Arnold Bennett
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.
Regarded as one of Arnold Bennett's finest works, The Old Wives' Tale was first published in 1908. It tells the story of sisters Constance and Sophia Baines, both very different from one another, and follows their lives from youth into old age. Bennett's inspiration was an encounter in a Parisian restaurant: "an old woman came into the restaurant to dine. She was fat, shapeless, ugly, and grotesque. She had a ridiculous voice, and ridiculous
...What happens when a man who has everything falls desperately in love with a lowly shopgirl? That's the conundrum at the center of Arnold Bennett's novel Hugo. The eponymous protagonist is a titan of industry who is used to living a life of luxury and getting everything he wants—until Camilla rebuffs his advances. Throw in some creepy elements of Gothic horror, and it's an all-around engaging read.
This stirring coming-of-age story recounts the childhood and youth of the eponymous protagonist, Hilda Lessways, who would eventually grow up to marry Edwin Clayhanger, the scion of a wealthy and powerful family in the Potteries district of the Midlands region in England. This is the second in a series of novels that depict the lives of the members of the Clayhanger family.
Arnold Bennett's The Grand Babylon Hotel, from 1902, tells the story of a German prince mysteriously disappearing. American millionaire Theodore Racksole and his daughter Nella stay at the exclusive Grand Babylon Hotel. When Nella is denied her dinner order of steak and Bass beer, Racksole's solution is to purchase the entire hotel for exactly four hundred thousand pounds and one guinea, the one guinea added after the former owner decides
...7) Lilian
11) These Twain
Like many of Arnold Bennett's works of fiction, the comic novel Denry the Audacious is set among the quaint village lanes of the Potteries District of Staffordshire. It is amidst this humble environment that the one-of-a-kind character Edward Henry Machin emerges from poverty and, largely through the force of his own indomitable will, achieves a measure of power and influence.
Need a good laugh? Immerse yourself in this delightfully dark tale from Arnold Bennett. Buried Alive recounts the trials and triumphs of one Priam Farll, a world-famous artist who is deeply uncomfortable with his own fame and whose crippling shyness makes it difficult to navigate. Fed up with his unsatisfying existence, Priam comes up with a highly unusual solution. Will he be able to pull off this far-fetched scheme?
What could you achieve in life if you were making use of your full mental and cognitive capabilities? In Mental Efficiency, renowned self-help author Arnold Bennett offers exercises and guidelines designed to help readers clear the mental cobwebs, jettison cognitive fuzziness and absentmindedness, and begin to realize their full intellectual potential.
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.
18) Leonora
Though originally published more than a century ago, Arnold Bennett's novel Leonora is brimming with nuanced insights about the true nature of marriage that still resonate today. The eponymous heroine is the wife of a prominent and wealthy manufacturing titan who enjoys the trappings of his success. But when a figure from his past reappears, Leonora begins to question everything she once believed to be true about her husband and their relationship.
...British author Arnold Bennett returns to his native stomping grounds—the Potteries district of England's West Midlands region—with this collection of insightful, darkly witty stories about the denizens of the fictionalized "Five Towns." From love gone wrong to mischief and misadventure, these sharply drawn tales run the gamut.
20) The Roll-Call
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.