Dickens' novels but I do think he is right up there with Dickens.

Brilliant characters, everyday tale so interesting to read. Insight into the peoples lives of that time.

Great book. Looking forward to the final one.

[Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this Arnold Bennett!
Amazing parallel story top Clayhanger. Now on to "Those Twain" - a classic story. Nothing complex nor complicated.

[Chris Purser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a writer who lived in Victorian times.

[Helen Birkbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I vaguely recall being impressed by Janet Suzman's portrayal of Hilda on TV and think Hilda is a fascinating character. An interesting mixture of strengths and vulnerability. She seems stronger than Edwin but I don't know why she falls for George! Her relationship with Sarah Gailey is odd and sad.

[Jeanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My grandmother read this book in 1932. It is a quaint story with all the prejudices about women of its day. Enjoyable. It is part one of a series, but I did not feel inclined to read more.