Riceyman Steps [Paperback]

Arnold Bennett BENNETT (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2005

Edited with an Introduction by Edward Mendelson and Robert Squillace - 'The Bennett novels stand up to anything Europe has put out'. Elizabeth Bowen Henry Earlforward, a shabby Clerkenwell bookseller, has retired from life to devote himself (and his wife Violet) to a consuming passion for money. Miserliness, long disguised as procrastination, can become a fatal illness. Bennett's bleak story is saved, however, by the Earlforward's maid Elsie: buxom, warm, ignorant and sublime in her spontaneous greed for life. "Riceyman Steps" is a modernist masterpiece; a profound psychological and symbolic exploration of the forces of love and death. This edition contains "Riceyman Steps", appearing here in Bennett's corrected version, and its sequel, "Elsie and the Child".

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Enoch Arnold Bennett, the son of a solicitor, was born in Hanley, Staffordshire. At twenty-one, he moved to London, initially to work as a solicitor's clerk, but he soon turned to writing popular serial fiction and editing a women's magazine. After the publication of his first novel, A Man From the North in 1898, he became a professional writer. He moved to Paris and became a man of cosmopolitan and discerning tastes. Bennett's great reputation is built upon the success of his novels and short stories set in the Potteries, an area of north Staffordshire that he recreated as the 'Five Towns'. Anna of the Five Towns and The Old Wives' Tale show the influence of Flaubert, Maupassant and Balzac as Bennett describes provincial life in great detail. Arnold Bennett is an important link between the English novel and European realism. He wrote several plays and lighter works such as The Grand Babylon Hotel and The Card. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From AudioFile

English novelist Arnold Bennett wrote the "kitchen sink" variety of fiction--stories about ordinary people doing ordinary things. In one of his most admired efforts, set shortly after the Great War, a miserly shopkeeper marries a widow and lets his stinginess get the better of both of them. Liberal dollops of humor and well-observed characters overlay an unremittingly bleak atmosphere. The trajectory of torturous marital doom is evident from the very first pages. The listener feels the most sympathy for their char, Elsie, who is in love with an incapacitated veteran. Narrator Peter Joyce understands, appreciates, and conveys every mote of nuance, personality, humor, pathos, and angst in a reading just short of brilliant. Nonetheless, the story's gloom prevails. Y.R. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 393 pages
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897330935
• ISBN-13: 978-0897330930
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,521,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Fifth Reading Was the Best Yet!, January 9, 2000

By 

David Mulroney (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riceyman Steps (Paperback)

Why do I return to 'Riceyman Steps' every six years or so? Who can resist it? Arnold Bennett has created a fascinating world, one that we as readers are privileged to enter. The basic story and characters grab you immediately; you NEED to know what will happen, you want desperately for it all to turn out well. Bennett understands how fragile we all are, and yet how our passions can drive us. His understanding of the human heart is as perfect as 'Riceyman Steps. Don't miss this one!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a world starved of generosity, May 18, 2006

By 

Robert Nagle "idiotprogrammer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Riceyman Steps (Paperback)

The novel, Riceyman Steps, though nowhere as successful as his best work Old Wives Tale, nonetheless deserves plaudits for ambition and its tight focus on three expertly-drawn characters. The sentences are beautiful and give profound insights into characters, but lack of incident and forward action leave us with little desire to proceed. Characters don't really make choices to change their fate; instead, they live on and on, with the occasional traumatic episode thrown in for good measure. The best thing about the work is how avoids stereotypes about character types; for example, a miser may have real qualms about spending money, but can be persuaded in the right context to spend lavishly (though later he will resent doing so). I had a lot of trouble with the ending (which I'll spell out only obliquely, although there isn't much suspense); first, why did the novel give so much prominence to Joe (the housekeeper's boyfriend) near the ending? It seemed out of place. Second, the death doesn't really have any meaning except to confirm the narrator's view that people ultimately get what they deserve. Okay, fine, but did the characters really choose their fates (or were they merely burdened by their ill habits?) Bennett doesn't really present any alternatives; are any people in his world capable of living salutary lifestyles? That, I think, is a flaw of the novel; it fails to give us a glimpse into people who are avoiding the pitfalls of the protagonists. Conspicuously absent are children in this novel; there are literally no opportunities in this novel for the characters to display generosity or affection towards the outside world. How much of this penury is simply a result of the couple's being childless? Bennett seems convinced that these people are not particularly sinister and even deserving of sympathy; still, the book's ultimate purpose is moralistic; it exhort us to examine our hearts to see if we possess the same myopic shortcomings.

SUMMARY: Nowhere near as great as Old Wives' Tale (and much slower), but a must-read for Bennett fans.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A case-study of a miser, June 21, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Riceyman Steps (Paperback)

This is one of my favorite Bennett novels and one of the more idiosyncratic. If you ever wanted to experience the claustrophobic world of a true miser, and learn what it is like to live with one, this is your book. And it's vintage Bennett.