The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett

[Tracy]

4.5 stars
Two sisters, with very different personalities: Constance, the steadfast one, and Sophia, the smart, but willful one. Their lives diverge after the death of their father, and converge again when they are in their 50s.

Constance stays home, marries her father's shopkeeper, and raises an ungrateful son. Sophia runs away with a cloth salesman, thwarting his intentions by forcing him to marry her. He abandons her in Paris not long after, with next to nothing but her smarts. Both sisters have troubles and triumphs, and their reunion is a very happy occurrence for both of them.

I very much enjoyed this book- it could easily have been written by Hardy- not only the topics, but the writing style. The writing flowed nicely, and it didn't feel like a 600 page novel written in the early 1900s by a man. Bennett must have been a bit of a feminist, because he gave those sisters some backbone. I would recommend this not-well-enough-known classic to fans of Hardy, Dickens, Woolf, Wharton and Rebecca West.

[Kristel]

Read 2011, A story of two sisters aptly titled Old Wives' Tale because it tells the ordinary progression of time till we die of these two English women. The author wrote in the fashion of Balzac. Arnold Bennett captured the life of a women well. The book also reflects a time when transportation and commerce is changing. This 600 plus page book reads fast because it is enjoyable.

[Amanda]

I also really enjoyed this one : I gave it 4 stars. I remained engaged the whole time with how Constance's and Sophie's lives both unfold, and there is this really lovely tightrope balance of the beauty of life vs. the melancholy of life that is achieved perfectly here.

[Rosemary]

The story of two sisters, the daughters of a draper in one of Bennett's "five towns", born in about 1850. Constance is happy to remain in the Staffordshire town but Sophia has other ideas and ambitions. We follow Constance first, up to about her late 50s, and then have Sophia's story from the time she left home.

So obviously this is a novel of two parts, brought together at the beginning and end, and strangely I preferred Constance's part, although Sophia's is more eventful. I particularly appreciated the fact that this book is all about the often despised small-business-owning middle class. Reading most novels set in the 19th and early 20th century, you'd think there was nothing between the professional/gentleman and the servant/labouring class, except for a few farmers.

[Pamela]

Masterful character study of two sisters, Constance and Sophia, living in the Midlands town of Bursley in the late 19th and early 20th century. Constance is quiet and dignified, obedient to her mother’s wishes and content to marry the assistant in her father’s drapery business. Sophia is headstrong and determined, and elopes with a smooth talking salesman who later abandons her in Paris.

Bennett is a skilful writer who really pulls the reader in to the lives of these two women and their small social circles. The style is realistic and reminiscent of 19th century greats such as Balzac with the settings in Bursley and Paris being meticulously described. The narrator comments wryly on the characters’ thoughts and motivations, yet everything we are told aligns perfectly with everything we are shown, so that the narrative and characters are totally consistent and convincing.

I would have given this 5* if the third section (Sophia in Paris) hadn’t dragged a wee bit in places, but that is really the only criticism I have of what was a really compelling story.