Arnold Bennett

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Arnold Bennett

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Arnold Bennett (Enoch Arnold Bennett), 1867-1931, English novelist and dramatist. One of the great 20th-century English novelists, Bennett is famous for his realistic novels about the "Five Towns," an imaginary manufacturing district in northern England. Bennett's early career included editing the fashionable magazine Woman and writing literary reviews and articles. About 1900 he began to devote himself industriously to his own work, producing a series of excellent regional novels. Influenced by the naturalism of Zola, he depicted in great detail the grim, sometimes sordid, lives of shopkeepers and potters. His attitude toward his characters was one of affectionate sympathy, and he always managed to make their mundane lives interesting. Bennett's best work is contained in his novels of the "Five Towns," which include Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), the trilogy Clayhanger (1910), Hilda Lessways (1911), and These Twain (1916). Bennett also achieved considerable success as a playwright, most notably with Milestones (1912), written with Edward Knoblock, and The Great Adventure (1913).

Bibliography: See his journal (3 vol., 1932-33); biography by M. Drabble (1974).

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Bennett, Arnold

A Dictionary of British History | 2004 | | © A Dictionary of British History 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Bennett, Arnold (1867–1931). Like George Eliot, Bennett was a fine novelist of provincial middle‐class society—in his case that of the Potteries, a landscape of canals and kilns and trams and chimneys and dust. The Old Wives' Tale (1908) tells of two sisters, daughters of a draper in Bursley (Burslem). Clayhanger (1910) recalls the introduction of steam‐printing into the Potteries. Bennett, born in Hanley, was a solicitor but went to London in 1888 where he made a living editing and writing short stories.

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JOHN CANNON. "Bennett, Arnold." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 13 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN CANNON. "Bennett, Arnold." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (November 13, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-BennettArnold.html

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Bennett, Arnold

The Oxford Companion to British History | 2002 | | © The Oxford Companion to British History 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Bennett, Arnold (1867–1931). Like George Eliot, Bennett was a fine novelist of provincial middle-class society—in his case that of the Potteries, a landscape of canals and kilns and trams and chimneys and dust. The Old Wives' Tale (1908) tells the story of two sisters, daughters of a draper in Bursley (Burslem). Clayhanger (1910) recalls the introduction of steam-printing into the Potteries and begins with two lads watching a horse-drawn canal barge bringing china clay up from Cornwall. Riceyman Steps (1923) moves the scene to Clerkenwell and the date to the 1920s, but stays with the same kind of people running a second-hand bookshop and a grocer's with pretensions to be a confectionery. Bennett, born in Hanley, started by following his father's career as a solicitor but went to London in 1888 where he made a living editing and writing reviews and short stories. From 1902 until 1912 he lived in Paris. Bennett's shabby, hard-working characters have something in common with those of Gissing, whom he tried to help, and with those of H. G. Wells, with whom he maintained a lengthy friendship and literary correspondence.

J. A. Cannon

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JOHN CANNON. "Bennett, Arnold." The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford University Press. 2002. Retrieved November 13, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-BennettArnold.html

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Magazine article from: Twentieth Century Literature; 3/22/2008; ; 700+ words ; [Arnold Bennett] said that nothing was so insular and...Dorothy Cheston Bennett (156) Arnold Bennett died on 27 March 1931 after contracting...world becomes increasingly polluted. Arnold Bennett's life--and death Although most...
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Newspaper article from: Sentinel, The (Stoke-on-Trent UK); 7/4/2009; 301 words ; ...Henry ("Denry") Machin from Arnold Bennett's short comedic novel The Card...situated, was often referred to in Bennett's novels, by the name St Luke's Square. The Arnold Bennett Society held its AGM at the restaurant...
The 'five' towns as seen by their most famous son ; Historian Mervyn Edwards looks at the Potteries through the eyes of famous local author Arnold Bennett.
Newspaper article from: Sentinel, The (Stoke-on-Trent UK); 3/23/2009; 617 words ; ...the Potteries through the eyes of famous local author Arnold Bennett. The pottery towns have attracted diverse comments...Orwell - but what did one of our own, Hanley-born Arnold Bennett, make of the scattered centres of Stoke-on-Trent...
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Newspaper article from: Sentinel, The (Stoke-on-Trent UK); 7/4/2009; 564 words ; ...namely the eminent novelist Enoch Arnold Bennett. Freddie had returned to his native...marking the 50th anniversary of Bennett's death. Granada Television...he might have been the ghost of Bennett revisiting 'Bursley', perhaps...
"The Only Really Objective Novel Ever Written"? Arnold Bennett's Riceyman Steps.(Critical Essay)
Magazine article from: Papers on Language & Literature; 3/22/2002; ; 700+ words ; The opening lines of Arnold Bennett's 1923 novel Riceyman Steps seem...claustrophobic positivism. Most critics of Bennett's works have been prepared to accept...411); and A.S. Wallace praised Bennett for "a confident selection of significant...
Your memories ; Historian Fred Hughes talks to the family of a man who proudly represented the town Arnold Bennett 'forgot'...
Newspaper article from: Sentinel, The (Stoke-on-Trent UK); 11/29/2008; 700+ words ; ...the family of a man who proudly represented the town Arnold Bennett 'forgot'... Dennis Shotton defended Fenton with...Church." His love of Fenton included criticism of Arnold Bennett for omitting Fenton from his Five Towns novels. I...
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Newspaper article from: Daily Post (Liverpool, England); 11/17/2007; 700+ words ; ...pushing the boat out, consider kedgeree or Omelette Arnold Bennett - there are not many better ways of eating smoked haddock...of salty butter. If you are up for making Omelette Bennett there are two versions I use: the really rich one using...
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Newspaper article from: Sentinel, The (Stoke-on-Trent UK); 12/5/2008; 259 words ; Spot On: Members of the Arnold Bennett Society got into the Christmas spirit last night with the help of some clog dancers. The society meets at the Leopard pub in Burslem...

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