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Arnold Bennett: Lost Icon
, During his 1920s heyday, Arnold Bennett was one of Britain’s most celebrated writers. As the author of The Old Wives’ Tale and Clayhanger he was a household name, writing just as much for the common man as London’s literati. His face was plastered over theatre hoardings and the sides of West End omnibuses. His life represents the ultimate rags-to-riches story of a man who ‘banged on the door of Fortune like a weekly debt collector’ as one of his obituaries so vividly put it. Yet for all his success, few were aware how cursed Bennett felt by his life-long stutter and other debilitating character traits. In the years running up to his death in 1931, his affairs were close to collapse as he fought a losing battle on three with his estranged wife; with his disenchanted mistress; and from a literary perspective with Virginia Woolf. As the first full length biography of Bennett since 1974, the work draws on a wealth of unpublished diaries and letters to shed new light on a personality who can be considered a ‘Lost Icon’ of early Twentieth Century Britain. ,
- GenresBiography
224 pages, Hardcover
Published September 30, 2022
9 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Donovan
17 books21 followersPatrick Donovan is the author of the Demon Jack Urban Fantasy series and the upcoming Jonah Heywood Urban Fantasy Series. He currently lives in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina, where he divides his time between teaching, writing, and pretending to act like a responsible adult.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 11, 2023
Certain topics are built into any discussion of Arnold Bennett: his debt to the French realists, his feud with Virginia Woolf, and his enormous success. You suspect the latter explains his relatively poor standing amongst critics, then and now.
Donovan argues that The Old Wives’ Tale was his masterpiece, closely followed by the Clayhanger trilogy. I think there’s a case to be made for The Card and Anna of the Five Towns. (There were actually six towns but Bennett thought five sounded better.)
Sorely needed biography of the other famous bloke from Burslem* and highly readable.
(*The other is Lemmy.)
Donovan argues that The Old Wives’ Tale was his masterpiece, closely followed by the Clayhanger trilogy. I think there’s a case to be made for The Card and Anna of the Five Towns. (There were actually six towns but Bennett thought five sounded better.)
Sorely needed biography of the other famous bloke from Burslem* and highly readable.
(*The other is Lemmy.)
December 30, 2022
Patrick Donovan's approach to Arnold Bennett's voluminous legacy of literary work is to consider it 'in so far as it can be seen as autobiographical, ' a sensible decision given that Bennett wrote over 50 novels and much much more. The result is this highly enjoyable biography, the first of the neglected novelist since 1974. Whilst classics including The Old Wives' Tale, Clayhanger and Riceyman Steps are referenced, Bennett's eventful life takes precedence. Born in 1867 in Burslem, near Stoke-on-Trent, to a draper's daughter and a pawn broker‐turned-clerk-turned-solicitor, Bennett overcame a dreadful stammer and class prejudice to become one of the highest-earning novelists of his day. In the 1930s, he also became its most influential critic, able to 'make the fortune of a new book in a night'. His two principal relationships -- with French wife and poetry reciter Marguerite Soulier, and actress Dorothy Cheston -- were complex, though the latter resulted in the birth of his only daughter, whom he named Virginia. The choice of name is ironic, given his lengthy literary spat with Virginia Woolf, whose snobbish pronouncements effectively ruined his reputation posthumously. Donovan's portrait of Bennett is nuanced. His attitude to his (difficult) wife Marguerite, with whom he refused to have a child, could be imperious. There is also a densely-researched section on Bennett's role as a government propagandist in WW1 and his close friendship with Daily Express proprietor (and 'Evil genius') Lord Beaverbrook; though Bennett's later refusal of a knighthood reveals an ambiguous attitude towards power. Still, what comes over in his novels-- and much of his life -- is Bennett's empathy and humanity. On his death, even Virginia Woolf described him as 'a lovable genuine man'. If it weren't for the numerous typos throughout the volume I might have awarded 5 stars (spellings of Bennett's country house, for instance, flip between 'Comarques' and 'Comargues'). But this is an important volume and should help place this deserving novelist back in his rightful slot in the literary pantheon.
February 8, 2023
I am enjoying 'Lost Icon' - a biography of the Potteries author, Arnold Bennet. This is partly 'cos it is a 'good read' biog, but also because I'm from the Potteries, so it's good to be revisiting the area via Bennett's own history... as well as his novels (I have the 'Clayhanger Trilopgy' lined up, next). The biography is very readable, but detailed, and I'm enjoying it hugely - although I wish there was even more about the books and their reception. It's funny - but also a little sad - to realise what a multiply hampered figure Bennett was: height, accent, views on women... although I actually love the way he stormed around, often putting his wonderful working-class foot (manners, pomposity, occasional graspingness, etc) into things. I'm from the Potteries and wish I'd grown up reading Bennett in the 60-7os, but we didn't have many books in the house, while my dad banned me from joining the library... although I did, sneakily. Thank you Burslem Library! I'm about to start reading the Clayhanger trilogy.
May 1, 2024
In the first three decades of the 20th century, Stoke-born Arnold Bennett was one of Britain's most prolific, best-selling and most popular writers. He wrote novels, short stories, reviews, plays, "self-help" books and an immense amount of journalism. He was particularly famous for his novels set in the towns that make up the Potteries around Stoke-on-Trent, brilliant novels that explore the lives of people who worked in factories as well as those who owned and managed them. Yet since his death in 1931, his popularity has waned.
This new biography, which uses previously unavailable documents, looks at some of the reasons why his popularity has not been sustained. In part it was snobbery and elitism, particularly from the influential Bloomsbury group of writers whose work didn't sell anywhere near as much as Bennett's did, writers like Virginia Woolf. There was no love lost between the two writers, with Woolf looking down on Bennett because of his provincial and humble origins, and because he believed in writing realist fiction, novels that readers didn't need a degree to understand and novels that often portrayed the lives of ordinary working people.
I love much of his fiction, particularly work such as "Anna of the Five Towns" and "Claybridge". I hope that Donovan's biography will lead to a renewed interest in the work of this great writer.
This new biography, which uses previously unavailable documents, looks at some of the reasons why his popularity has not been sustained. In part it was snobbery and elitism, particularly from the influential Bloomsbury group of writers whose work didn't sell anywhere near as much as Bennett's did, writers like Virginia Woolf. There was no love lost between the two writers, with Woolf looking down on Bennett because of his provincial and humble origins, and because he believed in writing realist fiction, novels that readers didn't need a degree to understand and novels that often portrayed the lives of ordinary working people.
I love much of his fiction, particularly work such as "Anna of the Five Towns" and "Claybridge". I hope that Donovan's biography will lead to a renewed interest in the work of this great writer.
August 22, 2025
Well researched and thoughtful, Patrick Donavan gives the reader a real insight to Bennett the man rather than as an author. I learnt a lot. I didn't know that Bennett was so famous and well connected. I hadn't realised that he was so prolific, he wrote dozens of novels, many that Bennett regarded as pot-boilers though he did understand the worth of his more serious books. He was also a successful playwright, influential journalist and could claim to be the founder of the self-help genre.
Donavan doesn't set out to write literary criticism though he's clear that works such as The Old Wives Tale are important novels.
Anyway as an adopted Potter I'm proud of Bennett and now have Riceyman Steps and Clayhanger on my 'to-read' list.
Donavan doesn't set out to write literary criticism though he's clear that works such as The Old Wives Tale are important novels.
Anyway as an adopted Potter I'm proud of Bennett and now have Riceyman Steps and Clayhanger on my 'to-read' list.
May 3, 2025
Arnold Bennett was once one of the most popular writers in the UK and the US. He was one of the most famous writers of the early twentieth century. His career started in women’s periodicals in the 1890s, and he died in 1931. He was a prolific writer who wrote newspaper articles, plays and self-help books and author of over forty novels with wide-ranging genres from realism and fantasy. He varied from the voluminous literary trilogy to the short and punchy pot-boiler.
Bennett comes from the Potteries in Staffordshire and grew up in Burslem, one of the six towns that now make up Stoke-on-Trent. From humble industrial beginnings, Bennett rejected his father’s legal business and risked it all to make his way in London and embraced the opportunities of the capital.
Bennett came to prominence as a writer when adult literacy was on the rise, thanks to successive education acts in parliament from the 1870s that improved standards and made children’s education compulsory. The new working-class audience was looking for entertainment, news and accessible books. Bennett was a popular writer, which would bring him into conflict with Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury crowd, who were resistant to the appeal of mass media and had an upper-middle-class hostility to the self-made who upended the social order.
Donovan traces Bennett’s life and his climb to commercial success and popularity. He draws from a range of sources because Bennett had many friends who were writers and artists, including H. G. Wells and Frank Swinnerton, and critically examines their biases. There is affection and admiration for Bennett, with a balance of pointing out his contradictions and complexes. His treatment of his wife, Marguerite, is handled with delicacy, and her situation is viewed sympathetically. Her behaviour, which may have caused censure in earlier biographies, is reinterpreted in the context of Bennett’s own.
Donovan also draws attention to how Bennett’s lover, Dorothy Cheston, influenced previous biographies of Bennett that may have skewed the interpretation and history of their relationship. Without her input and control of the narrative in his work, Donovan was hoping to provide objectivity and examine the evidence afresh.
I had not heard of Arnold Bennett before this book, but I now have a few of his books on my TBR list, including the Clayhanger trilogy and The Old Wives’ Tale, which explore themes of social history and the author’s attempts to capture psychological realism. Bennett had a great influence, which continues to ripple unknowingly down the decades.
Bennett comes from the Potteries in Staffordshire and grew up in Burslem, one of the six towns that now make up Stoke-on-Trent. From humble industrial beginnings, Bennett rejected his father’s legal business and risked it all to make his way in London and embraced the opportunities of the capital.
Bennett came to prominence as a writer when adult literacy was on the rise, thanks to successive education acts in parliament from the 1870s that improved standards and made children’s education compulsory. The new working-class audience was looking for entertainment, news and accessible books. Bennett was a popular writer, which would bring him into conflict with Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury crowd, who were resistant to the appeal of mass media and had an upper-middle-class hostility to the self-made who upended the social order.
Donovan traces Bennett’s life and his climb to commercial success and popularity. He draws from a range of sources because Bennett had many friends who were writers and artists, including H. G. Wells and Frank Swinnerton, and critically examines their biases. There is affection and admiration for Bennett, with a balance of pointing out his contradictions and complexes. His treatment of his wife, Marguerite, is handled with delicacy, and her situation is viewed sympathetically. Her behaviour, which may have caused censure in earlier biographies, is reinterpreted in the context of Bennett’s own.
Donovan also draws attention to how Bennett’s lover, Dorothy Cheston, influenced previous biographies of Bennett that may have skewed the interpretation and history of their relationship. Without her input and control of the narrative in his work, Donovan was hoping to provide objectivity and examine the evidence afresh.
I had not heard of Arnold Bennett before this book, but I now have a few of his books on my TBR list, including the Clayhanger trilogy and The Old Wives’ Tale, which explore themes of social history and the author’s attempts to capture psychological realism. Bennett had a great influence, which continues to ripple unknowingly down the decades.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews