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His Worship the Goosedriver
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About the author
Arnold Bennett
1,016 books316 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 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 2, 2022
As someone unfamiliar with realist literature, this did not provide any incentive for me to pick up another piece.
However - I do admit that Bennett’s humour throughout the story and the use of an omniscient narrator did make it a more bearable read. I also found that the metaphor between the geese and townspeople was an interesting theme. Through Bennetts use of humanistic characteristics when describing the geese it allowed to draw the reader out of an otherwise grounded in reality piece of literature. The quote, “each bent on self-aggrandisement and the satisfaction of desires” perfectly conveys the connection between the geese and the townspeople. This is because when we imagine geese, we rarely imagine them as self-aggrandising or possessing a strong desire to achieve their ‘dreams’. That is why when this quote is reinterpreted to instead be applicable towards the townspeople, the message becomes clearer. This message being that the townspeople coveted for social status.
Another quote I personally liked was, “feigning, as geese will, that it suited them so to submit, and that in reality they were still quite independent.” I chose to interpret this as Mr. Curtenty and his wife Clara’s relationship. The geese merely feigned that Mr Curtenty was in control and the ‘goosedriver’ when in reality they were capable of leading themselves. This applies to the way Clara views Curtenty as almost just a man of convenience due to his wealth and success so she continues to be led by him.
However - I do admit that Bennett’s humour throughout the story and the use of an omniscient narrator did make it a more bearable read. I also found that the metaphor between the geese and townspeople was an interesting theme. Through Bennetts use of humanistic characteristics when describing the geese it allowed to draw the reader out of an otherwise grounded in reality piece of literature. The quote, “each bent on self-aggrandisement and the satisfaction of desires” perfectly conveys the connection between the geese and the townspeople. This is because when we imagine geese, we rarely imagine them as self-aggrandising or possessing a strong desire to achieve their ‘dreams’. That is why when this quote is reinterpreted to instead be applicable towards the townspeople, the message becomes clearer. This message being that the townspeople coveted for social status.
Another quote I personally liked was, “feigning, as geese will, that it suited them so to submit, and that in reality they were still quite independent.” I chose to interpret this as Mr. Curtenty and his wife Clara’s relationship. The geese merely feigned that Mr Curtenty was in control and the ‘goosedriver’ when in reality they were capable of leading themselves. This applies to the way Clara views Curtenty as almost just a man of convenience due to his wealth and success so she continues to be led by him.
June 7, 2017
A realist text that deals with interesting themes - the shift from an agricultural based society to capitalism, the arbitrariness of life and inevitability of death, among others.
Read for my English 101 class as an example of a realist text.
Though you uncover interesting themes after close reading, overall a fairly boring text.
Read for my English 101 class as an example of a realist text.
Though you uncover interesting themes after close reading, overall a fairly boring text.
March 11, 2023
funny in places but intensely boring for the most part. i liked the very lady macbeth-esque clara though
March 27, 2023
enjoyed it more than i expected to. not five-star worthy, but definitely interesting with deep symbolism and a smattering of humour
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March 10, 2024i had to read this for uni (not my own enjoyment)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews