Clayhanger: 1 - Softcover

Bennett, Arnold

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0755115899 ISBN 13: 9780755115891

Publisher: House of Stratus, 2008

Synopsis

In this, the first volume of an ambitious trilogy designed to trace the parallel lives of a man and woman from youth to marriage and from marriage to old age, Bennett introduces the character of Edwin Clayhanger. A sober portrait of a boy growing up under a tyrannical father contrasts with young Edwin’s glimpses of the mysterious and tantalizing Hilda Lessways. As the lives of these two characters unfold before us, Bennett uses autobiographical detail to beautifully depict the constraints and spiritual adventures of young life in the Potteries.

About this title

Review:

Bennett writes magnificently of the little movements of the spirit in its daily routine --Margaret Drabble

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: House of Stratus
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0755115899
• ISBN 13: 9780755115891
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 466