This monograph is focused on the fictional works of Arnold Bennett whose literary role was very important in the history of the late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury novel in light of the debate between modernism and the traditional approach to the craft of fiction. After a long period of critical silence, this book reaffirms Bennett’s centrality through a sociohistorical and semiotic analysis of his most famous novels and short stories. In this sense, it offers a new reading of Bennett which may be a groundbreaking contribution to the discussion of the function of British fiction in the context of a multifaceted epistemic change.
By the time of his death in 1931, Arnold Bennett was a renowned and highly respected author with a prodigious literary output. The variety of subject matter covered by him was immense. He wrote novels, short stories, stage-plays, literary reviews, self-improvement manuals, film scripts, forewords to other authors' books, newspaper columns, his own daily journal, letters to all and sundry, and finally, poetry.Although Bennett produced some of the finest pieces of written English prose of the last 150 years, with such majestic works as Clayhanger and The Old Wives' Tale, his poetic abilities did not receive critical acclaim. Despite requests from Bennett to publishers no collection of his poetry has ever been published, this collection draws on the work of Paul Plant in his dissertation 'A Poetry of the Ordinary' and includes all the poems that can be located together with examples of Bennett's original hand written drafts.
The Wisdom of William H. Danforth, James Allen & Arnold Bennett: Including: I Dare You , As a Man Thinketh & How to Live on 24 Hours a Day I Dare You by William H. Danforth I agree that a businessman should stick to business. But a proven four-fold program, plus a love for Youth, plus an inner urge-all dare me to write this book. "I Dare You" is for the daring few who are headed somewhere. Those afraid to Dare might as well pass it up. It will weary the lazy because it calls for immediate action. It will bore the sophisticated, and amuse the skeptics. It will antagonize others. Some will not even know what it is all about. It will not be over-popular because it calls for courage, swift and daring. But in the eyes of you, one of the priceless few, I trust will come a renewal of purpose as you read on. You can be a bigger person than you are and I am going to prove it to you. I am indebted beyond measure to Gordon M. Philpott, who has been of inestimable help in the writing and editing of "I Dare You." His keen insight, his rare judgment and his frank criticisms have helped make this book a labor of love instead of a drab task. I honor him as a close associate in business, but most of all I cherish him as an understanding friend. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen This book (the result of meditation and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much written upon subject of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that - "They themselves are makers of themselves" - by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage. That mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain, they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness. & How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett This amazing book talks about some of the most important aspects of a full existence: the awareness of the passing of time and methods of utilizing it to one's unique advantage. It lays out a structure to a possible way of filling one's time, and points to the obstacles and dangers lying in this execution.
‘There are few more moving accounts of the effects of time, the passage of history and the slow encroachment of age than this remarkable, epic novel’ Guardian Discover this powerful novel about the ordinary lives of the Baines sisters. The perfect next step for fans of Little Women. In The Old Wives' Tale, Arnold Bennett tells the story of two such old wives, sisters Constance and Sophia, from youth, through marriage, heartbreak, triumphs and disasters, to old age. In doing so, he reveals with careful compassion the intense inner lives that throb beneath every seemingly insignificant exterior. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SATHNAM SANGHERA
First published in 1908, The Old Wives' Tale affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters--shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia--over the course of nearly half a century. Bennett traces the sisters' lives from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women. The setting moves from the Five Towns of Staffordshire to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris, while the action moves from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
One of fiction's greatest chancers - the story of Denry Machin and his unceasing, ingenious efforts to become a great manSet in the raw, Victorian world of the 'Five Towns', The Card tells the extremely funny and tangled story of Denry Machin's rise from mediocrity to fame through a series of ludicrous and yet perversely successful schemes. He dances, pleads, cheats and inspires his way through life in a series of set-pieces which wonderfully evoke a now long-gone world of civic balls, seaside excursions, newspaper boys and patent chocolate remedies. As everybody said after one of his most stylish coups, Denry 'was not simply a card; he was the card.'
