ARNOLD BENNETT THE COMPLETE WORKS Vol. I (Special NOOK Edition) WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER The Complete Works Collection Vol I of Arnold Bennett, Including THE OLD WIVES' TALE, THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL, CLAYHANGER, TALES OF THE FIVE TOWNS and More! [NOOKBook]

by ARNOLD BENNETT, The Complete Works Collection (Editor), The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett, Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett

Overview

ARNOLD BENNETT | THE COMPLETE WORKS Vol. I
(Special NOOK Edition)
WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER

The Complete Works Collection Vol I of Arnold Bennett

Including THE OLD WIVES' TALE, THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL, CLAYHANGER, TALES OF THE FIVE TOWNS and More!

[NOOKBook]


EXCERPT

"Sophia fled along the passage leading to the shop and took refuge in the cutting-out room, a room which the astonishing architect had devised upon what must have been a backyard of one of the three constituent houses. It was lighted from its roof, and only a wooden partition, eight feet high, separated it from the passage. Here Sophia gave rein to her feelings; she laughed and cried together, weeping generously into her handkerchief and wildly giggling, in a hysteria which she could not control. The spectacle of Mr. Povey mourning for a tooth which he thought he had swallowed, but which in fact lay all the time in her pocket, seemed to her to be by far the most ridiculous, side-splitting thing that had ever happened or could happen on earth. It utterly overcame her. And when she fancied that she had exhausted and conquered its surpassing ridiculousness, this ridiculousness seized her again and rolled her anew in depths of mad, trembling laughter.

Gradually she grew calmer. She heard the parlour door open, and Constance descend the kitchen steps with a rattling tray of tea-things. Tea, then, was finished, without her! Constance did not remain in the kitchen, because the cups and saucers were left for Maggie to wash up as a fitting coda to Maggie’s monthly holiday. The parlour door closed. And the vision of Mr. Povey in his antimacassar swept Sophia off into another convulsion of laughter and tears. Upon this the parlour door opened again, and Sophia choked herself into silence while Constance hastened along the passage. In a minute Constance returned with her woolwork, which she had got from the showroom, and the parlour received her. Not the least curiosity on the part of Constance as to what had become of Sophia!"


TABLE OF CONTENTS


THE GRAND BABYLON HÔTEL
LEONORA
A GREAT MAN: A FROLIC
SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE
HUGO: A FANTASIA ON MODERN THEMES
THE GHOST: A MODERN FANTASY
BURIED ALIVE: A TALE OF THESE DAYS
THE OLD WIVES' TALE
THE CARD
HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND
CLAYHANGER
HILDA LESSWAYS
THE REGENT
THE PRICE OF LOVE
THE LION’S SHARE
THE PRETTY LADY
THE ROLL-CALL
MR. PROHACK
TALES OF THE FIVE TOWNS
THE GRIM SMILE OF THE FIVE TOWNS
THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS AND OTHER STORIES
THE TITLE: A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS
THE GREAT ADVENTURE
JUDITH
JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN
LITERARY TASTE: HOW TO FORM IT
HOW TO LIVE ON TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY
THE FEAST OF ST. FRIEND
YOUR UNITED STATES
THE PLAIN MAN AND HIS WIFE
THE AUTHOR'S CRAFT
THE HUMAN MACHINE
BOOKS AND PERSONS COMMENTS ON A PAST EPOCH
OVER THERE

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014637572
Publisher:	The Complete Works Collection
Publication date:	06/25/2012
Series:	The Complete Works Collection
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Arnold Bennett was a novelist, playwright, essayist, critic and journalist. Born in Hanley, Staffordshire, the eldest child of a pawnbroker who had bettered himself and become a solicitor. The family moved house several times and lived in Burslem and Middleport. As a result, Arnold went to several schools including the Middle School, Newcastle-under-Lyme. His father wanted him to follow his example and qualify as a solicitor but Arnold failed a crucial university entrance examination. He therefore became a solicitor's clerk, at first in his father's office and, from 1889, in London.

Arnold Bennett had shown early promise as a writer and had won a writing competition in a local newspaper as a boy. In London he began to see his writing published in popular magazines and he joined the staff of Woman magazine in 1893, later becoming its editor. His first novel to be published, A man from the north, appeared in 1898 and its success allowed him to give up other work to concentrate on writing. He lived in Bedfordshire and for eight years, from 1903, in Paris. He married Marguerite Soulié, a French actress, in 1907 and they were to stay together for fourteen years before separating. He never returned to live in Staffordshire, even though he continued to draw inspiration from the area in his work. He died on 27 March 1931 from typhoid shortly after a visit to France. Following his cremation, his ashes were buried in the cemetery at Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.

A prolific, yet uneven, author, the reputation of Arnold Bennett rests on his thirty novels, and especially those set in the Staffordshire scenery of his childhood, the Potteries. He learned his craft by studying French novels that included intense description and he successfully applied this style in bringing to life the ordinary working lives of many of his characters. His best work can be found in the novels Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910) and Riceyman Steps (1923), all except the last being set in the Potteries. In his earlier career, Arnold Bennett was also a respected playwright, his interest in the theatre following on from his work as a critic. His most successful play was Milestones, written with Edward Knoblock.

(From Literary Heritage)