A Man from the North

The Five Towns #1

by Arnold Bennett

Famous British writer Arnold Bennett's novel 'A Man from the North' was first published in the year 1911. "There grows in the North Country a certain kind of youth of whom it may be said that he is born to be a Londoner. The metropolis, and everything that appertains to it, that comes down from it, that goes up into it, has for him an imperious fascination. Long before schooldays are over he learns to take a doleful pleasure in watching the exit of the London train from the railway station." -an excerpt

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literary Fiction, British Literature, Novels

98 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1898

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

[Cecily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is strictly for Bennett aficionados like me who want to see the seeds of the writer he later became. 2.5* rounded down.

This is Arnold Bennett’s first novel(la), published in 1898 (GR wrongly says 1911). It's a standalone story with some autobiographical elements (GR wrongly says it's the first of the Five Towns books). Richard Larch is the eponymous young man who comes to London to work as a solicitor’s clerk. “A” (generic) man from the north. He’s well-read, alone in the world, without private income, and wants to be a writer.

Love of London

For all its faults, it does have Bennett’s trademark realism: sharp and sometimes poetic observations of relatively ordinary places, people, and the minutiae of quotidian life, contrasted with the brighter lights of the west end.

“An inconstant, unrefreshing breeze, sluggish with accumulated impurity, stirred the curtains, and every urban sound—high-pitched voices of children playing, roll of wheels and rhythmic trot of horses, shouts of newsboys and querulous barking of dogs—came through the open windows touched with a certain languorous quality that suggested a city fatigued, a city yearning for the moist recesses of woods, the disinfectant breath of mountain tops, and the cleansing sea.”


Image: “The ambrosial exteriors of Strand restaurants” in John Atkinson Grimshaw’s 1892 painting, “Evening On the Strand Looking Towards St Mary's, London” (Source)

Gear change

It’s about the thrill of London, and the frustrations of office politics and trying to write. Then it switches to a possible romance (including several chapters of backstory of a new character); London and lawyers are almost forgotten until near the end. The plot change felt clumsy and unbalanced, plus the book lacks the humour and sparkle that Bennett used judiciously in later works.

Looking up - and down

Self-improvement is good, isn’t it? At first, Richard gets a thrill from dining in smart restaurants with a colleague:
“Secretly elated by the proximity of men older and more prosperous than themselves, whom they met on equal terms.”
But he’s naturally judgemental and this evolves into sneering:
“He had outgrown them; he surveyed them now as from a tower. He was a man with a future, using this restaurant because it suited him temporarily to do so, while they would use it till the end, never deviating, never leaving the rut.”

Richard’s hubris is punctuated by self-doubt and writer’s block, but mostly he thinks himself better than those around him, including fellow tourists in the seaside resort of Littlehampton:
“It was unpicturesque as a manufacturing town, and its summer visitors were an infestive, lower-middle class folk, garishly clothed, and unlearned in the fine art of enjoyment.”


Image: Richard enjoys the theatre, and this is a programme from the Alhambra Theatre in 1898 - the year this was published (Source)

His sense of entitlement to a woman of his own, and resentment that he doesn’t yet have one, is particularly sour. He’s not a nice character, but nor is he satisfyingly wicked or genuinely witty, though his assessments of women’s looks are waspish:
“Her features, especially the nostrils, mouth, and chin, were somewhat heavy, but she had prettily shaped ears.”
Another woman:
“The flattened nose whose tilt unpleasantly revealed the nostrils, were obvious and repellent… Her small hands were neatly gloved, and held a cheap, effective parasol. The woman's normal expression was one of cow-like vacancy.”

Quirks

Some of what Brits think of as Americanisms were common in British English of the past: “gotten” is the obvious example. However, I was surprised that in a restaurant, Richard asked for the check (not even spelt “cheque”).

“They called the meal ‘lunch’, but it was really their dinner, though neither of them ever admitted the fact.”
This is back to aspirations: the names and menu of meals are a major class and regional marker (see Kate Fox’s Watching the English which I reviewed HERE).
"‘And what shall we have for dinner?’
‘Oh! Eggs and bread and butter and tea.’
‘Tea for dinner!’”

One thing I didn’t understand was a major flu outbreak in summer. Does that ever happen?

Quotes

• “The effort of two secretly bored persons to continue a perfunctory conversation unaided by a single mutual interest.”

• “The latent poetry of the suburbs arose like a beautiful vapour and filled these monotonous and squalid vistas with the scent and the colour of violets, leaving nothing common, nothing ignoble.”

• “The morning was delicious, full of light and freshness, and the torpid countryside through which the train swept at full speed suggested a gentle yet piquant contrast to the urban, gaslight themes which they were discussing.”

• “It was the play-house and not the play of which she was really fond.”

• “He fell into a practice of deliberately seeking out and magnifying the finer qualities in her nature, while ignoring those which were likely to offend him; indeed he refused to allow himself to be offended.”

• “The suburbs, even Walham Green and Fulham, are full of interest, for those who can see it. Walk along this very street on such a Sunday afternoon as to-day. The roofs form two horrible, converging straight lines I know, but beneath there is character, individuality, enough to make the greatest book ever written. Note the varying indications supplied by bad furniture seen through curtained windows… listen to the melodies issuing lamely from ill-tuned pianos; examine the enervated figures of women reclining amidst flower-pots on narrow balconies.”

Seeds of literary merit

This book's value is in comparison to what followed. In that way, it's similar to the early novella that John Williams (most famous for Stoner) disowned: see my review of Nothing But the Night, HERE.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Bennett's first novel, the story of a young man from the north of England who arrives in London to seek his fortune. By day he works as a clerk in an office but has aspirations of becoming a writer. This young man is easily distracted though and one wonders if he will ever write that first novel. This is a fine short novel with signs of the wonderful writer Bennett would become. An enjoyable read.

[Islay Tonkinese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two days ago Arnold Bennett was simply a vague name that I thought had something to do with literature but wasn't exactly sure in what capacity. I did a bit of research. Upon reading that his reputation had never recovered from the attack inflicted upon it by Virginia Woolf, and being not a fan of that illustrious author, but having a natural fondness and sympathy for the underdog, I decided to read some Bennett. I am glad I did. A Man from the North was a very enjoyable short novel. Bennett paints a picture of an ambitious and diffident young man with literary aspirations from the provinces trying to make a life for himself in the big city.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Bennett and this first novel shows glimmers of the brilliant author he would become. Richard’s sister who he lives with dies and he takes the opportunity to make the decision to move from Bursley to London. There he obtains a position as a clerk and enjoys the lights of London.

Richard dreams about becoming an author and starts writing in his spare time. However, he suffers writers block. He meets the niece of a previous employee of the firm. Adeline is an interesting character who Richard becomes obsessed with but is unable ti express his feelings.

The story follows his trials and tribulations until he eventually settles on a woman who he proposes too. The story for me was about how one can easily be side tracked and make up excuses to why your dreams don’t come true.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

is Arnold Bennett’s first novel, published in 1896. As many novelists do with their first novels, Bennett has written a semi-autobiographical story about a young man who wants to be an author. The young man in this story is 20ish year-old Richard Larch who leaves his bland life in Bursley, one of the Five Towns ever-present in Bennett’s works, to try to succeed in London. Based on skills learned in Bursley, Larch finds employment as a clerk in a law firm but intends to become a writer, so writes in his off time, first short stories and later a novel.

The plot covers Larch’s attempts to be successful in his London adventure, both professionally, at the workplace and especially in his writing, and socially, both in friendship and especially romantic relationships.
The events take place at Larch’s residence, his workplace, a vegetarian restaurant he frequents, the theater and the home of a former co-worker who serves as Latch’s mentor and struggles with his health. The core storyline involves his possible romances with two women, one at the restaurant and the other at his mentor’s home.
The theme seemed to be Larch’s struggle to prioritize the success he sought in each of the various worlds he strives to succeed in: work, literary, social and romantic. There is an apparent resolution of the priorities at the book’s end.

Although this was his first novel, Bennett was already writing in the clear descriptive style, sprinkled with socially insightful commentary that make his later works so readable. The story is told is many short chapter/scenes that kept the pace of the story moving. I also easily identified with the story hero and his struggles to success and prioritize his goals. All the characters come off as fully formed individuals, and the depiction of the details of their lives, including Larch's nighttime walks through London, gave me a good look at the professional and social life of 1890s London office workers
While these factors made this a rewarding reading experience for me, I’m a Bennett fan. I don’t think this is a good book for a Bennett newbie to read. The Bennett wit, an important aspect of his greatness, was not as evident here as in later works. More importantly, the story itself was fairly bland and uneventful. The major story events provide, at best, a moderate level of dramatic impact, even with the final resolution of his priorities. And while this novel still exhibits Bennett’s premier-level skill at describing common-place feelings and mundane events, such as getting dressed and eating meals, I’m not sure that would be that entertaining to Bennett newbies in a story lacking much of the Bennett wit that often accompanies these descriptions.
I rate this as 3.7 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Man From The North by Arnold Bennett in today’s terms might be described as “coming of age” novel. In fact, “coming from the age” would probably be a better label, because the book simply reeks of the era in which it was written, which was late Victorian England, when flesh did not show and emotions remained, socially at least, tightly buttoned.

But a contemporary reader might now marvel at how Arnold Bennett succeeds in portraying this ordinary life as something special. In the end, we are all ordinary, our lone speciality being our individuality. Each of us only ever meets one “me”.

Richard Lodge is the chap from the north, Bursley, to be precise. Just how far north of London one would have to go to find Bursley is immaterial. The important point is that Richard leaves dignified grime, a servile mentality and a lack of ambition behind to explore the capital’s possibilities for self-advancement. Deep down, he wants to be a writer. But that goal seems to be ungraspable and the suggestion is that it might remain so, despite talent.

And, in most areas, Richard achieves his goals, though by its very nature the writing remains elusive. Perhaps all too easily in the end he finds a wife, a responsible position, increased remuneration and looks all set to enter the middle classes, whose judgemental ranks he will no doubt populate with increasing girth and whose myopia developing with age will generate its characteristic level of prejudice by middle-age. Thankfully, we leave Richard still young.

Various aspects of A Man From The North contrast markedly with what we would expect to find in English society just 50 years later. Richard is quite good with numbers, so the life of a tally clerk beckons. He in fact becomes a clerk in a legal practice without ever appearing to develop aspirations above his assumed rank. Not for this age, however, the mechanical or indeed the electronic calculator. Here armies of men add and check, add and check, spend the daily grind calculatedly ascending and descending the columns of a ledger. While the meek might inherit the earth, the accurate will be promoted. And Richard proves accurate.

He regularly takes lunch at a restaurant, called Crabtree, a cheap restaurant in the West End of London - now there’s a museum piece. It’s even vegetarian! There he meets and fantasises about a young lady, Laura Roberts, who works there. Reports are occasionally that she might have dubious morals. The opprobrium…

Richard’s colleague, Mr. Aked, ails with an illness and when Richard visits, he meets his niece, Adeline. She provokes in Richard a kind of mental activity that is similar to his fantasies about Laura, but perhaps more lustful, though always expressed via a courteous detachment. Eventually, Adeline interprets this detachment as indifference, perhaps., which just goes to show that if we don’t show it, we will be mis-understood.

But while he might admit that he hopes to meet a woman who might prove to be a sleeping volcano, most of Richard’s fantasies involve marriage, respectability, children, and the like. He seems to revel in the conformity of his age, never questioning it and apparently never wanting to question it. He knows that patience will be rewarded.

Another colleague, Jenkins, it’s just a little too reckless to be deserving. He’s nice enough and is probably harmless, but he likes a drink and the occasional flutter and occasionally challenges Richards respectability. And he speaks with a Cockney accent, so he can’t be up to much.

But in its own time, A Man From The North was probably just a little revolutionary. In this modern age it was possible for an unsophisticated lad from a working-class grimy town to travel to London and succeed in joining the ranks of the respectable middle classes. One wonders if this still happens.

[Claudia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is Bennett's earliest novel and part-based on his biography. However, it is certainly amateur and the protagonist's failure to write might have echoed Bennett's first attempt. The main character is very frustrating. He comes from a provincial background to London where he constantly idealizes women and his future until the final page where he concludes to 'live in the now'. Not impressed by Bennett this time, much preferred Old Wives Tale.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young man from the north comes to London to start a new life. That means finding a woman to love making a career a writer. I need not have been told that it is to a large extent autobiographical. We are at the end of the nineteenth century. It is a very simple plot, next to non-existing. Our young man, Richard Lark, works as a clerk and gets to know the niece of a kind of mentor. A man encouraging him to write.
And here it is where the novel is truly original. Because getting to know does not mean falling in love. In fact, both are trying but not succeeding. In his case, he cannot get used to her being a little bit ignorant. She likes singing songs. But no, to his annoyance, Schubert. She is not reading "good" novels she is not able to appreciate the good plays. Uncle dies, she comes to some money they date for quite some time but in the end, she goes to America. This is beautifully handled. She does not want to go, he does not want her to go. But neither can he convince himself that he will be able to love her. And love, it goes without saying, is absolutely necessary for asking the question. Is it?
She leaves, writing a letter but still it does not have ignition power.
So he just continues his life. Knowing that there must be thousands of women in London who would want him. But there is no way to meet them. No online dating. But that, of course, is not the real problem. Finally, he resolves to date the only woman he knows, a cashier of a vegetarian restaurant.
He meets her sister who is on the verge of becoming a matron. And he knows that the girl will be the same soon. He does not love her and she is even less an intellectual companion for him than the first girl. So, what will he do?
In the meantime, he has been writing his novel but without success. What will he do with his life?

The novel has some weaknesses. But the last couple of pages make up for some slow passages and the fifth star is earned by the very last sentence of the novel.
Interesting that this novel was published nearly at the same time as Liza of Lambeth the other debut novel by one of my favourite writers, Somerset Maugham. And how different the writing styles. We have some grim realism in both but the way it is handled is entirely different. And I think that now, I prefer Bennett’s way.

[María Eugenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leído porque era el primer libro de los Five Towns de Arnold Bennett y sabía que me iba a leer el segundo así que... eso, que una es un poco completista*. 😅
Había leído alguna crítica por encima en la que no dejaban muy bien el libro, pero como era cortito seguí adelante. El caso es que la historia es un poco meh... pero el libro me gustó. Y tiene mérito porque el protagonista es una de las cosas que más nerviosita me ponen... un incel. Pero un incel del 1900 y eso me hizo mucha gracia. No es incel del todo porque no es violento ni nada, pero tiene todos esos razonamiento de "¿por qué no tendré yo derecho a una señora como ese señor de la mesa de al lado o como ese otro?" mientras se acerca a hablar a cero señoras.
Tiene más partes que me hicieron gracia, como cuando describe el tipo de gente obsesionada con salir del pueblo para ir a la capital o las aspiraciones literarias del protagonista. La historia en sí no tiene mucha chicha y es más bien deprimente, pero las descripciones de la vida de la época me gustaron.


*Por si alguien se queda con la duda, no hace falta leer este antes, está ambientado en Londres lo único que lo hace parte de este "universo" es que el protagonista viene de una de la cinco villas y sale una señora del pueblo que aparece nombrada de pasada en el segundo libro.

[Amy Rhoda Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though this book was published in 1898, it's painfully relatable and makes me wonder if all those self-help books are doing us a blind bit of good as a society, or if we're just all doomed to make the same mistakes, generation after generation.

Richard Larch is new to London and he loves life in the city. He feels that his destiny is to make a name for himself as an author, although he's working as a clerk in a law office (for now).

But he's distracted by life in the city, and his desire for feminine company -- any feminine company. He's fairly sure that he's cleverer and more special than most people, but he can't seem to focus on writing for long enough to produce anything of merit. (Even without the Internet!) He tries setting himself a daily word target, rearranging the furniture, buying all new furniture, waiting for the New Year. All with limited success.

Latch waffles between committing himself to the life of a writer or surrendering to domestic life with a wife in a suburban house, alternately convincing himself that one or the other is his proper destiny. At the end of the book we leave him at one extreme of the pendulum swing, but unconvinced that he will remain there.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this youth novel: it's a bridge between a dying aesthetics and the birth of a new one, and also between a dying world and a new one about to emerge.
This makes it sound like what it isn't, though; it reads really well, the main character (Bennett?) is likeable, the wooing is that bridge, the world of work, the world of a rising class...
Really enjoyable.

[Vera Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to start with number one, in The Five Towns series, on audio. YouTube had the first few chapters and it was AI narration, surprisingly listenable. Then we have the option to go to Google Play for the rest of it. So I purchased it for .19 pence!!
Quite short, and not quite up to the enjoyment, that I remember from his other novels. But I'm glad I listened to it.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chosen only as a reading challenge option. I found the book difficult to get through and boring. There wasn’t much of a story at all and the ending felt very rushed and premature. Can’t say I will be reading any of the following books! Not for me.

[Davidlodge82 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novela de iniciación donde un joven se muda a Londres y donde se vislumbra los primeros pasos del escritor en ese mundo. Esta bien escrito para ser su primer libro pero nada más.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful sense of place, and gives you such a feel for the time and place, but a very uneven plot and it's obviously an early work.

[Ant Koplowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early Bennett which is of its time.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This early work (1898) from Arnold Bennett already shows many of the author's signature strengths. The story concerns Richard Larch, a young man with talent and ambition, who comes to London to make his way in life. He takes a clerk's position in a law office and in his spare time makes half-hearted attempts at writing and falling in love. As in his later works, Bennett makes wonderful (and honest) observations about his characters' feelings, social interactions, mileu, and shortcomings. The budding romance between the hero and Adeline, the niece of his friend, is beautifully drawn. Unfortunately, Larch remains both too selfish and too romantic to fall truly in love with an actual person; he is too caught up with the "idea" of falling in love with the "ideal" woman. There was also a surprisingly frank scene (though by no means graphic) where a character consorts with a prostitute in order to assuage a broken heart.

But there are weaknesses, too. The story tends to meander, and the hero is a rather selfish simp. Finally the "Tolstoyan" message ending (that one should give up one's dreams and settle for a mundane, ordinary, rather tedious life ) may be a valid point of view, but it is not a very attractive one.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book as usual from the master.

[Dianne Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Bennett is a realist, and honest in his character's motives and desires. In this case it makes for a look into a what is all too often the tragic reality of a mediocre life.