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Complete Works of Arnold Bennett
The prolific novelist Arnold Bennett created a succession of stories that detailed life in the Staffordshire Potteries, which were to immortalise his beloved “Five Towns” and establish his name as one of the leading realist authors of Edwardian fiction. Now for the first time in publishing history, Delphi Classics is proud to present Bennett’s complete fictional works. This comprehensive eBook is complemented with numerous illustrations, many rare novels, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 2)* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Bennett’s life and works* Concise introductions to the novels and other texts* ALL 36 novels, with individual contents tables* Many rare novels appearing for the first time in digital publishing* Includes the extremely rare novelisation of Bennett’s screenplay of the film PICCADILLY, available nowhere else* Even includes the author’s unfinished novel DREAM OF DESTINY, appearing here for the first time* Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts* Excellent formatting of the texts* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories* Easily locate the short stories you want to read* Special criticism section* UPDATED with a rare play and four more non fiction worksThe NovelsA Man from the North (1898)The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902)Anna of the Five Towns (1902)The Gates of Wrath (1903)Leonora (1903)A Great Man (1904)Teresa of Watling Street (1904)Sacred and Profane Love (1905)Hugo (1906)Whom God Hath Joined (1906)The Sinews of War (1906)The Ghost (1907)The City of Pleasure (1907)The Statue (1908)Buried Alive (1908)The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)The Glimpse (1909)Helen with the High Hand (1910)Clayhanger (1910)The Card (1911)Hilda Lessways (1911)The Regent (1913)The Price of Love (1914)These Twain (1916)The Lion’s Share (1916)The Pretty Lady (1918)The Roll-Call (1918)Mr Prohack (1922)Lilian (1922)Riceyman Steps (1923)Lord Raingo (1926)The Vanguard (1928)Accident (1928) Story of the Film (1929)Imperial Palace (1930)Dream of Destiny (1932)The Short Story CollectionsTales of the Five Towns (1905)The Loot of Cities and Other Stories (1905)The Grim Smile of the Five Towns (1907)The Matador of the Five Towns, and Other Stories (1912)Elsie and the Child, and Other Stories (1924)The Woman Who Stole Everything, and Other Stories (1927)The Night Visitor and Other Stories (1931)Venus Rising from the Sea (1932)The Short StoriesList of Short Stories in Chronological OrderList of Short Stories in Alphabetical OrderThe PlaysPolite Farces for the Drawing-Room (1899)The Honeymoon (1911)The Great Adventure (1913)The Title (1918)Judith (1922)The Non FictionJournalism for A Practical Guide (1898)How to Become an A Practical Guide (1903)The Human Machine (1909)Literary How to Form It (1909)How to Live on 24 Hours a Day (1910)The Feast of St. Friend (1911)Those United States (1912)The Arnold Bennett Calendar (1912)The Plain Man and His Wife (1913)From the Log of the Velsa (1914)Paris Nights, and Ot
15964 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1931
About the author
Arnold Bennett
1,100 books322 followersEnoch Arnold Bennett was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboration with other writers), and a daily journal totalling more than a million words. He wrote articles and stories for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran the Ministry of Information during the First World War, and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. Sales of his books were substantial, and he was the most financially successful British author of his day.
Born into a modest but upwardly mobile family in Hanley, in the Staffordshire Potteries, Bennett was intended by his father, a solicitor, to follow him into the legal profession. Bennett worked for his father before moving to another law firm in London as a clerk at the age of 21. He became assistant editor and then editor of a women's magazine before becoming a full-time author in 1900. Always a devotee of French culture in general and French literature in particular, he moved to Paris in 1903; there the relaxed milieu helped him overcome his intense shyness, particularly with women. He spent ten years in France, marrying a Frenchwoman in 1907. In 1912 he moved back to England. He and his wife separated in 1921, and he spent the last years of his life with a new partner, an English actress. He died in 1931 of typhoid fever, having unwisely drunk tap-water in France.
Many of Bennett's novels and short stories are set in a fictionalised version of the Staffordshire Potteries, which he called The Five Towns. He strongly believed that literature should be accessible to ordinary people and he deplored literary cliques and élites. His books appealed to a wide public and sold in large numbers. For this reason, and for his adherence to realism, writers and supporters of the modernist school, notably Virginia Woolf, belittled him, and his fiction became neglected after his death. During his lifetime his journalistic "self-help" books sold in substantial numbers, and he was also a playwright; he did less well in the theatre than with novels but achieved two considerable successes with Milestones (1912) and The Great Adventure (1913).
Studies by Margaret Drabble (1974), John Carey (1992), and others have led to a re-evaluation of Bennett's work. The finest of his novels, including Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910) and Riceyman Steps (1923), are now widely recognised as major works.
Born into a modest but upwardly mobile family in Hanley, in the Staffordshire Potteries, Bennett was intended by his father, a solicitor, to follow him into the legal profession. Bennett worked for his father before moving to another law firm in London as a clerk at the age of 21. He became assistant editor and then editor of a women's magazine before becoming a full-time author in 1900. Always a devotee of French culture in general and French literature in particular, he moved to Paris in 1903; there the relaxed milieu helped him overcome his intense shyness, particularly with women. He spent ten years in France, marrying a Frenchwoman in 1907. In 1912 he moved back to England. He and his wife separated in 1921, and he spent the last years of his life with a new partner, an English actress. He died in 1931 of typhoid fever, having unwisely drunk tap-water in France.
Many of Bennett's novels and short stories are set in a fictionalised version of the Staffordshire Potteries, which he called The Five Towns. He strongly believed that literature should be accessible to ordinary people and he deplored literary cliques and élites. His books appealed to a wide public and sold in large numbers. For this reason, and for his adherence to realism, writers and supporters of the modernist school, notably Virginia Woolf, belittled him, and his fiction became neglected after his death. During his lifetime his journalistic "self-help" books sold in substantial numbers, and he was also a playwright; he did less well in the theatre than with novels but achieved two considerable successes with Milestones (1912) and The Great Adventure (1913).
Studies by Margaret Drabble (1974), John Carey (1992), and others have led to a re-evaluation of Bennett's work. The finest of his novels, including Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910) and Riceyman Steps (1923), are now widely recognised as major works.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 30, 2017
I've always like Arnold Bennett - Anna of the Five Towns being perhaps his most familiar work to me as I was reading the classics. This complete works seemed too large for my Kindle ... kept getting lost.
The formatting on the Kindle makes this massive tome is very difficult to follow. There are so many complete books in this compilation which makes it very easy to lose you way. There are so many chapter ones, twos etc, and the title pages and chapter headings are not at all clear so I kept losing my place and finding that I had missed out an entire section. However, having said that, I love Arnold Bennett's writing, but in future will get his works as individual books which will be much easier.His complete works include lots of essays that I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did, but also some really great stories. He really was a master story teller and creator of fantastic and believable characters. Very much of his time, the language is not easy - but once you get used to the slightly old fashioned tone of his writing they are really great stories and well worth the effort.
The formatting on the Kindle makes this massive tome is very difficult to follow. There are so many complete books in this compilation which makes it very easy to lose you way. There are so many chapter ones, twos etc, and the title pages and chapter headings are not at all clear so I kept losing my place and finding that I had missed out an entire section. However, having said that, I love Arnold Bennett's writing, but in future will get his works as individual books which will be much easier.His complete works include lots of essays that I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did, but also some really great stories. He really was a master story teller and creator of fantastic and believable characters. Very much of his time, the language is not easy - but once you get used to the slightly old fashioned tone of his writing they are really great stories and well worth the effort.
Displaying 1 of 1 review