Arnold Bennett

Set against the backdrop of World War I, this play is a rollicking send-up of Britain's class system and its growing absurdity in the heady period of democratization that began to transpire in the early twentieth century. When mild-mannered protagonist Culver finds out that he is entitled to a formal honor (i.e., a title), he begins to reconsider the age-old hierarchy and all that it entails.

Part of his multi-generational epic, the Clayhanger Family series, Arnold Bennett's novel The Roll-Call focuses on one of the youngest members of the family, George Cannon. Despite his forebears' hard work, George is spoiled and entitled, and his increasingly demanding manner puts a strain on the family as it struggles to make it through the war.

Settle in for a deliciously transporting read. Arnold Bennett's The Price of Love follows the ups and downs of one Rachel Louisa Fleckring, whose disastrous foray into married life leaves her damaged and distrustful. What's more, a large sum of money that has been entrusted to Rachel winds up missing along the way. How can she put the pieces of her once-promising life back together?

A sequel of sorts to Bennett's short comic novel The Card, The Old Adam reprises the beloved character Denry the Audacious. In this volume, Denry's audaciousness has been tempered somewhat by middle age. In his current incarnation as "Edward Henry," he's having a hard time reconciling himself to the peaceful lull of domesticity, so he plans a caper with some of his old pals, hoping to revive the spark of his youth. Will he be able to pull off this bold scheme? Read The Old Adam to find out.

Author Arnold Bennett spent his early life in the Potteries district of England, an area known for its cluster of ceramics manufacturing facilities. In this charming volume of short stories, Bennett offers readers a glimpse into the lives, loves, and misadventures of the residents of the fictionalized version of the region that he christened the "Five Towns."

Audrey's youth has been a privileged one, but the thing she wants more than anything else-freedom-has remained out of her reach. When her father succumbs to an accident, she decides to seize the day and make the most of her sudden shift in circumstances. But will her wonderment with the wider world cloud her judgment?

British author Arnold Bennett's most acclaimed and enduring works are a series of novels set around the Potteries district of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, his native region. This volume of short stories delves further into the lives of the residents of the fictional "Five Towns" that Bennett explores in novels like Anna of the Five Towns and Clayhanger.

Arnold Bennett gives us an unfogettable portrait of a miser and his wife. Henry Earlforward is a second-hand bookseller with a passion for money. He marries Violet Arb, a widow with a fortune of her own, yet he is eaten up by fear and greed. Set against the dark forces of avarice is the Earlford's maid, Elsie, whose love of life, generosity of spirit and warm humanity give Riceyman Steps a fine balance between hopelessness and optimism.

Arthur Prohack is a bureaucrat who relishes carrying out his duties with precision and accuracy. His exceedingly high expectations have earned him grudging respect-and a measure of fear-from his colleagues and underlings. When Prohack unexpectedly receives a windfall, his comfortable middle-class existence is turned upside down. Will he be able to adjust to his new status?

The mind can only be conquered by regular meditation, by deciding beforehand what direction its activity ought to take, and insisting that its activity takes that direction; also by never leaving it idle, undirected, masterless, to play at random like a child in the streets after dark. This is extremely difficult, but it can be done, and it is marvellously well worth doing. The fault of the epoch is the absence of meditativeness. A sagacious man will strive to correct in himself the faults of his epoch. In some deep ways the twelfth century had advantages over the twentieth. It practised meditation. The twentieth does Sandow exercises. Meditation (I speak only for myself) is the least dispensable of the day's doings. What do I force my mind to meditate upon? Upon various things, but chiefly upon one.

A hopelessly mismatched niece and uncle find themselves thrown together by circumstance. But underneath their constant bickering and nitpicking, the pair truly cares about each other. Will this hilariously dysfunctional duo find a way to make their nontraditional household work?

What would you do if your money-grubbing father decided to marry you off to someone you loathed, against your express wishes? That's precisely the dilemma facing virtuous Anna Tellwright in Arnold Bennett's juicy potboiler Anna of the Five Towns. Will Anna muster up the courage to defy her father's wishes and make her own way in the world?

The first novel of a family saga, Clayhanger (1910) is a coming-of-age story set in the Midlands of Victorian England. It follows Edwin Clayhanger as he leaves school, takes over the family business and falls in love. The triumph of the book is the minute detailing of the effect of bourgeois respectability on Edwin's life and finally his submission to it.

Books and Persons was previously published as articles under Bennett's pseudonym, Jacob Tonson in the magazine The New Age. He wrote these essays in Paris, London, Switzerland and the Forest of Fontainebleau, covering such topics as "Ugliness in Fiction," "The Novel of the Season," "German Expansion," and "Joseph Conrad."

In this delightful volume of insightful and good-humored advice, motivational writer Arnold Bennett points out that for all of the time we humans dedicate to learning, very little of that time is spent endeavoring to elucidate helpful points for living life well, and to the fullest. It's a sad state of affairs that Bennett sets out to remedy in The Human Machine.

In this engaging volume of essays written in a style that evokes the classic parable, Arnold Bennett brings to bear the folksy voice he developed in his popular Five Towns series in discussions of practical matters such as budgeting, business dealings, and choosing one's profession.

Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other fields such as the theatre, journalism, propaganda and films.

The story takes place in 1919-1920 and deals with the final year in the life of its main character, Henry Earlforward, a miser, who keeps a second-hand bookshop in the Clerkenwell area of London. Henry marries Violet Arb, a widow who keeps a neighbouring shop, and who sees in Henry a financially secure future. Henry's parsimony drives them into an increasingly wretched existence. Their lives are contrasted to that of their maid servant Elsie Sprickett and it is she, despite her extreme poverty, who brings life and a future to the bittersweet tale.