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The Plain Man and His Wife
Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was a British novelist. He was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. At age 21 he went to London as a solicitor's clerk. He won a literary competition in Tit Bits magazine in 1889 and was encouraged to take up journalism full time. From 1900 he devoted himself full time to writing, giving up the editorship and writing much serious criticism, and also theatre journalism, one of his special interests. In 1902 Anna of the Five Towns, the first of a succession of stories which detailed life in the Potteries, appeared. In 1908 The Old Wives' Tale was published, and was an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world. His most famous works are the Clayhanger (1910) trilogy and The Old Wives' Tale. These books draw on his experience of life in the Potteries, as did most of his best work. Among his other books are: The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902), The Grim Smile of the Five Towns (1907), Hilda Lessways (1911), The Author's Craft (1914), The Lion's Share (1916), and The Roll-Call (1919).
56 pages, Paperback
Published July 13, 2007
About the author
Arnold Bennett
1,042 books317 followersEnoch 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 9, 2015
'He did wrap up his grudge in cotton wool and put it in a drawer and examine it with perverse pleasure now and then.'
It was worth reading this rather mannered and repetitive work just for that forensic pinpointing of the husband who doesn't feel his wife quite appreciates him. The whole thing is rather prolix, though, I'd guess it felt rather dated even in 1914.
It was worth reading this rather mannered and repetitive work just for that forensic pinpointing of the husband who doesn't feel his wife quite appreciates him. The whole thing is rather prolix, though, I'd guess it felt rather dated even in 1914.
December 17, 2014
Weep, Norman Vincent Peale, weep!
As much of Bennett's writing, it's remarkably modern. His view, for example, that middle class women ought to have the possibility of a paying occupation, I found surprising for a book of 1913.
As much of Bennett's writing, it's remarkably modern. His view, for example, that middle class women ought to have the possibility of a paying occupation, I found surprising for a book of 1913.
October 6, 2022
🔻 Genre: Essays.
✔️Published in 1913.
👁 Point of view: First person.
🔺My review: This is an entertaining look at men, women, and relationships. Topics include “The Taste for Pleasure,” “The Risks of Life,” “In Her Place.”
🔲 Extracts :
🖋 The writing style: Arnold Bennett wrote this with a style that reminded me of those short films shown at movie theaters in the 1940s – sort of the humorous “Life with Bub” scenario. That writing style is wholly entertaining, while still making valid points.
🗝 What I learned: Confirmation that people have been the way they are since Adam and Eve.
🗝 What I learned: Upon further research on Arnold Bennett, I found out he was a crack Pitman stenographer.
💫 What I like best: The humorous writing style, and the pseudonyms of people such as Mr. Alpha, Mr. Omega, and Mrs. Omicron.
📌 Would I read this again? Yes.
🤔 My rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
◼️ Fun fact: I finally got around to reading this after it collected dust in my Kindle for a couple years.
🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
✔️Published in 1913.
👁 Point of view: First person.
🔺My review: This is an entertaining look at men, women, and relationships. Topics include “The Taste for Pleasure,” “The Risks of Life,” “In Her Place.”
🔲 Extracts :
The plain man on a plain day wakes up, slowly or quickly according to his temperament, and greets the day in a mental posture which might be thus expressed in words . . . And after the night he wakes up, slowly or quickly according to his temperament, and greets the day with: "Oh, Lord! Another day! What a grind!"
🖋 The writing style: Arnold Bennett wrote this with a style that reminded me of those short films shown at movie theaters in the 1940s – sort of the humorous “Life with Bub” scenario. That writing style is wholly entertaining, while still making valid points.
🗝 What I learned: Confirmation that people have been the way they are since Adam and Eve.
🗝 What I learned: Upon further research on Arnold Bennett, I found out he was a crack Pitman stenographer.
💫 What I like best: The humorous writing style, and the pseudonyms of people such as Mr. Alpha, Mr. Omega, and Mrs. Omicron.
📌 Would I read this again? Yes.
🤔 My rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
◼️ Fun fact: I finally got around to reading this after it collected dust in my Kindle for a couple years.
🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews