Arnold Bennett: A Biography [Hardcover]

Margaret Drabble (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 1974

'Arnold Bennett was born in a street called Hope Street. A street less hopeful it would be hard to imagine.' Thus begins Margaret Drabble's biography of a man whose most famous achievement was to re-create, in such novels as The Old Wives' Tale and Clayhanger, the life, atmosphere and character of the 'Five Towns' region in which he was born and grew up. Arnold Bennett is a very personal book. 'What interests me', writes the author, 'is Bennett's background, his childhood and origins, for they are very similar to my own. My mother's family came from the Potteries, and the Bennett novels seem to me to portray a way of life that still existed when I was a child, and indeed persists in certain areas. So like all books this has been partly an act of self-exploration.' Of Bennett as a writer Drabble says 'The best books I think are very fine indeed, on the highest level, deeply moving, original and dealing with material that I had never before encountered in fiction, but only in life: I feel they have been underrated, and my response to them is so constant, even after years of work on them and constant re-readings, that I want to communicate enthusiasm.' Of Bennett as a man she paints an affectionate portrait, not glossing over the irritability, dyspepsia and rigidity which at times made him so difficult a companion but reminding us too of his honesty, kindliness and sensitivity. 'Many a time,' she writes at the end of the book, 're-reading a novel, reading a letter or a piece of his Journal, I have wanted to shake his hand, or to thank him, to say well done. I have written this instead.'

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Margaret Drabble, born 1939, is a novelist, critic and biographer. Her novels include The Millstone (winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Jerusalem the Golden (winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize) and The Needle's Eye (winner of the Yorkshire Post Book Award . Her biographies of Angus Wilson and Arnold Bennett are reissued in Faber Finds. Her most recent book is a memoir, The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; 1st Edition US edition (July 11, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 029776733X
• ISBN-13: 978-0297767336
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,258,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Margaret Drabble is the author of The Sea Lady, The Seven Sisters, The Peppered Moth, and The Needle's Eye, among other novels. She has written biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson, and she is the editor of the fifth and sixth editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008.